An analysis of the effects of Norway-led multilateral intervention on the course and duration of the civil war in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Over the recent past, there has been an increasing importance of managing civil conflicts with the involvement of international actors such as individual states, regional and international multilateral organizations (Regan 2002).In Sri Lanka, unprecedently, there had been a close international involvement in the peace process right from its onset in 2002 with the proclaimed attempt of finding political solution to the decades-long civil war between government of Sri Lanka(GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam(LTTE). In this backdrop, this paper attempts to examine systematically the potential effects of Norway-led multilateral intervention on the course and duration of the civil war in Sri Lanka by using qualitative analysis based on major empirical argumentation of the scholarship of effects of external intervention in civil war situation. Results of the analysis suggest dichotomous findings that while supporting the empirical argument casts skepticism over the adequate treatment of factors that influence the outcome of intervention by the empirical studies.