After the Handshake

On Wednesday evening August 25, 2016 the long-awaited handshake finally took place.

After nearly four years of negotiations the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) and the Colombian government publicly released a 300-page peace agreement ending the half-century war, the last armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere. While the agreement must navigate through a plebiscite scheduled for October and will need to face both the challenge of smaller armed groups still engaged in fighting and a potentially strong political opposition, this peace process holds many innovations. For Colombian peacebuilders, and for those of us who have accompanied them for decades, the delivery of the agreement that seemed impossible marked a truly extraordinary moment…