The politics of everyday peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Northern Ireland

Abstract

Liberal peacebuilding strategies have brought a semblance of peace to many post-accord societies. However, these strategies have fallen short, unable to create a sustainable peace or to overcome divisions at the societal level. The ‘in-betweeness’ that lingers within the war-to-peace transition for many of these societies continues to persist decades after peace agreements have been signed, constraining and shaping the possibilities for bottom-up peacebuilding. Through the case studies of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Northern Ireland, I aim to generate an account of everyday peace politics that allows for the representation of inclusionary, exclusionary and ambivalent practices of ordinary citizens. I treat the everyday as political in order to explore the ways in which ordinary citizens are active and engaged in shaping the type of peace that emerges. I highlight that local practices are neither progressive nor regressive, but rather reflect the different attempts of citizens to navigate the uncertainty of the incomplete war-to-peace transitions.