Global Change, Civil Society and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland

Despite the historic deal between the DUP and Sinn Fein in the spring of 2007, Northern Ireland's Belfast Agreement has faced continual crises of implementation over a variety of security related issues, such as reform of the police service or the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. Too frequently analyses have neglected to study the wider changes that have occurred inside and outside Northern Ireland and how these changes affect Northern Irish politics. Global Change, Civil Society and the Northern Ireland Peace Process examines how some of these changes, including September 11th and the role of civil society, have had profound effects in changing attitudes towards violence, paramilitaries, the position of women and ideas of nationalism and sovereignty. This book places the implementation of the Belfast Agreement in a wider, global context in order to provide an analysis of why implementation has been so difficult.