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Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Latins, and Armenians have been the primary historical communities that make up the multicultural landscape of Cyprus. However, the continuing conflict between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots has geographically, socially and psychologically segregated these communities, while the influx of economic migrants, especially after Cyprus's accession to the EU in 2004, has, in turn, contributed to Cyprus's challenges, arising from multiculturalism, in an altogether different perspective

The struggle versus the song - the local turn in peacebuilding: an introduction / Caroline Hughes, Joakim Öjendal and Isabell Schierenbeck 1-8. - 1. The 'local turn' in peacebuilding: a literature review of effective and emancipatory local peacebuilding / Hanna Leonardsson and Gustav Rudd 9-23. - 2. Where is the local? Critical localism and peacebuilding, Roger Mac Ginty 24-40. - 3. Unpacking the local turn in peacebuilding: a critical assessment towards an agenda for future research / Thania Paffenholz 41-58. - 4. The dynamic local: delocalisation and (re-)localisation in the search for peacebuilding identity / Stefanie Kappler 59-73. - 5. Palestinian unity and everyday state formation: subaltern 'ungovernmentality' versus elite interests / Sandra Pogodda and Oliver P. Richmond 74-91. - 6. Poor people's politics in East Timor / Caroline Hughes 92-112. - 7. The 'local turn' saving liberal peacebuilding? Unpacking virtual peace in Cambodia / Joakim Öjendal and Sivhouch Ou 113-133. - 8. National policy in local practice: the case of Rwanda / Malin Hasselskog and Isabell Schierenbeck 134-150. - 9. Local violence and politics in KwaZulu-Natal: perceptions of agency in a post-conflict society / Anna K. Jarstad and Kristine Höglund 151-168. - 10. Reducing fragility through strengthening local governance in Guinea / Christian Arandel, Derick W. Brinkerhoff and Marissa M. Bell 169-190. - 11. Rethinking justice and institutions in African peacebuilding / Goran Hyden 191-206. - 12. Beyond the local turn divide: lessons learnt, relearnt and unlearnt / Isabell Schierenbeck 207-216

Under what conditions can peace be established after violent communal conflict? This question has received limited research attention to date, despite the fact that communal conflicts kill thousands of people each year and often severely disrupt local livelihoods. This dissertation analyzes how political dynamics affect prospects for peace after communal conflict. It does so by studying the role of the central government, local state and non-state actors, and the interactions between these actors and the communal groups that are engaged in armed conflict. A particular focus is on the role of political bias, in the sense that central government actors have ties to one side in the conflict or strategic interests in the conflict issue. The central claim is that political bias shapes government strategies in the face of conflict, and influences the conflict parties' strategic calculations and ability to overcome mistrust and engage in conflict resolution. To assess these arguments, the dissertation strategically employs different research methods to develop and test theoretical arguments in four individual essays. Two of the essays rely on novel data to undertake the first cross-national large-N studies of government intervention in communal conflict and how it affects the risk of conflict recurrence. Essay I finds that conflicts that are located in an economically important area, revolve around land and authority, or involve groups with ethnic ties to central rulers are more likely to prompt military intervention by the government. Essay II finds that ethnic ties, in turn, condition the impact that government intervention has on the risk of conflict recurrence. The other two essays are based on systematic analysis of qualitative sources, including unique and extensive interview material collected during several field trips to Kenya. Essay III finds that government bias makes it more difficult for the conflict parties to resolve their conflict through peace agreements. Essay IV finds that by engaging in governance roles otherwise associated with the state, non-state actors can become successful local peacemakers. Taken together, the essays make important contributions by developing, assessing and refining theories concerning the prospects for communal conflict resolution.

Peacekeepers are widely viewed as being at growing risk of direct and deliberate violence. Attacks are recorded in many and diverse contexts, targeting interventions deployed by both the United Nations and other organisations. This dissertation seeks to advance the understanding of such violence, studying its causes, characteristics and consequences. The impact of deliberate violence against peacekeepers can be severe; it often extends past those immediately affected and impacts interveners' ability to accomplish their aims. As a topic of scientific inquiry, however, violence against peacekeepers has only recently seen a growth in interest, and systematic study has so far been sparse. This dissertation makes a number of theoretical and empirical contributions to this emerging area of research. The dissertation contains four individual essays. To set the stage and provide foundations for further studies, Essay I specifies key concepts and maps the research field to date. It promotes a wider, and arguably more theoretically appropriate, conceptualisation of violence against peacekeepers than used in earlier studies. Essay II presents new, systematically collected event data on violence against UN and non-UN peacekeepers deployed to conflict-affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa between 1989 and 2009. Patterns from the data demonstrate that, while widely prevalent, violence against peacekeepers is not ubiquitous to peacekeeping and displays considerable variation within and across interventions. Drawing on this novel data, Essay III provides one of the first systematic studies on the time-varying determinants of rebel attacks on peacekeepers, showing its occurrence to be closely linked to rebel performance on the battlefield. Finally, Essay IV explores how operating in a challenging security environment can affect peacekeepers' ability to perform core mission functions, drawing on the case of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The analysis illustrates how such an environment may expose and further constrain already limited capabilities and willingness for robust and armed action in UN peacekeeping operations. Taken together, the essays advance our understanding of the causes, characteristics and consequences of violence against peacekeepers.

In this book a former Irish diplomat looks at British-Irish relations in the years leading up to Sunningdale, at the Conference itself and at some of the reasons why this initiative, born in hope, did not succeed. The book includes the author's own contemporaneous notes of the negotiations, which have not previously been published. At Sunningdale in December 1973, leaders of the two governments and of the unionist and nationalist communities reached a settlement aimed at bringing peace to Northern Ireland. The Irish government, for the first time, declared that there could be no change in the status of Northern Ireland until a majority of the people of the area desired it; the British government declared that if the majority indicated a wish to become part of a united Ireland they would support that wish; and all the participants agreed on new political institutions to promote cooperation and reconciliation within Northern Ireland and between both parts of the island. Sunningdale did not succeed in its immediate objective of achieving peace, and there were still difficulties at times in Anglo-Irish relations. But the precedent set for close cooperation between the two governments in relation to Northern Ireland, and many of the concepts developed at that time, were to prove of great importance to subsequent efforts to resolve the Northern Ireland conflict, up to and including the peace achieved under the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement of 1998.--