Introduction

In this chapter, an attempt is made to place the general subject matter of this volume, peace negotiations and treaties, within a theoretical framework. Such a framework should clarify basic issues such as why we should look at peacemaking processes in the first place, and, if so, what we should look for, and why.

The chapter is divided into five parts. The first section discusses and challenges the traditional separation of the treatment of social phenomena into historiography on the one hand and social studies on the other. I contend that this dichotomy causes historiography to shun systematic, theory-guided analysis, while it prevents social studies from being able to deal with long-term change and to place the phenomena it observes in a larger historical context. The second section discusses the role of fundamental assumptions in any endeavour to understand social phenomena past or present. I suggest that a common problem in dealing with past social phenomena (history) is a lack of reflection on the assumptions underlying their narration by both historians and social studies authors. The third section proposes that the best way of avoiding the distortion caused by applying anachronistic and arbitrary assumptions and concepts to past phenomena is to bear in mind that, just as much as present social reality, any past social reality was a collective construct based on assumptions shared by people at the time.