CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | McLean, John |
|---|---|
| Title | Civil Society Peacebuilding in a Peace Process: Lessons from Northern Ireland |
| Summary | The Northern Ireland peace process is widely considered a success – a model for other conflict societies to follow – but has lost momentum far from the finish line. Certain factors have hindered the much lauded power-sharing arrangements in going beyond conflict-prevention and into full-blown peacebuilding. Part of the cause is the intended and unintended limitations placed on civil society peacebuilding by political actors and political agreements. This paper ascertains the political root causes of civil society disempowerment, substantiates the case for a stronger civil society as a vital part of peacebuilding and suggests learning outcomes for policymakers from the case of Northern Ireland. A series of 11 interviews carried out with individuals working along the politics-civil society interface provide the basis of research for this paper. Northern Ireland is selected as a building block case with findings intended to be useful, but also foundational in terms of developing theoretical typology on this issue. Key recommendations include (a) establishing an independent conduit for all community relations funding, (b) politically empowering the undesignated ‘middle ground’ in consociational power-sharing models, (c) creating and sustaining an independent consultative committee for citizens on the peace process, and (d) consider measures to mitigate the negative effects of including more extreme actors into the political process. These learning outcomes have significance for Northern Ireland itself and as a model for other contexts. |
| Supervisor | Scepanovic, Vera |
| Department | Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/mclean_john.pdf |
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