Peaceful Attempts Research Articles

Just War or Just Peace: Some Observations on the Debate in Germany

In the debate on peace ethics in Germany, it is constantly argued that the ‘doctrine of just war’ must be replaced by a ‘doctrine of just peace’. The criteriology of just war can at best be preserved within a doctrine of just peace. However, it is often overlooked that—although the word ‘peace’ may sound nicer than ‘war’—a doctrine of just peace is also fraught with great difficulties in terms of content. The concept of peace can be interpreted in different ways; the concept of justice must even be differentiated if it is to have meaning at all. Ultimately, the two concepts point to a different understanding of tradition and historicity: while the doctrine of just war takes its criteria from the tradition, the idea of just peace attempts to draw conclusions for the present from drafts or blueprints of the future. However, since the drafts can turn out differently, new conflicts will arise precisely for this reason. Talk of ‘just peace’ might be more pleasing to the public, but does not necessarily have to be more restrictive in terms of violence.

Attacking the grid: Lessons from a guerrilla conflict and efforts for peace in Colombia: 1990–2018

Colombia has suffered a decades long internal conflict with leftist guerrillas. Its power grid has been attacked, causing significant damage to Colombian industry and disruption to citizens. This article uses data from ISA and XM (operators of the Colombian power grid) and from Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP), a non-profit organization tracking the internal conflict in Colombia), to compare patterns of tower attacks to the general conflict with two main leftist guerrilla groups, the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). Using time series analysis, trends of violence, tower attacks, and peace attempts from 1990 to 2018 are examined to see if structural breaks in violence correspond to critical junctures in negotiations. Attacks on the power grid are shown to be a popular guerrilla tactic to pressure the government.

Connecting international and domestic dots: how conflict entanglement informs resolution and escalation

PurposeThis paper aims to seek to and understand how civil conflict and international claims inform one another. Does the existence of ongoing civil and international conflicts affect how a government addresses an international claim? The paper builds on existing literature that link international and domestic conflict. However, it suggests that the logic behind civil conflicts may be different from that for international ones as states decide how to deal with any one claim.Design/methodology/approachThe paper posits that states faced with domestic conflicts and additional international claims are more likely to seek to resolve an international claim than those without similar conflicts. It develops a series of hypotheses about the likelihood of claim escalation and peaceful settlement attempts and proceed to test them quantitatively using the Issue Correlates of War data combined with the uppsala conflict data program/peace research institute oslo Armed Conflict Data.FindingsOn the one hand, the paper finds support for the argument regarding the difficulty states are faced with when seeking to resolve multiple international claims. On the other hand, it finds that the presence of civil conflicts incentivizes states to resolve international claims either by force or peacefully, suggesting internal violence can both lead to diversionary behavior and attempts at conflict resolution.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings have important implications for work considering the complexity of domestic and international conflict linkages.Originality/valueWhile many studies of claim militarization and peaceful attempts focus on dyadic and international characteristics, this paper creates a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of this foreign policy decision process.

Democratizing the dispute: democratization and the history of conflict management

ABSTRACT What explains the complex processes of democratization and conflict management? Are new democracies more likely to use peaceful means or engage in militarized means when presented with opportunities to resolve their territorial disputes? In this paper, we hypothesize that democratizing states still engaged in territorial disputes are more likely to attempt conflict management following the transition to democracy to remove flashpoints that the military and other former autocratic regime elements can use to discredit democracy and prevent consolidation of democracy. Depending on the history of past conflict management attempts, newly democratic leaders either continue or break with the past policies of non-democratic leaders, indicating a degree of interdependence in the conflict management process. Using multinomial logistic regression on claim-year dyad data from the Issues Correlates of War project, we find that previous management attempts and democratization interact to make peaceful conflict management more likely when past leaders have been successful in peaceful conflict management, but not with failed peaceful attempts or militarized attempts. Our results indicate that previous arguments overstate the propensity for democratization to spark armed conflict, attempted conflict management is more often peaceful, and current attempts are highly influenced by the history of attempts pursued by past leaders.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Peace efforts in Palestine are continuous and failing. In order to explain the failed peace attempts, experts draw different conclusions. Thomas Getman, member of a private consulting group specializing in international affairs, explains the conflict in terms of Christian Zionism, a religious doctrine prominent in the United States, and its detrimental role in the peace process. While social justice manifests itself in the cultural practices of traditional, mainstream religions, Christian Zionism ignores the rights-based approach to theology, and it perpetuates myths (Getman). Dennis Ross, the principle informant in the Israeli-Arab conflict under the Bush and Clinton administrations, blames a number of factors. He explains, “The lack of public conditioning for peace, the reluctance to acknowledge the legitimacy of the other side’s grievance and needs, the inability to confront comfortable myths, the difficulty of transforming behavior and acknowledging mistakes, the inherent challenges of getting both sides ready to move at the same time, the unwillingness to make choices, and the absence of leadership, especially among Palestinians, are all factors that have made peace difficult to achieve” (Ross 14). Ultimately, Ross says that it is “myths that prevent all sides from seeing reality and adjusting to it” (Ross 14). The failed peace efforts can be better understood by combining the two stances. Due to the stronghold Christian Zionism has held on United States politics, the Christian Zionist narrative has upheld peace talks in Israel-Palestine and disrupted the process.

Third-Party Mediation in Sri Lanka’s Peace Attempts: A Study on the Role of Norwegian Mediation

Regional and international mediation by third parties in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict have had diverse impacts on the country’s political scene at various times. India spearheaded a significant regional mediation following the July 1983 pogrom against minority Tamils. An international mediation effort by a third party was initiated in 2000, with Norway playing the role of facilitator. Both of these attempts to resolve Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, which were taken to bring an end to the intense and continued violence, have had mixed outcomes. In particular, Norway’s initiative to bring an end to the conflict with international facilitation was taken in the backdrop of the changed world order that prevailed after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. It is against this backdrop; this article attempts to examine the contributions made by Norway towards the resolution of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict. The major finding shows that Norwegian initiative fell into fail after a period and the armed insurgency did not come to an end until 2009. In May 2009, the government forces defeated the LTTE militarily and declared the war victory.

French Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Peace Process and the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement

Although the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement is often described as the peace accord which ended thirty years of conflict in Northern Ireland, it was one of many on the path to peace. This article proposes to return to the negotiations for peace from a transnational perspective, exploring how the peace process which culminated in the signing of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement was reported in France. It focuses on the four main national daily newspapers: the conservative paper, Le Figaro , the organ of the French Communist Party, L’Humanite , the left-wing daily, Liberation , and the newspaper of record, Le Monde . As this study shows, not all French daily newspapers supported the first peace attempts in Northern Ireland. Indeed, the two left-wing publications, L’Humanite and Liberation , showed a clear antipathy towards the different reconciliation projects until the early 1990s. These newspapers appeared to be prisoners of their own ideology: Liberation defended the idea of a fight for freedom, and supported the Republicans rather than peace, considering that any initiative that did not include the Republicans would fail. L’Humanite , which always saw the Northern Irish conflict as a colonial war, would only support the withdrawal of the British government from Northern Ireland. From the moment Sinn Fein was allowed to participate in the peace process and the British government stated it did not have any strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland, both newspapers supported the British initiatives to find a solution to the conflict. All French publications reported on the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement in 1998 and welcomed the ‘historical accord’.

Transitional Justice and the Colombian Peace Processs

textabstractThis introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins with a brief history of the conflict and of previous peace processes, making the case that the current peace process is best understood in relation to the wider historical process of state consolidation and successive peace attempts in Colombia. The book discusses in detail the agreements between the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejercito del Pueblo (FARC—EP) and the Colombian Government and its transitional justice component. The book focuses on identifying the challenges facing the implementation of the objectives of the transitional justice component of the peace agreement between the FARC—EP and the Colombian Government. It examines the challenges encountered in relation to policies regarding land and its restitution in Colombia. The Colombian Government has implemented and experimented with a diversity of measures in pursuit of justice and transitional justice in Colombia.

Peace and Reconciliation in the Making: The Case of Colombia and Lessons for Existing Armed Conflicts in Africa (and Beyond)

Colombia can be regarded as the longest running civil war in the world. However, the country can also be seen as an example of successful peace initiatives and failed peace attempts; a series of lessons have been learned in regards to peace building and reconciliation. The current peace process with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC-EP, and the prospects for a final peace agreement with this organization do not emerge in a vacuum: it is the outcome of several initiatives for peace since the mid 1980’s, and of a state infrastructure geared in that direction for more than three decades. The current prospects for making peace a reality in Colombia are informed by previous peace processes, failures and experiences that have helped to consolidate the institutions and practices that enhance the possibilities of success in the current peace process. I argue that the learning from the failures of the past three decades of peace building initiatives in Colombia can serve as a referent to inform future peace initiatives in African countries.

The Vatican and Catholic Activism in Mexico and Chile - by Andes, Stephen J. C.

Andes, Stephen J. C. The Vatican and Catholic Activism in Mexico and Chile, Oxford University Press (Oxford), xiii + 272 pp. £63.00 hbk. Stephen J. C. Andes has written a fascinating and accessible book on Catholic activism in two turbulent decades of Latin American history, the 1920s and the 1930s. During this period the traditional authority of the Catholic Church in the region was being challenged by processes of secular national building, socialist advance and not least by a liberal tide. Tensions between liberal states and the clergy date back to the years following independence, but despite liberal political leadership a utopian vision of a Catholic society in conformity with the social doctrine of the Church still motivated many Latin American Catholics and Vatican officials in the early twentieth century. However, in the period covered in the book, it had become clear that this vision would not materialise and the Catholic Church instead, had to figure out how to defend itself against secularisation and maintain a certain position within Latin American societies. Andes' book explores the different tactics adopted by both the clergy and lay Catholics in two Latin American countries, Mexico and Chile. These two countries provide interesting points of comparison, not only because of their geographic location in opposite ends of Latin America, but also because Mexico's violent history in the 1920s, in which the Catholic Church was deeply involved, provides an interesting contrast to the relatively peaceful attempts of Chilean Catholics to position themselves within a national political landscape. Andes argues explicitly for a transnational approach and as the title of the book indicates, he is at some pains to link Catholic activism in Chile and Mexico to official Vatican policies on the social and political engagement of Catholics. Throughout the book he carefully describes how the fear of secularism resulted in different kinds of diplomatic negotiations and occasional conflicts with state powers. He further shows how a growing concern with social and economic justice and a perceived necessity of establishing a third way (an alternative to socialist and liberalist agendas) inspired different kinds of lay activism in Chile and Mexico, including the consolidation and outreach of the non-political organisation Catholic Action, the formation of Catholic unions and the gradual movement of lay Catholics into the world of party politics. But more than any other book on Latin American Church history Andes also highlights the importance of Rome in the construction of political activism in Chile and Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. Thus he shows how Vatican opposition to the formation of explicitly Catholic political parties and the attempt to monopolise political power within ecclesial ranks and concentrate organised social engagement of lay Catholics within Catholic Action resulted in significant intra-ecclesial power struggles in both Mexico and Chile. Unsurprisingly for a book on Catholicism and politics in Latin America in the early part of the twentieth century, a good deal of attention is focused on the Mexican revolution (1926–1929) which for many historians stands out as a particularly bloody conflict in which the Church was deeply involved. Pursuing a transnational approach Andes goes to some length in highlighting the shifting and at times ambiguous policies of the Vatican towards this conflict as well as the role of American Catholic organizations in pressuring the American government to bring the conflict to settlement. In Chile relationships between the Catholic Church and the state were more peaceful, and the official separation between the two in 1925 was rather undramatic, but Andes shows how the Mexican conflict, often evoked by Church authorities as a prime example of the potential horrors of governmental anti-clericalism, inspired a strengthening of Catholic conservatism in the country. The book also offers a comprehensive treatment of the alliances between the Chilean Church authorities and the Conservative Party (which at the time played the role of an unofficial Catholic party) and of ongoing disagreements concerning the relation between the Conservative Party and Catholic Action. The book is extremely rich in detail and includes nuanced and well informed analysis of the complex and shifting intersections between Catholicism and the world of politics during the 1930s and 1940s. This short review cannot do justice to the historical complexities that Andes beautifully and convincingly explores, but the book is to be recommended to students and scholars with an interest in Latin American political and/or religious history.

The Force of Argumentt and the Fight for an Anglophone Identity in Cameroon

Cameroon is a country often described as an island of peace in Africa. This is true considering the fact that it has succeeded to achieve relative political stability and peace in a sub-Saharan Africa marked by political and civil unrests, as well as regional conflicts and terrorism. This peace and stability is at risk if adequate care is not taken to consolidate it. This paper is therefore designed to inform and contribute towards the consolidation of that peace. Recent developments in the English speaking parts of Cameroon (South and North West regions) have seen an increase in revandications from pressure and secessionist groups such as the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), Cameroon Anglophone movement (CAM) and Southern Cameroons People Organization (SCAPO) crying of marginalization and discrimination, of Anglophones in all aspects of public life, risks erupting into an outright conflict. This paper thus argues that while some of these groups especially the SCNC has chosen to follow the path of nonviolence through their motto of ‘the force of argument not the argument of force’ in resolving the question of the Anglophone problem, there is a high risk that this nonviolent approach may be abandoned to that of a violent one if the Cameroon government continues to ignore the problem of the Anglophones and all the peaceful attempts these groups are advocating to solve it. This paper also stresses on the importance of peace and the use of nonviolent actions and techniques in solving conflicts. It also shows that there is an Anglophone problem and that Anglophones through different groups have been fighting the Cameroon government through different nonviolent actions, however because the Cameroon government is refusing to dialogue and find a peaceful solution to the problem, there is a risk that these groups can become more radicalized given the context of the security situation in Cameroon.

Publishing Leaked Information as News: Sabotage or Journalistic Success?

This article aims to analyse the universal news criteria regarding the transformation of information into news. In February 2013, the transcript of a meeting between 3 pro-Kurdish deputies and the jailed leader of the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers Party) was leaked to the Turkish press. This was published in Milliyet, a national Turkish newspaper, and has been interpreted as a forceful move to sabotage the positive atmosphere surrounding Turkey’s latest efforts with the PKK to end a conflict that has lasted more than three decades andresulted in the deaths of almost 36,000 people. The rationale for the leak was that although Turkey was going through a delicate time, there were questions that needed to be answered, but questions still remain: Who leaked the document, and why and how? The media has been divided about whether the publishing of the leaked transcript represented an effort to sabotage the peace attempts with the PKK or whether it marked a moment of journalistic success. What ethical stance should be taken about the leak? Should the journalist have reported it in the name of professionalism in terms of ‘informing the public’ or should he have exercised restraint out of respect for the ‘security of the state’? This article will examine those issues through an analytical approach and discuss the related attitudes of the foreign press. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n10p271

Brokering Peace: Networks, Legitimacy, and the Northern Ireland Peace Process1

Goddard, Stacie E. (2012) Brokering Peace: Networks, Legitimacy, and the Northern Ireland Peace Process. International Studies Quarterly, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2478.2012.00737.x © 2012 International Studies Association After over 20 years of fighting in Northern Ireland, the Belfast Agreement of 1998 has successfully implemented a power-sharing agreement. Belfast was not the first attempt at a peaceful settlement; indeed, some scholars count as many as seven prior peace attempts in Northern Ireland, the most significant being the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973. Why was it that politicians successfully negotiated the peace in 1998, while these prior attempts failed? Drawing from social network theory, I argue that the Belfast Agreement succeeded, not because of a change of interests or disappearance of spoilers, but because of the presence of brokers at the bargaining table. Brokers, in particular, have the capacity to legitimate settlements—to frame settlements in such a way that they appear consistent with principles held by multiple coalitions. As a result, brokers are both more likely to build a winning coalition for a settlement, as well as marginalize spoilers who seek to undermine the peace.

Past Experience, Quest for the Best Forum, and Peaceful Attempts to Resolve Territorial Disputes

Does a state’s past win/loss record affect its subsequent choices of peaceful dispute resolution methods in territorial disputes? We present a theory that portrays attempts at peaceful resolution as a strategic process, by which states search for the most favorable forum. During the process of decision making, a state strategically chooses between several methods of peaceful resolution; its final choice is based on the state’s past experience with this particular method. Empirical analysis of all attempts at peaceful resolution of territorial disputes from 1945 to 2003 shows that challenger states use their own record of victories and failures, as well as the win/ loss record of the target as indicators of the probability of winning in a subsequent dispute. This pattern is especially strong for the binding third-party methods, arbitration, and adjudication.

Legal Systems and Peaceful Attempts to Resolve Territorial Disputes

This paper focuses on how domestic legal systems influence states’ choices of peaceful dispute resolution methods. In order to increase familiarity with rules of peaceful resolution of disputes, states use their domestic legal systems to provide them with clues about the most trustworthy ways to settle disputes. States tend to choose methods of dispute resolution that are similar to those embedded in their domestic legal systems. Empirical analyses support the conjecture of a linkage between domestic law and interstate conflict management methods, showing that civil law dyads prefer more legalized dispute resolution methods compared to common law dyads. Islamic law dyads are most likely to use nonbinding third party methods, while common law dyads tend to resolve their territorial disputes through bilateral negotiations.

“My dear de Madariaga”. Correspondencia entre Madariaga e Eden en 1936 en prol dunha paz negociada na Guerra Civil española

Among the new studies on the Spanish civil war we can highlight the works devoted to those men involved in the third Spain, who were sought ways of peace, without expecting the outcome of the war. Salvador de Madariaga was one of the most distinguished men of the third Spain. Here we transcribe his correspondence with the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Anthony Eden. These documents, together with the entire legacy of Madariaga, are kept in the Instituto Jose Cornide de Estudios Coruneses. The proposals of Madariaga, like other peace attempts prior to April 1, 1939, were unsuccessful. As we can see in these letters, British Diplomacy preferred to keep a noninterventionist approach to the war instead of the mediation as was proposed by Madariaga.

Conflict management of riparian disputes

Abstract This paper builds on a large literature that explores the linkages between resource scarcity and interstate conflict. Focusing on competing claims over cross-border rivers, we analyze peaceful and militarized techniques used by states to manage river claims, and compare the success of these techniques for resolving the issues under contention. We focus on two key factors to account for variance in the use and effectiveness of conflict management strategies: water scarcity and institutions. We argue that high levels of water scarcity increase the frequency of explicit claims over fresh water, increase the chances of militarized conflict over these claims, and make it more difficult for conflict management institutions to be created or to be effective. We also examine the role of peace-promoting institutions, both river-specific and general institutions, arguing that institutional membership should promote peaceful attempts to resolve river claims. Analyzing data on river claims (1900–2001) from the Issue Correlates of War (ICOW) Project, we find that greater water scarcity increases the likelihood of both militarized conflict and peaceful third party settlement attempts, while river-specific institutions reduce militarized conflict and increase the effectiveness of peaceful settlement attempts.

Operation Super Sunrise? Japanese-United States Peace Feelers in Switzerland, 1945

In early 1945 Japanese navy circles in Berlin tried to begin peace negotiations with the United States. Using their contacts with the arms trader Friedrich Wilhelm Hack, they sent Commander Fujimura Yoshikazu to Switzerland, where he opened talks with Allen W. Dulles of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services. Though the Japanese navy and Foreign Ministry showed some interest, the peace attempts finally failed since neither side took the initiative to an official level. Fujimura confused his government by claiming that the Americans had made the first step, while the U.S. side waited for proof that the administration in Tokyo was backing the navy officer's initiative.

Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919

Book Reviews Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919. By Grif Stockley. (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2001. Pp. xxxii, 264. Acknowledgments, preface, introduction, maps, illustrations, chronology of events, notes, note on sources, index. $29.95.) Arkansas history has no story more troubling than that of the violent confrontations between black laborers, white mobs, and the U.S. Army near the Phillips County town of Elaine in 1919. Black people and white people were killed, the Army was called in, and twelve black men were sentenced to death. The state's already well established negative image got another unwelcome boost-the governor of Kansas went so far as to refuse an extradition request. No Arkansas event has been more assiduously avoided, so variously interpreted, or so hotly contested. The initial official version, put forward by white business leaders and politicians and published in Arkansas newspapers, claimed that blacks, duped by outside labor agitators, had plotted a murderous insurrection aimed at killing white landowners. Acting prudently, local authorities and Gov. Charles Hillman Brough averted more widespread loss of life by speedy deployment of U.S. Army troops. Five white men died as heroes, while approximately twenty-five black troublemakers were killed and hundreds of others were arrested. Order was restored; there were no lynchings. Following fair trials, twelve ringleaders were sentenced to death. This version was immediately contested. Both a 1919 article by NAACP officer Walter White and a 1920 booklet by antilynching activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett described the event as a violent response by whites to peaceful attempts by blacks to organize a union. Armed white mobs from surrounding Arkansas and Mississippi towns terrorized the black population. Innocent men and women were shot down. Army troops, when they arrived, also participated in the slaughter. Hundreds of black citizens were killed. Jailed blacks were tortured to coerce confessions, and trials were a mockery of justice, with court-appointed defense attorneys conducting no cross-examinations and calling no witnesses. And so the controversy began-words flying almost as soon as the bullets stopped. Many books and articles have since appeared, but consensus has proved elusive. Grif Stockley's Blood In Their Eyes arrives, then, as a conscious participant in an enduring dialogue. Deeply read in the prior scholarship, Stockley makes clear his own position in his choice of subtitle-for him the Elaine conflict was a race massacre where for two horrific days area blacks were murdered by the hundreds, first by roving bands of white vigilantes on October 1, and then by U.S. Army troops on October 2. The successes of the official version resulted from the skillful manipulation of Governor Brough and utilization of local and media by the Phillips County planter elite: As early as the second day of the Elaine massacres, the white power structure in the Delta, including the media, began to formulate an explanation of the events that was psychologically irresistible to almost everyone, including the governor and the black elite of the state (p. xv). Blood In Their Eyes is a passionately argued book based on years of diligent research. It possesses many strengths. Stockley is himself an attorney, and his discussion of the various trials and legal maneuverings is especially effective. His portrayal of Scipio Jones, the black Little Rock attorney who successfully pursued legal appeals to overturn the death sentences, is particularly persuasive, and one of the book's high points. Jones was patronized by northern NAACP officials in his own day, and is sometimes dismissed as a class-conscious Uncle Tom by more recent historians. But Stockley's careful portrait reveals a brave and tenacious man who labored long and acted adroitly to save men's lives-and succeeded, against odds. The story has other moments of intelligent and/or courageous behavior-by white defense attorneys George Murphy and Edgar McHaney, Pulaski County chancellor John E. …

Ireland's Apostles of Peace

The period from the death of Charles Stewart Parnell (1891) to the establishment of the Irish Free State (1922) was a momentous one for Ireland. There was a cultural revitalization (1891– 1916), a Rising (1916), the Anglo‐Irish War (1919–21), the Treaty (1922), and the Civil War (1922–23) before the new Irish state settled into a routine pattern. This was a period characterized by assertive nationalism, dogmatism, and intolerance that led to violence and bloodshed. The result would be an independent Ireland, but a divided Ireland with potential for explosion in the North. Still there were people who surmounted the polemic of the moment and sought rational compromise and mutual tolerance. These were individuals who sought limited practical objectives, empathized with their adversaries, demonstrated civility, and often predicted the problems of the future. These were the “apostles of peace”. Among Ireland's many notables, three of such caliber stand out — Arthur Griffith, Horace Plunkett, and Eoin MacNeill. These men were intimately associated with the affairs of their day and were recognized for their integrity and professional accomplishment. They were also associated with the major peaceful attempts to solve Ireland's problems and avoid the warfare that ensued. Griffith, the journalist, founded the early Sinn Fein and came temporarily to lead the Irish Free State. Plunkett, the Anglo‐Irish aristocrat, founded the cooperative movement. MacNeill, the civil servant and historian, was involved in starting the Gaelic League and the Irish Volunteers. These were the “apostles of peace” and Ireland's subsequent trauma stemmed from their limited number. The objective of this study is to examine the careers of these three exceptional notables and ascertain if there exist some pattern. Are there generalizations that might be made about them collectively?