Conflict Resolution in South Asia—Parallels and Lessons from the Northern Ireland Peace Process

Abstract

The Northern Ireland case is commonly discussed internationally as a successful peace process, notwithstanding the many challenges the administration in Northern Ireland has faced since the signing of the 1998 peace agreement. Officials in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Northern Ireland Office and most Irish academics writing on the conflict can testify to the regularity of visiting delegations of academics and political actors from other conflict zones who come to look at the Irish case, just as most of those involved in seeking to secure peace in Northern Ireland travelled to South Africa in the mid 1990s. Delegations, experts, individual political groups and mediators involved in peace processes from Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Liberia, Pakistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Timor Leste, Colombia, Israel and Palestine, to name just some high-profile conflicts, have collectively spent considerable time in Ireland over the past 20 years. Yet there remains considerable scepticism as to which, if any, aspects of the Northern Ireland case can be useful in other circumstances, where the conflict and context is very different. The following set of papers on South Asia are part of an attempt to look at one region seeking to resolve conflict. They are primarily focused on the politics and needs of that region—but the analysis they present was done in Ireland, with participants and an audience of Irish experts who came together to tease out what can usefully be compared with the Northern Ireland case and what the barriers are to doing that well. There are