Conclusion

Author(s):  
Matthew Whiting

This chapter provides a summary of the main arguments and empirical evidence of the book. It re-emphasizes the argument that inclusion drove the process of moderation in a gradual and path dependent process. It also argues that moderation was strategic and involved extensive movement away from revolutionary violence towards working through the existing system and accepting reformism. However, it did not entail core value change or the abandonment of core goals. It provides an assessment of how republicans are pursuing their goal of a united Ireland in a post-peace process era, arguing that republicans have been largely ineffective in their efforts and are instead now relying on exogenous factors to advance their cause. It concludes by considering the implications of Irish republicanism for other cases of separatist conflict and for comparative peace processes. It argues that the pathway to moderation offered here highlights that moderation can occur when internal change within a movement is met with tolerance from the ruling state to allow that movement to politicise without abandoning core goals.

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Alfano

Abstract Reasoning is the iterative, path-dependent process of asking questions and answering them. Moral reasoning is a species of such reasoning, so it is a matter of asking and answering moral questions, which requires both creativity and curiosity. As such, interventions and practices that help people ask more and better moral questions promise to improve moral reasoning.


Author(s):  
Mathew Whiting

When Sinn Féin and the IRA emerged in Northern Ireland in 1969 they used a combination of revolutionary politics and violence to an effort to overthrow British rule. Today, the IRA is in a state of ‘retirement’, violence is a tactic of the past, and Sinn Féin is a co-ruler of Northern Ireland and an ever growing political player in the Republic of Ireland. This is one of the most startling transformations of a radical violent movement into a peaceful political one in recent times. So what exactly changed within Irish republicanism, what remains the same, and, crucially, what caused these changes? Where existing studies explain the decision to end violence as the product of stalemate or strategic interplay with the British state, this book draws on a wealth of archival material and interviews to argue that moderation was a long-term process of increasing inclusion and contact with political institutions, which gradually extracted moderate concessions from republicanism. Crucially, these concessions did not necessitate republicans forsaking their long-term ethno-national goals. The book also considers the wider implications of Irish republicanism for other cases of separatist conflict, and has significance for the future study of state responses to violent separatism and of comparative peace processes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Simko ◽  
David Cunningham ◽  
Nicole Fox

Abstract Following the racially motivated shootings at an African American church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, a wave of contentious campaigns around Confederate statuary emerged, or at least intensified, in communities across the country. Yet local struggles have culminated in vastly different alterations to the built environment. This paper develops a framework for differentiating distinct “modes of recontextualization” rooted in the relocation and/or modification of commemorative objects. Building on models of memory as an iterative, path-dependent process, we track recontextualization efforts in three communities—St. Louis, Missouri; Oxford, Mississippi; and Austin, Texas—documenting how each mode alters the meaning of contested symbols. An analysis of local news sources in the year following recontextualization shows how each mode exerts identifiable proximate effects on broader political debates and, through that process, structures the horizon of possibility for longer-range outcomes. 


Water Policy ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Doukkali

Using a teleological perspective and an analytical categorization of the history of water institutions in Morocco, this paper aims to review and evaluate the institutional reforms in the country in the light of the results and hypotheses presented in some recent literature on the subject. The review suggests that considering their overall thrust and direction, the institutional reforms undertaken in Morocco are truly remarkable. While these reforms have paved a solid institutional foundation for promoting an economically responsive water sector, there are still serious reform gaps, especially in areas such as groundwater regulation and supportive institutions for irrigated agriculture. The evaluation of the reform process suggests that Morocco has exploited well the political contexts of resource limit and economic crisis, path dependent opportunities provided by existing institutions and earlier reforms, and the synergetic influences of the countrywide economic reforms and changing political conditions. Clearly, the reform experience of Morocco indicates that although undertaking initial reform can be difficult, subsequent reforms are relatively easier when the political opportunities for reforms provided by both endogenous and exogenous factors are well exploited.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dylan Page

<p>The potential role of women in conflict and post-conflict environments has been the subject of much debate in the field of peace and conflict studies. In 2000 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325, which called for a greater involvement of women and acknowledgement of gender issues in conflict and post-conflict environments, and this has led to further discussion about what this might mean and how it might be implemented. Despite this women are continually under-represented in nearly all peace processes and there is no universally agreed upon way to ensure this situation does not come about. The barriers women face range from cultural to logistical and economic, and surmounting them can be hard to achieve.  One case where women have been involved at all levels in the peace process with substantial success is the Pacific island of Bougainville, where a conflict over mining issues and secession from Papua New Guinea was waged from 1988-1997. Women were active in attempts to bring all parties to negotiations during the conflict and have also been heavily involved in the continuing reconciliation and healing processes. For cultural reasons Bougainvillean women were well placed to perform the role of peace-builders but that is not to say that they did not face challenges and barriers to their involvement. This thesis examines the involvement of women in both the immediate peace negotiations and the longer-term aspects of the peace process in Bougainville in order explain how and why they enjoyed these successes and what lessons can be learnt from this case in regards to the potential roles of women in other post-conflict environments. Four factors will be identified as key to women's involvement in the peace process: the history of Bougainville up to and including the conflict; the grassroots mobilisation and organisation of women; the traditional cultural roles of women in Bougainville; and the identification of women with motherhood and its associated traits.  These factors indicate that the involvement of women in peace processes is highly context-specific and although there are policies which can be pursued to encourage their participation the potential barriers to this are imposing.</p>


1999 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 637-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold D. Clarke ◽  
Allan Kornberg ◽  
Chris McIntyre ◽  
Petra Bauer-Kaase ◽  
Max Kaase

The Euro-Barometer values battery has provided much of the empirical evidence for the thesis that a shift from materialist to postmaterialist values has occurred in advanced industrial societies over the past two decades. It has been argued, however, that this widely used instrument is seriously flawed because of its sensitivity to current economic conditions. We present data from experiments in Canada and Germany that tested the performance of the values battery in an era of joblessness. Analyses reveal that (1) substituting an unemployment statement for the standard inflation statement in the battery has major consequences for the classification of respondents as materialist or postmaterialist and (2) answers to the battery are conditioned by the interaction between its content and respondents' economic issue concerns. These findings support the argument that much of the shift from materialist to postmaterialist values recorded by the Euro-Barometer since the early 1980s is a measurement artifact.


Author(s):  
Matthew Whiting

This chapter establishes the main issues to be explored in this book, including the dramatic transformation that Sinn Féin and the IRA underwent. It provides a critique of existing explanations, arguing that they mistakenly assume the politics of Sinn Féin is driven primarily by the military capacity of the IRA. Existing explanations also assume that interplay between the British state and Irish republicans led to their moderation, but these explanations neglect the wider institutional context in which republicans chose to change their strategy. In contrast, this chapter sets out the argument that sustained contact with, and inclusion in, key political processes, namely party politics and a consolidated framework of democratic institutions, extracted moderate concessions from republicans in a gradual and path-dependent process.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-188
Author(s):  
Øyvind Kalnes ◽  
Eva Bakøy

This article discusses the dilemmas documentary filmmakers face when acting upon the cosmopolitan ethos in a context of ongoing civil warfare and peace facilitation from the international society. This ethos is well known and accepted among Western audiences. When applied outside the Western hemisphere, the perspective of human-interest stories tends to get lost among audiences attached to the conflict. Instead, these stories may easily become identified as new public diplomacy on behalf of the participants on the ‘perceptual battlefield’ of war. The authors focus upon how this can be a challenge for Western states involved in peace processes in the same conflicts, especially for those small states that have little hard power and have to rely on gaining the trust of the conflicting parties. The article uses a case study of the Norwegian documentary My Daughter the Terrorist about the civil war in Sri Lanka as an example. The film became the epicentre of a major controversy during a critical stage in the peace process facilitated by the Norwegian government. The authors suggest the concept of diffused war can be translated as diffused peace facilitation to describe its effect on the peace process.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document