Authors:
- Utilises an extended theatrical metaphor to analyse politics
- Provides a defence of politicians using deception and hypocrisy to make peace
- Unravels the complexity of the peace process in Northern Ireland in order to further understanding of broader conflict management
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
“Paul Dixon has produced an impressive and challenging book. Dixon defends the Northern Ireland peace process as a carefully-crafted, drawn-out episode in realist, pragmatic politics. However, he pulls few punches in highlighting the moral deceptions which have kept the process in play. Provocatively, Dixon also challenges a wide range of academic interpretations of the processes and their associated political prescriptions. Thoughtful and well-researched throughout, Performing the Northern Ireland Peace Process is an essential read for anyone interested in conflict management.” (Professor Jon Tonge, University of Liverpool)
“In this outstanding book, Dixon shows yet again the importance of the theatrical metaphor for Northern Ireland. More importantly still, he demonstrates that the adoption of a critically realist outlook actually enhances our capacity to think creatively about the political choices we face in international politics and the alternative policies and institutions we might construct.” (Professor Adrian Little, The University of Melbourne)
This book is exceptional in defending the ‘dirty politics’ of the Northern Ireland peace process. Political actors in Britain, Ireland and the United States performed the peace process and used ‘political skills’, often including deception and hypocrisy, in order to wind down the conflict and achieve accommodation. These political skills, it is argued, are often morally justifiable even as they are popularly condemned. The Northern Ireland peace process has been highly successful in reducing violence and an accurate understanding of its politics is an important contribution to international debates about managing conflict.
Reviews
“Paul Dixon has produced an impressive and challenging book. Dixon defends the Northern Ireland peace process as a carefully-crafted, drawn-out episode in realist, pragmatic politics. However, he pulls few punches in highlighting the moral deceptions which have kept the process in play. Provocatively, Dixon also challenges a wide range of academic interpretations of the processes and their associated political prescriptions. Thoughtful and well-researched throughout, Performing the Northern Ireland Peace Process is an essential read for anyone interested in conflict management.” (Professor Jon Tonge, University of Liverpool)
“In this outstanding book, Dixon shows yet again the importance of the theatrical metaphor for Northern Ireland. More importantly still, he demonstrates that the adoption of a critically realist outlook actually enhances our capacity to think creatively about the political choices we face in international politics and the alternative policies and institutions we might construct.” (Professor Adrian Little, The University of Melbourne)
Authors and Affiliations
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Department of Politics, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, United Kingdom
Paul Dixon
About the author
Paul Dixon is Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. He was Professor of Politics and International Studies at Kingston University, UK (2005-17). He also taught at Queen’s University Belfast, Luton, Leeds and Ulster (1997-2005). He has 30 years of experience researching the conflict in Northern Ireland and has published Northern Ireland: The Politics of War and Peace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001; 2nd edition 2008), and edited The British Approach to Counterinsurgency (Palgrave Macmillan 2012). He has published nearly 40 academic articles and over 20 book chapters mainly on the Northern Ireland conflict, conflict management and war.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Performing the Northern Ireland Peace Process
Book Subtitle: In Defence of Politics
Authors: Paul Dixon
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91343-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-91342-1Published: 29 June 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-08230-7Published: 11 February 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-91343-8Published: 15 June 2018
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 316
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations
Topics: Peace Studies, Conflict Studies, Terrorism and Political Violence, Political History, Political Leadership, Governance and Government