A peace process is the set of sociopolitical negotiations, agreements and actions that aim to solve a specific armed conflict. Prior to an armed conflict occurring, peace processes can include the prevention of an intra-state or inter-state dispute from escalating into military conflict. The United Nations Department of Peace Operations (UNDPO) terms the prevention of disputes from escalating into armed conflicts as conflict prevention. In 2007, the United Nations Secretary-General's Policy Committee classed both initial prevention of an armed conflict and prevention of the repeat of a solved conflict as peacebuilding.[3]
For peace processes to resolve an armed conflict, Izumi Wakugawa, advisor to the Japan-based International Peace Cooperation Program, suggests a definition of a peace process as "a mixture of politics, diplomacy, changing relationships, negotiation, mediation, and dialogue in both official and unofficial arenas", which he attributes to Harold H. Saunders of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Wakugawa categorises these processes into two stages: the ceasing of armed conflict and the processes of sociological reorganisation.
