Terrorism's Laboratory: Case of Northern Ireland - Tapa dura

During the 19th and 20th centuries, nationalism has posed a threat to international stability and the integrity of individual nation states. While the troubles in Northern Ireland have only slightly intruded on the world stage outside the British Isles, many of the issues raised are pertinent to international affairs, and, in particular, offer a laboratory for analysing ethnic conflict. The premiss of this book is that the Northern Ireland case offers an important testing ground for the management, suppression and voluntary cessation of ethnic violence. Contributors are drawn from a variety of backgrounds, religions and ideological perspectives, and present analyses of the "troubles" rather than promoting solutions. Articles are included on the IRA strategy, loyalist violence, the Ulster Defence Association, and ideological perspectives. All assess the adaptive nature of the people and organizations actually participating in the struggle. Each study shows the strength and limitations of political initiatives. Collectively they reveal the "troubles" in Northern Ireland as evolutionary rather than static, and offer varying degrees of encouragement for the containment or cessation of ethnic violence.