As states across the globe adopt a state of emergency approach in response to COVID-19, this report helps inform consideration of COVID-19 dynamics by asking how countries emerging from periods of conflict have sought to include commitments regarding the various parameters of states of emergency in peace agreements. At the end of a conflict, when and how do governments scale back states of emergency and what types of restraint do they put in place to counter their excessive use? These measures tell a story of the link between states of emergency and conflict, and what confidence-building regarding removing states of emergency looks like. This indicates possibilities of how the COVID-19 states of emergency relationship to conflict and peacemaking might play out.