The US peace initiative in Northern Ireland: A comparative analysis

Abstract

The peace initiative in the Northern Ireland conflict launched by the Clinton administration has given rise to hopes that active, on‐going involvement of the world's sole superpower will begin to bring the parties to this conflict closer to a peace agreement. However, given the deep levels of suspicion, so deep that to date no local leader has been able to convince the two communities that they have common interests more important than their differences, there can be no certainty that the US peace initiative will succeed. On the positive side, in those cases in which the US has played the role of peacemaker, as in the civil war in Bosnia, the Israeli— Palestinian conflict, and the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa the result has usually been significant progress toward an enduring peace agreement. If its peace initiative in Northern Ireland is to succeed the US government should carefully examine the lessons of these other instances of US‐supported peace processes.