Saunders argues that the peace process includes more than just official negotiations. While formal negotiations may play a role in the peace process, many modern conflicts are not amenable to negotiation. People are often unwilling to negotiate over issues of identity, justice, security, and dignity. The most familiar is the official arena of government negotiations and diplomacy. Second is the quasi-official arena, where individuals and groups cooperate closely with the government, but have no official status or authority to negotiate.
Public dialogue is a relatively new arena for building peace.
A final arena is civil society at large. Civil conflicts tend to fragment society and sunder relationships. In order to achieve peace, relationships between and across group differences must be reestablished, and social coherence restored. The author argues that no one of these arenas is primary. They are interconnected and complementary.