While talks frequently falter along the way, the opening of negotiations engenders a range of effects, from improved capacity for intelligence and the probing of political agendas, to the splintering of organizations on both sides of the table, to the stopping and starting of talks and even increases in short-term violence before the end of a campaign. Groups (or parts of groups) have commonly transitioned to political legitimacy and away from terrorist behavior, at least eventually, after the formal opening of a political process.
