Landon E. Hancock

To Act or Wait: A Two-Stage View of Ripeness

This paper examines different conceptions of ripeness to evaluate their usefulness to war termination theory and practice. After examining the objective and subjective elements of ripeness, it suggests that the first definitions can be linked by using bureaucratic decisionmaking models and “two-table” negotiating models. This article concludes that ripeness can be enhanced through a systematic combination of its objective and subjective elements within a framework of possible policy options and intervention actions. It stresses that collaboration and communication between Track I and Track II intervenors is the key to transforming ripeness from a condition to a goal.

There is No Alternative: Prospect Theory, the Yes Campaign and Selling the Good Friday Agreement

Abstract This article examines how the non‐party ‘Yes Campaign’ orchestrated the successful passage of the 1998 referendum for the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. It argues that the Campaign’s use of strategies based upon the tenets of prospect theory – focusing on the risks of failure rather than the benefits of success – had numerous impacts throughout the six‐week campaign, ultimately resulting in the referendum’s passage with enough unionist support to insulate the Agreement from some degree of criticism. The article does this by tracing the Campaign’s main themes and the narratives surrounding their use by the Campaign itself, by other pro‐agreement individuals and parties and by their reflection in voter choices and rationales for supporting the Agreement. More than 200 documents were analyzed, largely focusing on news accounts, but also including books, journal articles, websites, images and interviews with key players in the Campaign.

Agency & peacebuilding: the promise of local zones of peace

Abstract International peacebuilding has expanded rapidly in the two decades since the Agenda for Peace was published. Alongside this growth of peacebuilding has come the realisation that many peacebuilding projects conceived of and sponsored by the international community have failed to meet their own objectives or, more importantly, failed to have been embraced fully by those they were supposed to help: the individuals and communities attempting to rebuild their lives in post-conflict countries. Critical analysts discuss the current state of peacebuilding and model what they see as the post-liberal peacebuilding paradigm. In doing so, they point to agency as a missing element in local peacebuilding practice. This paper unpacks and theorises agency as a form of human need and proposes the use of zones of peace (ZoPs) as one method for engendering local agency while encouraging good governance, transparency and accountability in local peacebuilding projects.

Transitional Justice and the Consultative Group: Facing the Past or Forcing the Future?

In January 2009 the Consultative Group on the Past released its report of recommendations for Northern Ireland to address its legacy of conflict. The two main recommendations were the Legacy Commission, designed to investigate and uncover information on some of the most high-profile incidents of the Troubles, and the recommendation that families of those who lost their lives to sectarian violence be awarded a recognition payment of £12,000. The proposals, especially the payment, created a firestorm of controversy and much acrimony. This paper examines whether the role of procedural justice can help to determine why the efforts of the Consultative Group have generated such controversy and whether this latest attempt to address transitional justice in Northern Ireland has any chance of success.

Mainstreaming Peace and Conflict Studies: Designing Introductory Courses to Fit Liberal Arts Education Requirements.

Peace and conflict studies courses are seldom seen by faculty curriculum committees and university administrators as deserving to be part of their institution’s liberal arts education requirements. We show that this unfortunate tendency is rooted in a lack of understanding of not only the compatibility between the two but of their quite complementary connections. These connections include the liberal arts’ emphases on the following: producing liberated citizens; respecting diversity; thoughtfully considering different points of view; highlighting not just the rights of the individual but the responsibilities that accompany those rights. Using the experience of Kent State University’s Center for Applied Conflict Management as a case study, we show that by bridging the perceived gap between the traditional liberal arts core and peace and conflict studies it is indeed possible to have an introductory course in peace and conflict studies accepted as an option for fulfilling an institution’s liberal arts requirements. In the process of ‘mainstreaming’ peace and conflict studies this way, enrollments will expand exponentially, new generations of students will be equipped with conflict management skills, and the field of peace and conflict studies will gain more respect across academia.

We Shall Not Overcome: Divided Identity and the Failure of NICRA 1968

Abstract The role of national identity is such that any group that can authoritatively claim to ‘own’ the national identity can assert the legitimacy of their vision for the state; persuading other sectors of society to support their cause. The Northern Irish Civil Rights Association was unable to bridge the divide between themselves and Northern Irish security forces or their Protestant neighbors. The role that divided identity has played in Northern Ireland since its inception has increased structural impediments to bridging the gap between protesters and security forces, leading to a resurgent IRA and the outbreak of the Troubles.

Into the IRIS: a model for analyzing identity dynamics in conflict

ABSTRACT I propose a lens model for understanding how core identities (ethnic, sectarian, racial or national) are affected by past interactions and narratives increasing the chances of the outbreak of violent conflict. The model can be used to show how core identities are polarized during conflict escalation and how they might de-polarize during periods of de-escalation and conflict resolution, leading to potential transformation of core identities in post-conflict situations. Northern Ireland will be used to illustrate the Integrated Relational Identity Structure model, showing how conflicting identities have changed, or not, as a result of history, the conflict and the peace process.

Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland

allel to a strong presence in Europe), Gunes particularly highlights the importance of the PKK’s ability to revive Kurdish cultural practices and its aptitude in successfully creating a contemporary myth of resistance that mobilized the Kurdish masses (pp. 115–122). Yet, the stagnation of the guerrilla war and the changing global orders in the early 1990s forced the PKK to alter its policy seeking a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question. This leads to Gunes’s last two chapters, which perhaps constitute the most interesting contributions of the book. Chapter seven describes and discusses the PKK’s comprehensive strategic and organizational transformation, which started well before its leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in 1999 but no doubt gained a new dimension from then onwards. As part of the democratic reconciliation brought forward by the PKK, numerous prolonged ceasefires were introduced while at the same time Kurdish national demands were rearticulated and the recognition of cultural and linguistic rights based on a civic pluralist model of citizenship in Turkey was proposed. Chapter eight focuses on the contribution of pro-Kurdish political parties to the widening of democracy in Turkey. Gunes highlights the attempts of these parties to end the violent conflict by proposing political reconciliation, the constitutional recognition of Kurdish identity and collective rights, and the provision of education in the Kurdish language. Yet, he describes how the pro-Kurdish movement could not break with the dominant discourse that depicted them as separatist and ‘ethno-nationalists’, thus marginalizing the legal and popular representation of Kurds and undermining the democratization process. The book is not an introductory book to the Kurdish national movement, although it has clear structure and flowing prose that allows readers to navigate their way through the chapters easily. The strength of the books lies in its use of primary sources, which allowed Gunes to move beyond the dominant discourses produced on Kurds and the Kurdish national movement and provide an account of how the Kurds view and interpret their own actions vis-à-vis an oppressive political order and regime. It makes, therefore, an important contribution to any study on Kurds, not just to studies on nationalism and ethnicity.

The Indo‐Sri Lankan accord: An analysis of conflict termination

This article examines the attempts made to negotiate a peaceful settlement to Sri Lankas ethnic conflict, focusing on the role of India as both the instigator and guarantor of the Indo‐Sri Lankan Accord of 1987. The failure of the Accord was the result of many factors, including Indias role as instigator in forcing the agreement forward, and as guarantor by deploying Indian troops as peacekeepers. Finally, the article discusses both prior and subsequent attempts to negotiate a settlement with the conclusion that Indias role as a regional hegemon continues to hamper state actors and multilateral organizations from intervening to mediate a peaceful end to the conflict.