Peace Studies Publications

Brendan Ciarán Browne, Transitional (in)Justice and Enforcing the Peace on Palestine

This book considers the growing interest in transitional justice practices that take place against the backdrop of ongoing settler-colonialism in Palestine. By critiquing the role of common top-down and bottom-up interventions, namely truth recovery and international criminal justice, the book argues that transitional justice acts as an extension of a deeply flawed peacebuilding process that has been so destructive in Palestine and has a deflating effect when it comes to advancing calls for meaningful decolonisation. A ‘radicalisation’ of transitional justice that takes place in settler-colonial contexts, one that prioritises conversations around meaningful decolonisation, is therefore required. The book will appeal to those with an interest in peacebuilding, conflict transformation and transitional justice.

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Maja Halilovic-Pastuovic, Bosnian Post-Refugee Transnationalism: After the Dayton Peace Agreement

This book develops a new concept of post-refugee transnationalism to describe experiences of Bosnian refugees who settled in Ireland after fleeing the conflict in 1990s Bosnia and Herzegovina. The book explores their ambivalent relationship with their host and home countries, Ireland and Bosnia, arguing that their current experiences are best described as post-refugee transnationalism. Post-refugee transnationalism is characterised by Bosnians dividing their time between the two countries rather than permanently settling in either and by engaging in summer migrations and diasporic interconnections and affiliations. The book proposes post-refugee transnationalism as different to other instances of transnationalism by stressing its enforced origin provoked by the conflict and institutionalized by the Dayton Peace Agreement.

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Maja Halilovic-Pastuovic, Textbook Politics: Education in Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Teaching Peace and Conflict

The conflict that happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the bloodiest conflict in modern European history, ending in 1995 with the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. The Agreement secured peace but left this ethnically diverse country a divided society. Significant divisions exist in all spheres of life between Bosniacs, Croats and Serbs, with mistrust, alienation, and ghettoization remaining between these populations. One consequence of the Dayton Peace Agreement was segregated education. This chapter analyzes the segregated education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the phenomenon of “two schools under one roof” (TSUOR) that currently operates in the country.

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Gillian Wylie et al (guest editors), Irish Journal of Sociology (2020) Thematic Issue: Advancing Social Justice for Sex Workers, Volume 28 Number 3.

The thematic issue of IJS opens with an introduction by the guest editors, Sharron FitzGerald, Maggie O’Neill and Gillian Wylie. It situates the theme theoretically and argues that research needs to pay closer attention to sex workers’ experiences and rights as a social justice issue. This is followed by their article that uses the case of the Republic of Ireland to offer an alternative theoretical framework for addressing the problems inherent in a policy and legislative approach to sex work that sees criminal law as the only solution to issues of harm and demand.

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Gillian Wylie, Peacebuilding in Response to Migration: From Securitization to Peace in the Context of the ‘Crisis’ for Migrants in Europe, chapter 24 in Routledge Companion to Peace and Conflict Studies

This chapter explores these connections between war, displacement, refuge seeking and the politics of inclusion and exclusion. It does so with reference to the current crisis for migrants seeking refuge in Europe, where governments have become progressively less willing to receive these asylum seekers. Yet future peace and security in Europe, and in the countries these people are fleeing, is intimately tied to a response to this crisis that enlivens seemingly forgotten European values and forges a politics of inclusion. This chapter draws on ideas from peacebuilding theory to offer ideas about how such politics could be imagined and implemented.

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Etain Tannam, co-author UCL Constitution Unit’s Final Report on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland, 2021, with project lead, Professor Alan Renwick, UCL Constitution Unit

The Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland was established in 2019 to examine how any future referendums on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would best be designed and conducted. It published its Final Report on 26 May 2021. The report explores each aspect of the process, including, for example, how decisions would be made on whether to call a referendum, whether referendums would best happen before or after detailed plans for the form of a united Ireland had been developed, how referendum campaigns would be regulated, and who would be able to vote. It takes no view on whether such referendums should takes place.

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Brendan Ciarán Browne, Refugees and Forced Displacement in Northern Ireland’s Troubles

Though forced displacement constituted a central and pervasive feature of the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ effecting tens of thousands of citizens, remarkably it has been afforded little more than a footnote or fleeting reference in most accounts of the conflict. This book seeks to ‘end the silence’ surrounding this neglected and ubiquitous aspect of the conflict. Based on 88 in-depth qualitative interviews with victims and survivors, and extensive secondary research, this fascinating study provides the first comprehensive examination of forced displacement in Northern Ireland. The analysis presented captures the unique perspectives of those forcibly uprooted over the course of the 30-year conflict and places on historical record their stories and experiences. This thought-provoking work challenges and broadens prevailing understandings of conflict-related violence, harm, and loss in Northern Ireland to demonstrate the centrality of forced movement, territory, and demographics to the roots and subsequent trajectory of the Troubles. In doing so, it shows that to fully understand the eruption and outplaying of the Troubles and its elusive peace, engagement with and understanding of the legacy of forced displacement is crucial.

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Dong Jin Kim, International Affairs

Dr. Dong Jin Kim’s article “Global Health Diplomacy and North Korea in the COVID-19 era” (co-authored with Andrew Ilkhyun Kim) has been published in International Affairs, one of the world’s leading journals, currently ranked No. 1 in International Relations. This article uses global health diplomacy to examine the challenges and opportunities of international health aid to North Korea in the COVID-19 era. It finds that vaccine provision is both within the enlightened self-interest of donor states and meets the global responsibility to address unequal access to vaccines.

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Dong Jin Kim and David Mitchell, Reconciling Divided States, Peace Processes in Ireland and Korea

This volume examines and compares Ireland and Korea as two peace/conflict areas. Despite their differences, both places are marked by a number of overlaid states of division: a political border in a geographical unit (an island and a peninsula); an antagonistic relationship within the population of those territories; an international relationship recovering from past asymmetry and colonialism; and divisions within the main groupings over how to address these relationships. Written by academics and practitioners from Europe and East Asia, and guided by the concepts of peacebuilding and reconciliation, the chapters assess peace efforts at all levels, from the elite to grassroot organisations. Topics discussed include: historical parallels; modern debates over the legacy of the past; contemporary constitutional and security issues; civil society peacebuilding in relation to faith, sport, and women’s activism; and the role of economic assistance. The book brings Ireland and Korea into a rich dialogue which highlights the successes and shortcomings of both peace processes.

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Etain Tannam, Irish Studies in International Affairs

Etain Tannam, The British-Irish Relationship and the Centrality of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, Irish Studies in International Affairs Vol. 32, No. 2, Analysing and Researching Ireland, North and South (ARINS) (Notre Dame/Royal Irish Academy) 2021, pp. 341-367. Etain Tannam co-author, Working Group On Unification Referendums on the island of Ireland, Constitution Unit, University College London, May 26 2021.

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Dong Jin Kim, The Korean Peace Process and Civil Society: Towards Strategic Peacebuilding (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

The Post-Cold War era witnessed a dramatic rise in breakthroughs for peace processes, including the Korean peninsula, between parties mired in protracted conflict. However, many such processes broke down within a short period of time. This book explores the possibilities for comprehensive and sustainable peacebuilding strategy in the Korean peace process, beyond reaching an agreement, by reviewing diverse peacebuilding activities from government and civil society.

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Jude Lal Fernando, Editor, Resistance to Empire and Militarization: Reclaiming the Sacred

Resistance to Empire and Militarization gathers critically reflective articles by leading and emerging scholars/practitioners from religious and non-religious backgrounds, representing three generations of survivors of imperial invasions and genocidal massacres across the globe. The authors interrogate and expose the oppressive religious and secular ideologies and mechanisms of the modern empire and its allies that cause desecration of lives and the earth through various means, ranging from psychological operations to the brute force of advanced technological warfare. These are testimonies of truth and liberation, written with a prophetic urgency.

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Etain Tannam, Guest Editor, Beyond the Good Friday Agreement: In the Midst of Brexit, October 2018

2018 marked the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. When it was signed few would have imagined Brexit. This book examines the impact of the Good Friday Agreement on internal and cross-border political and economic cooperation between Northern Ireland, Ireland and Britain, in the context of Brexit. It also examines the impact of Brexit to date and concludes with some scenarios about the longer-term impact of Brexit on the Good Friday Agreement itself and on Northern Ireland’s constitutional status.

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Etain Tannam, Guest Editor, Irish Political Studies, Special Section: 20th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement Volume 33, Issue 3, September 2018

David Mitchell, Etain Tannam and Sarah Wallace, 2018, ’The Agreement’s impact on political cooperation’, in Irish Political Studies, ’Special Section: 20th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement’, Irish Political Studies, 33:3, 283-310, Volume 33, Issue 3, September 2018, (online June 2018).

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Etain Tannam, Guest Editor, Special Issue: ’The Twentieth Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement’, Ethnopolitics, Volume 17, Issue 3, June 2018. Intergovernmental and Cross-Border Civil Service Cooperation: The Good Friday Agreement and Brexit, pp. 223-243

This special edition of Ethnopolitics, published in book form in 2018 (Routledge), comprises chapters from leading scholars on Northern Irish and Irish politics. It examines the impact of the Good Friday Agreement on economic, political, administrative and intergovernmental cooperation, as well as assessing the European Union’s role in the Agreement and the impact of Brexit to date.

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Brendan Browne et al (Eds), Experiences in Researching Conflict and Violence: Fieldwork Interrupted (Policy Press/OUP E-Book/University of Chicago Press, 2018)

This international collection brings together personal accounts from researchers working in and on conflict and explores the roles of emotion, violence, uncertainty, identity, and positionality within the process of doing research, as well as the complexity of methodological choices.

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Gillian Wylie, The International Politics of Human Trafficking, (Palgrave, 2016)

This book explores the international politics behind the identification of human trafficking as a major global problem. Since 2000, tackling human trafficking has spawned new legal, security and political architecture. This book is grounded in the premise that the intense response to this issue is at odds with the shaky statistics and contentious definitions underpinning it.

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Linda Hogan, From Women’s Experience to Feminist Theology, (Bloomsbury, 2016)

What are the implications of adopting a primacy of praxis position in feminist theology? How can we respect the diversity of women’s experience while retaining it as a useful analytic category? Do these twin resources of women’s experience and praxis together imply that feminist theology is ultimately relativist? Through an analysis of the work of some of today’s key feminist theologians - Christian, womanist and post-Christian - Linda Hogan considers these and other methodological questions.

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Linda Hogan, Keeping Faith With Human Rights (Washington DC, Georgetown University Press, 2015)

In this provocative study, Linda Hogan defends human rights language while simultaneously reenvisioning its future. Avoiding problematic claims about shared universal values, Hogan draws on the constructivist strand of political philosophy to argue for a three-pronged conception of human rights: as requirements for human flourishing, as necessary standards of human community, and as the basis for emancipatory politics. In the process, she shows that it is theoretically possible and politically necessary for theologians to keep faith with human rights. Indeed, the Christian tradition - the wellspring of many of the ethical commitments considered central to human rights - must embrace its vital role in the project.

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David Mitchell, Politics and peace in Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press, 2015)

The book provides an up-to-date political history of Northern Ireland since 1998. Using an innovative theoretical approach, it analyses the strategies and fortunes of the five main political parties, showing how unionists’ and nationalists’ mutual insecurities repeatedly derailed peace implementation. The book was launched in the famous No Alibis bookshop in Belfast on Thursday 5 November 2015.

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Etain Tannam, International Intervention in Ethnic Conflict (Palgrave, 2014)

Tannam focuses on the role of bureaucracies when dealing with conflict in two international organisations, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN), providing a unique comparative account of their policy-making procedures.

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Carlo Aldrovandi, Apocalyptic Movements in Contemporary Politics (Palgrave, 2014)

This book explores Israeli Religious Zionism and US Christian Zionism by focusing on the Messianic and Millenarian drives at the basis of their political mobilization towards a ’Jewish colonization’ of the occupied territories.

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Andrew Pierce and Oliver Schuegraf, Dialogue Inside-Out: Ecumenism Encounters the Religions: Proceedings of the 17th Academic Consultation of the Societas Oecumenica (Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig, 2014)

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Jude Lal Fernanado Religion, Conflict and Peace in Sri Lanka (Lit Verlag, 2013)

‘A detailed and original work on a specific conflict. A useful platform for wider insights into the requirements of conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes more generally’. Dr. Iain Atack, International Peace Studies, School of Religion, Trinity College Dublin. ‘A very valuable contribution to the history and the sociology of Sri Lanka and also to the search for a just solution for the Tamils’. François Houtart, Professor Emeritus, Catholic University of Louvain. ‘The author’s mastery of Sinhala, Tamil and English has given him a special cultural competence to analyse the Sri Lankan conflict within a geopolitical setting’. Peter Schalk, Professor Emeritus, Uppsala University. ‘A challenging contribution to an ongoing critical examination of the connection between state and religion’. Prof. Dr. Lieve Troch, Cultural and Religious Sciences, UMESP, Sao Paulo.

Brewer, J., Mitchell, D. and Leavey, G. Ex-Combatants, Religion, and Peace in Northern Ireland: The Role of Religion in Transitional Justice (Palgrave, 2013)

Studies of Northern Ireland’s ex-combatants ignore religion, while advocates of religious interventions in transitional justice exaggerate its influence. Using interview data with ex-combatants, this book explores religious influences upon violence and peace, and develops a model for evaluating the role of religion in transitional justice.

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