Includes bibliographical references and index.

Theoretical considerations -- Issues and debates in transitional rule / Karen Guttieri and Jessica Piombo -- Knocking on heaven's door: meeting social expectations in post-conflic transitions / Antonio Donini -- Interim governments and the construction of political elites / Carrie Manning -- Executive power-sharing systems: conflict management or confict escalation? / Donald Rothchild -- Must they go through Hobbes? The revolutionary provisional government model and political challenge in externally imposed regimes / Andrew J. Enterline and J. Michael Greig -- Case studies -- Multiple translations and interim governance in El Salvador and Guatamale / William D. Stanley -- Inchoate opposition, divided incumbents: muddling toward democracy in Indonesia, 1998-99 / Michael S. Malley -- Transitional governance in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo / Devon Curtis -- Interim government in Liberia: peace building toward the status quo / E. Philip Morgan -- International interim governments, democratization, and post-conflict peace building: lessons from Cambodia and East Timor / Aurel Croissant -- State building before statehood: Kosovo's evolution from an interim polity to "Conditional Independence" / Lenard J. Cohen -- Interim notions of statehood in Bosnia-Herzegovina: a permanent transition? / Mark Baskin -- Afghanistan's post-Taliban transition: state building after war / Thomas H. Johnston -- Is this any way to run an occupation? legitimacy, governance, and security in post-conflict Iraq / Christina Caan, Beth Cole, Paul Hughes, and Daniel P. Serwer -- Conclusions -- Conclusions and policy implications: yes, it makes a difference / Daniel P. Serwer.

Explores various aspects of the range of interim regimes, focusing on issues of legitimacy, conflict management, and the participation of the international community in transitions from war to peace.