Citizen engagement in and support for peace processes have been deemed important for sustainable peace after civil wars. Yet much of what we know about peace processes in civil wars centers on the interests of elite actors. This special feature aims to advance a research agenda focusing on citizens in peace processes to address this mismatch. In the introduction to the special feature, we first present empirical evidence situating citizens in relation to civil war peace processes. We then trace the current state of the literature on the roles of citizens in peace processes. Following that, we introduce a conceptual framework designed to improve scholarly analysis of the political behavior of citizens in peace processes. We also locate the individual contributions to the special feature within the framework in order to demonstrate its utility and as a means of helping to identify directions for future research.

中文翻译：

---

和平进程中的公民

公民参与和支持和平进程被认为对内战后的可持续和平很重要。然而，我们对内战和平进程的大部分了解都集中在精英行为者的利益上。这一专题旨在推进一项研究议程，重点关注和平进程中的公民，以解决这种不匹配问题。在对专题的介绍中，我们首先介绍了将公民置于内战和平进程中的经验证据。然后，我们追溯有关公民在和平进程中的作用的文献现状。随后，我们引入了一个概念框架，旨在改进对和平进程中公民政治行为的学术分析。