In contemporary South Asia, conflict is an all too frequent feature of life. As in other parts of Asia, increasingly these are intra-state conflicts which present distinctive challenges for policy-makers and citizenry. Perhaps the greatest of these is how to transform a situation of protracted conflict into a lasting and sustainable peace. There have been many efforts to negotiate settlements but these often fail either to bring about a cessation of violence or to create the foundations of a stable peace. Why do these negotiated settlements regularly fail? Is the problem in their design or their implementation? Or are participants negotiating in bad faith? What can we learn from experiences in South Asia about how to make better peace accords? To examine these questions join Australia India Institute Emerging Leaders' Fellow, Nirupama Subramanian in conversation with La Trobe University's Dr Jasmine Westendorf. Introduced by Professor Nick Bisley as a seminar for La Trobe Asia. Copyright 2014 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Please contact for permissions.