Download Exporting the Northern Irish Model

General – Spring Term 2011 – Exporting the Northern Irish Model
AKC 9
AKC 9 – 21 March 2011
Conflicts & Conflict Resolution
Lecture 9: Exporting the Northern Irish Model, Applying theory and practice to
divided territories in the Middle East
Professor Clemens Sedmak, Dept of Theology & Religious Studies, KCL
Dr Michael Kerr, Department of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies, KCL
Questions:
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What is the Irish model?
What symbolic and constitutional issues were addressed by the Northern
Ireland’s Good Friday agreement?
Why was it successful?
What conflicts might it be applicable to the Middle East?
What are the issues at the core of regional and international conflicts in the
Middle East?
How do these relate to local conflicts?
What role do international actors play in these conflicts?
What are the limitations to external intervention in divided societies?
Is power-sharing or democratic pluralism a model for regulating conflict in the
Middle East and restructuring its state system?
Examples:
 Arab-Israeli Conflict
 Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
 Iraq
 Lebanon
 Egypt
Key Readings
F. Halliday, The Middle East in international relations: power, politics and ideology,
Cambridge University Press, 2005
Kerr, Michael, Imposing Power-Sharing: Conflict and Coexistence in Northern
Ireland and Lebanon (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006)
J McGarry & B O'Leary, The Politics of Ethnic Conflict Regulation, London:
Routledge, 1993
Stefan Wolff, Ethnic Conflict: A Global Perspective, Oxford: OUP, 200
M. Yapp, The Near East Since the First World War: A History to 1995, Longman,
2nd edition, 1996
Reflecting upon Paradigm Shifts and Dealing with the Past
(Clemens Sedmak)
Epistemology of terrorism
“strong beliefs” / “life as a mission” and larger context / epistemic objects” / “social
cohesion”
high affective valence regarding an ideological issue / a personal stake-such as
strongly perceived oppression or humiliation; strong need for identity or glory / low
cognitive flexibility, low tolerance for ambiguity / a capacity to suppress both
instinctive and learned moral constraints against harming innocents
single most important issue: personal commitments
example: Eamon Collins, “Killing Rage”
Dealing with the Past
- Memory (key words: emotional contents; collective/cultural/communicative)
- “the ethics of remembering” (duties; x remembers C because of R in mode M)
The example of Germany after 1989
*Stability in Germany enabled prosecution (no “reconciliation” agenda)
* discussion of general amnesty as expression of public joy about unification
(“Jubelamnestie”) – but not granted
* no clear cut lines between victims and perpetrators (Richard von Weizsaecker)
* Egon Krenz: “victor’s justice” reproach
* prosecution focused on major human rights violations like the death strip and the
fatal shots at the Berlin wall and the inner German border
* guiding principles: the assumption that reconciliation did not exclude punishment / the
punishment of the perpetrators was given priority over their undiscerning integration
* “life chances lost” was not part of the debate
* recognition of SED regime as dictatorship
* Federal Office for the Personal Records of the State Security Services – “right to know”
* After 1990, incriminated staff in offices and institutions were not "destasified"
according to the example of the "denazification" after 1945, but those who had
personally committed crimes or grave offences were professionally disqualified –
estimates say that around 200 000 citizens worked as informal informants (informal
operatives)
* In August 1991, Pastor Friedrich Schorlemmer called for an institution involving the
whole German society to promote integration and reconciliation - on March 20th, 1992,
the Federal Parliament’s Enquete Commission for the Reappraisal of the History and
Consequences of the SED Dictatorship was established (head of the commission: the
evangelical pastor and the civil rights campaigner Rainer Eppelmann). This commission
worked from 1992 until 1994. In 1995, a second commission was installed (until 1998):
Overcoming the Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in the Process of the German
Unification. These two commissions were set the task to engage in the historical and
political analysis and the political and moral evaluation of the SED dictatorship. At the
same time, the commissions were meant to contribute to the rehabilitation of the victims
by public hearings and other measures accompanying the legislation. The commissions
tried to fulfil these tasks by listening to witnesses of the events and to researchers, by
conducting public hearings and considering the reports of experts
*establishment of “victims’ perpetrators’” dialogues
 The AKC Examination :Friday, 1st April,14.30-16.30
 Last year’s exam paper: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/about/structure/dean/akc/archive