Leadership, liminality, and ‘wicked’ conflicts: John Hume and the untangling of the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’

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When in 1998, the historic Belfast/Good Friday Agreement marked the end of the 30-year violent Northern Ireland conflict often referred to as the ‘Troubles’, many commentators regarded it as the culmination of the life’s work of one man: John Hume. Hume was seen by many as a man of peace, but for others he was a trojan horse for violent Irish nationalism. This paper explores these contradictions through the lens of liminality and argues that central to Hume’s ability to create change in a schismogentic environment of conflict was his own ‘inbetweenness’: a leader of nationalism, but not a nationalist, a believer in non-violence, who engaged actively with men of violence, an MP elected to a British parliament, who worked hand in hand with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. In doing so it proposes a typology of five liminal leadership approaches which allowed for the untangling of the conflict over time: Reframing the Problem; Stakeholder Cultivation; Opening Linguistic Space; Practicing Disruption; and Acceptance of Sacrifice. This paper makes three contributions: to our understanding of leaders who inhabit and utilise liminal spaces, to leadership approaches in zero sum environments including those riven by ‘wicked’ conflicts, and to an understanding of Hume himself and his legacy.