INCORE : Research

INCORE Research: Peace Processes

Research on Peace Processes is an integral aspect of INCORE’s research programme. This research involves examination of peace processes in practice and in theory. Peace Processes in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka have been examined comparatively and individually.

Research has sought to examine how peace processes operate in a variety of contexts, what factors lead to success/failure in implementation of peace processes, how established peace processes are to be moved forward through their various phases.

The research has focused on the peace processes at the macro-level, and has examined some of the technical aspects, institutional developments and policy minutae contributing to and deriving from contemporary peace processes. Issues such as demilitarisation, reconciliation, community relations, transitional justice & management of peace processes are part of INCORE’s ongoing or previous research into peace processes.

Peace process research projects include:

Remembering: Victims, Survivors and Commemeration in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) this is a two year project looking at the topic of Victims, Survivors and Commemeration. A team of researchers at the Magee Campus of the University of Ulster plan to document the developments that have taken place in this subject area since 1997. Information collected will be made available through the existing CAIN web site.(42)

From Warlords to Peace Lords.
This study examined political leadership in conflicted societies involving case studies in Afghanistan, Sierre Leone, Lebanon and Kosovo.(6)

From Protagonist to Pragmatist: Political Leadership in Societies in Transition
This project led by Dr. Cathy Gormley-Heenan focused on the development of political leadership in societies which are in a ‘coming out of violence’ phase. It analyses the adaptation to power of ‘new’ leaders, and problems and perspectives for the future.(23)

Motivations for Peacekeeping
A network was established with funding from the RIA SSRC. A workshop of partners was held in late 1999. A further proposal to investigate the factors that motivate states and multilateral organisations to intervene was developed in complex emergencies.(26)

Demilitarisation in Northern Ireland
The role of ‘decomissioning’ and ‘normalisation of security’ in the peace process was examined in this project conducted in collaboration with the BICC institute in Bonn.(12)

Progressing towards Settlement.
Professor John Darby and Dr Roger MacGinty led this major academic study into the Management of Peace Processes. (13)

Cost of the Troubles
This study aimed to provide reliable, non-sensationalist and ethically collected data on individual experiences of the troubles. It explored the relationship between troubles-related difficulties and deprivation, and this part of the study had implications for a broad range of policy areas, including all of those agencies currently who are involved in using frameworks to target social needs.(24)

Reflecting on Peace Practice
INCORE was one partner in a collaborative effort of agencies and individuals involved in peace/conflict work intended to learn lessons from past experience in order to do better in future.(33)

Coming out of Violence
The Coming out of Violence research project began in November 1996 and aimed to systematically monitor attempts to disengage from persistent ethnic disputes in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Middle East and the Basque Country.(25)