Suchergebnisse

This article discusses the potential of a fictional story, a novel, to challenge political narratives in a divided society. I will analyse three novels set during the "Troubles" (1960s-1998) in Northern Ireland, looking at the ways in which each novel navigates the narrow space between Northern Irish unionism and nationalism, the two dominant narratives in Northern Ireland. I will read the novels politically, interpreting them as rhetorical narratives holding the power to challenge commonplace assumptions. I will apply the ideas put forward by James Phelan concerning the inherent rhetorical nature of narrative in fiction. I will also present Ann Rigney's concept of cultural memory as an analytical tool for analysing the way in which memory and history have been politicised and how the material analysed offers a critique of that politicisation. I will contextualise the novels in the political, cultural and historiographic debates and political transformations in Northern Ireland. The article concludes that the three novels all seek to challenge and question the political narratives of Northern Ireland profoundly. They engage in a rhetorical act through which commonplace assumptions about the political conflict in Northern Ireland, its premises and its solutions, are presented in a new and challenging way.

This article applies a method of conceptual analysis to understand peace processes in a divided society. Through the analysis of the concept of parity of esteem, this article examines some neglected dimensions of conflict studies, including politicizations, contestations and politicking involving key concepts in peace processes and conflict resolution. The analysis focuses specifically on politics in Northern Ireland, but it also seeks to inform a more general understanding of the dynamics of peace processes and conflict reconciliation.

Jyrki Ruohomäen väitöskirja käsittelee kysymyksiä tutkijan ja tutkimuksen poliittisuudesta sekä kysyy voiko tutkimuksella politikoida. Pohjois-Irlannin unionismiin poliittisesti sitoutuneiden yhteiskuntatieteilijöiden ja tutkijoiden argumentointia analysoiva väitöskirja tarkastelee esimerkiksi sitä, miten tutkija voi tietyissä tilanteissa toimia poliitikon kaltaisesti sekä sitä, miten politiikan teoriaa voidaan käyttää materiaalina päivänpoliittisessa argumentoinnissa. Ruohomäki tarkastelee Pohjois-Irlannin rauhanprosessissa keskeistä ajanjaksoa, joka päättyi Belfastin rauhansopimukseen vuonna 1998.Väitöskirjan aineisto muodostuu tutkimuksista tai tutkijoiden teksteistä, joista löytyy tieteellisen sisällön lisäksi myös päivänpoliittista kantaaottavuutta. Ruohomäen mukaan tutkijalta ja poliitikolta vaaditaan usein samankaltaisia ominaisuuksia, ja väitöskirja osoittaakin, että tiede ja politiikka voidaan toiminnalliselta logiikaltaan nähdä pitkälti toistensa kaltaisina.Pohjois-Irlannin unionismi ja irlantilainen nationalismi politisoivat helposti lähes kaikki Pohjois-Irlannissa käytävät keskustelut. Siitä huolimatta usein oletetaan, että Pohjois-Irlannin politiikantutkimus on, tai että sen tulisi olla, näistä konflikteista riippumatonta. Tämä johtuu osaltaan tieteellisen objektivismin oppikirjamääritelmän kritiikittömästä hyväksymisestä, eli käsityksestä, jonka mukaan tutkijan ja tutkimuksen täytyisi pysytellä poliittisten ristiriitojen yläpuolella eikä tutkija saisi tehdä tutkimustaan poliittisesti sitoutuneena. Ruohomäen tutkimus kuitenkin tarjoaa toisenlaisen näkökulman, jonka mukaan tutkijan poliittista sitoutumista voidaan tarkastella samanlaisena tutkimuksellisena perspektiivivalintana kuin tutkimuksen metodin tai materiaalin valintaa.- Politiikan teoriaa käytetään Pohjois-Irlannin päivänpoliittisissa debateissa korostettaessa unionismin maallista ja modernia luonnetta, silloin kun unionismia halutaan verrata vanhanaikaisena ja ulossulkevana esitettyyn irlantilaisen nationalismiin, Ruohomäki toteaa.Kyse on Ruohomäen mukaan ennen kaikkea retorisesta konstruktiosta, jossa politiikan teoria, esimerkiksi klassinen liberalismi, tarjoaa aineistoa päivänpoliittisesti sitoutuneen argumentaation rakentamiseen. Tätä retorista strategiaa eivät Pohjois-Irlannissa käytä ainoastaan poliittisesti sitoutuneet tutkijat, vaan myös teoriaa taitavat puoluepoliitikot. Ruohomäen mukaan muuttuneesta retoriikasta huolimatta maallistuneenkin unionismin kanta Pohjois-Irlannin konfliktin peruskysymykseen, eli Pohjois-Irlannin perustuslailliseen asemaan osana Britanniaa, säilyi muuttumattomana. Tämä havainto selittää myös sitä, miksi Pohjois-Irlannin poliittiset vaikeudet eivät loppuneet Belfastin rauhansopimuksen allekirjoittamiseen.- Poliittiset jakolinjat pysyivät todellisuudessa syvinä, vaikka vastakkainasettelua ei enää esitetty yhtä voimakkaasti esimerkiksi uskonnon kautta, Ruohomäki toteaa. ; This thesis starts with the problem of the role of the academics, scholars and intellectuals in Northern Ireland: What is the role of an academic, as a representative of a non-partisan or politically non-committed science in Northern Ireland, in which the political division between the mutually hostile political ideas of Ulster unionism and Northern Ireland nationalism literally penetrate almost all areas and discussions in the society? My thesis is that this political separation into two main agendas also must be reflected in the study of the Northern Ireland conflict, and secondly that the scholars themselves must also have a political aspect present in their activities as scientists. The analysis is limited to the role of the scholars and intellectuals in Northern Ireland unionism, and the same phenomena in reference to Irish nationalism is only briefly touched. By science this study refers namely to social and humanist sciences.As a theoretical framework I use predominately Max Weber and his ideas of the differences and similarities that science and politics and a scientist and a politician have. Weber is also read through the interpretations presented particularly by Kari Palonen. I will also link this study to a wider debate on intellectuals. The primary material that has been analysed consists of texts produced by scholars and intellectuals, such as textbooks and articles, but also a more combatant, as politically more committed material by the same people, such as manifestoes and other non-academic writings. The method of the study is textual analysis, manifested in the application of a reading strategy which searches for the political in a text that is often written as apolitical.The time frame of the study goes from the early 1970's and the start of the Northern Ireland "troubles" to the Belfast Agreement of 1998. The main interest is, however, concentrated on the 1985-1998 era.

The objective of this brief is to analyse the contribution that the 2013-2014 EU CSDP mission EUBAM Libya made to the overall security situation and border management in Libya. Given this objective, the following question is raised: Why did the EU Border Assistance Mission fail, and could anything have been done differently?

This brief synthesises the IECEU project's most essential findings on the effectiveness of European Union (EU) missions in four Africa countries: Libya, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR). It describes the main elements and impact of the EU missions in these countries, identifies key strategic and operational shortfalls and offers recommendations on how the EU can improve its effectiveness in future conflict prevention and crisis management missions. The EU missions investigated differ in scale, length, objective, budget, priority and context. However, the EU missions presented in this brief share the main characteristic that they have all been deployed under the union's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)2 with the explicit intent of improving the overall security situation and addressing conflicts in Africa. This brief will start by providing a short overview of each case, describing the conflict(s), security situation, mission objectives and obstacles. In this way, it compares the overall effectiveness of EU operational conflict prevention across the four African countries and discusses what lessons can be learned from them. The brief does not include all factors needed to answer thisquestion, but highlights the IECEU project's most significant findings in these cases.