[RWebb]

one friend looked these up in Wiki and "It seems that the distinction between braising and stewing is fairly nebulous, and nets out to the chopping up of ingredients in stewing versus leaving them whole for braising."

another guy (who, for some reason, wants to get on MasterChef and have Gorden Ramsey scream at him) seems to favor the same distinction and bases it on the origins of the techniques, as in coq au vin (he used to live in France (arbitrageur) so maybe he is biased)