Duration
For conflicts that began and ended after 1945 (Fearon and Laitin 2003; Fearon 2004):
- The median duration of interstate wars was less than 3 months.
- The median duration of civil wars was about 7 years.
End
Consistent through different coders (Pillar 1983; Stedman 1991; Licklider 1995; Walter 1997):
- Military victory is more common than negotiated settlement in civil wars.
- Negotiated settlement is more common than military victory in interstate wars.
- Pillar: about two-thirds of interstate wars end in negotiated settlements; about two thirds of intrastate wars end in military victory.
- Between 1940 and 1990, 42 percent of civil wars (seventeen out of forty-one) experienced some form of formal peace negotiation, and 94 percent of these cases drafted at least a cease-fire accord (Walter 1997).
