Establishing the conditions for effective intergroup peacemaking is a formidable task in severe ethnic conflicts. Conflict resolution practitioners argue that a critical first step is developing preconditions which convince competing groups that there are opponents to whom it is worth talking, that it is possible to create structural changes conducive to a stable peace, and that an agreement is possible which can meet each side's basic concerns and needs. This article compares six theories of practice of ethnic conflict resolution: community relations, principled negotiation, human needs, psychoanalytically rooted identity, intercultural miscommunications and conflict transformation, examining how each understands ethnic conflict, the goals it articulates, the effects of good practice on participants in interventions, the mechanisms by which the project achieves its impact, and the dynamics of transfer affecting the course of a wider conflict. It is argued that clearer articulation of these assumptions wi...