TITLE:
Predictable Peace: Confidence-Building in African Post-Conflict States
AUTHORS:
Teeko T. Yorlay
KEYWORDS:
Confidence-Building Measures, African Post-Conflict Governance, Peacebuilding Strategy, Institutional Legitimacy, Trust, Predictability
JOURNAL NAME:
Voice of the Publisher,
Vol.12 No.1,
March
13,
2026
ABSTRACT: Confidence-building in African conflict and post-conflict situations is often viewed as secondary to formal peace agreements, security measures, or economic recovery. This article argues that confidence-building is actually fundamental to maintaining peace. It presents confidence-building as the essential foundation that makes peace credible, lasting, and deeply rooted in society. Using case studies from Rwanda, South Africa, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the article explores how confidence is created, weakened, and maintained across different areas such as institutions, social interactions, and narratives. Confidence is best understood not as trust or reconciliation, but as predictability—an expectation that restraint will be returned and that institutions will act consistently over time. The article concludes that African peace efforts often fail not because of poor agreements but due to a lack of long-term governance focused on building confidence. Publishers and media organizations play a key role in shaping the environment in which confidence can either develop or disappear.