STEP FIVE
Prepare for Implementation
In addition to the characteristics of the agreement reached between the conflict parties, success in laying the foundation for sustainable peace will depend on the interplay of three factors: the degree of hostilities between the warring factions, the extent of local capacities remaining after the war, and the amount of international assistance provided.13 Influencing all three of these factors clearly lies beyond Friends or, indeed, any external actors. Yet the strategic coordination of international assistance to which the existence of a group of Friends seeks to contribute will be a critical component of the overall effort to reach and implement a peace agreement. Thus, preparing for implementation thus should be a central element of the mediator's engagement with a group of Friends, even though the mediator will recognize that the coordination required will necessarily involve a much wider range of actors than those which have been most closely involved in peacemaking.
The pressures of a peace negotiation in its final stages are extreme. A mediator will nevertheless need to remain forward looking in interactions with the conflict parties and external actors, and will need to be realistic in assessing the challenges ahead. Reaching a peace agreement is a considerable achievement. But in many respects, it is the beginning, not the end, of a long and difficult process. If the agreement provides for the establishment of a UN or other international security presence to assist in its implementation, all of the parties involved should have a clear sense of how to achieve the conditions that will eventually allow for its departure. In other words, the consolidation of national political institutions and processes.
Maximize Leverage in Advance of Reaching Agreement
The final stages of peace negotiations offer unprecedented opportunities for exerting leverage upon the conflict parties, which may be both consumed by the urgency of concluding an agreement and exhausted by the lengthy negotiation it has required. The influence of the mediator, both with the conflict parties and the various external actors involved, will be at its peak. The opportunity to put in p