This paper examines the potential importance of externally-facilitated peace
dividends and donor coordination in sustaining peace after the signing of an
accord. We extend our previous research on US performance after civil wars to
learn if adversary assumptions on peace dividends have additional positive
impact when a wider sample of major Western European donors is included. Was
the lack of US follow-through compensated for in whole or in part by the
extension of development assistance allocations from European allies? We find
that cases in which donors provide significant and sustained post-conflict aid are
somewhat less likely to return to civil war than those who do not receive
comparable assistance. Moreover, we find in such cases that donor coordination
reinforced behaviour that encouraged the implementation process, providing an
extra incentive for maintaining the peace agreement over the five-year
threshold and beyond.