| dc.description.abstract | Since the Cold War, peace negotiations have become the most common way to end wars, but far from an easy one. The parties to the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary armed forces of Colombia (FARC) finally reached a peace agreement in 2016 after more than 50 years of fighting. Understanding how sworn enemies manage to sit down at the negotiation table and agree on an outcome is important in international conflict resolution. For parties who have spent their whole life hating each other, it requires a certain level of trust to finally find common ground and seek the end of the war. This study focuses on an aspect of how negotiations can reach an agreement. The thesis analyses the role of trust needed between parties, and look at the impact of specific measures to build trust, so called confidence building measures (CBMs). The findings presented in this thesis have been placed in a context of existing literature on the subject. This research indicates that confidence building measure can function as an important tool to build trust at the local level where the project is conducted and between the participants. Moreover, such projects create a common space in the peace talks that can help the conversations move forward and can reduce mistrust between parties. Lastly, such confidence building measures could be a tool not only to build trust between the fighting parties but also function as an outreach to the public – if this opportunity is used. However, I argue that in the case of Colombia, this opportunity was a success at the local level, functioned as a tool at the negotiation table, but were not present at all in the general public. I use empirical data collected from a confidence building project conducted between the FARC and the Colombian government during the last round of peace talks in the year of 2015 and 2016. Two important theory-derived explanatory factors are examined to analyse the role of trust: confidence building measures and conciliatory signalling. To provide input to the analysis participants form the FARC, the BIDES, Norwegian People’s Aid, local community and other NGOs have been interviewed. | eng |