Conclusion: Benchmarks from the British–Irish Process

Abstract

Analysis of the process by which a stable peace was secured in Northern Ireland after decades of low-level war and civil unrest suggests a number of features that account for this development. First, policy paradigms and the modes of thought in which they were embedded have evolved: debates about sovereignty, democracy, and equality have followed a distinctive path, from being wedded to specific cultural understandings to becoming broad concepts with application in a much wider domain than that of Northern Ireland. Second, these changes helped to bring the two sovereign states together in cooperative conflict management and peacemaking and permitted the formation of shared policy. Third, political, cultural, and ideological change has also facilitated limited convergence between parties within Northern Ireland. However, these processes of change have not seen the emergence of any consensus on Northern Ireland’s future, highlighting that region’s continuing dependence on effective British–Irish stewardship. Notwithstanding the achievements of the peace process, the new ideological currents unleashed by Brexit and the related political exigencies have exposed strains in Northern Ireland’s political architecture and have shown its vulnerability to stresses in the British–Irish political relationship.