Suchergebnisse

This article draws on the recent academic literature on territoriality and power to analyse territorial strategies for the maintenance of public order in the north of Ireland. It argues that these strategies were shaped decisively by the distinctive relationship between the informal internal ethnonational boundaries that were a central focus of Frank Wright's work and the external boundary of the Northern Ireland state. As a consequence, the 'internal' issue of policing was immediately and inextricably bound up with the outer boundary of the state, even at the level of everyday policing practices. It traces the way in which the state in Northern Ireland adopted particular territorial strategies to secure the external border and adapt to internal territorial unevenness from the outset. It argues that order was necessarily maintained through a limited recognition of the distinctive ethnonational character of particular areas within the state, and by distinctive territorial strategies for the maintenance of order in such areas. Internal unevenness in sovereign control strictly limited the possibilities for internal territorial homogenisation and hindered the related naturalisation of the external boundary and the state itself. Adapted from the source document.

This article examines the development of cooperative relationships in back-channel communication and their impact on intraparty negotiation. It draws on extensive newly available evidence on back-channel communication in the Irish peace process to expand the range of detailed case studies on a topic which is shrouded in secrecy and resistant to academic inquiry. The article analyses the operation of a secret back channel that linked the Irish Republican Army to the British government over a period of 20 years, drawing on unique material from the private papers of the intermediary, Brendan Duddy, and a range of other primary sources. The article finds that interaction through this back channel increased predictability and laid a foundation of extremely limited trust by providing information and increasing mutual understanding. Strong cooperative relationships developed at the intersection between the two sides, based to a great extent on strong interpersonal relationships and continuity in personnel. This in turn produced direct pressure for changes in the position of parties as negotiators acted as advocates of movement in intraparty negotiations. The article finds that this back channel was characterized by a short chain, the direct involvement of principals and the establishment of a single primary channel of communication and that these features combined with secrecy to generate the distinctive cooperative dynamics identified in this article. It concludes that the potential for the development of cooperative relationships is particularly strong in back-channel negotiation for two reasons; first, the joint project of secrecy creates an ongoing shared task that builds trust and mutual understanding regardless of progress in the negotiations. Secondly, as a shared project based on the explicit aim of bypassing spoilers, the process creates structural pressures for cooperation to manage internal opponents on both sides, pressures intensified by the secrecy of the process.

This article assesses how the concept of territoriality can expand our understanding of the relationship between space and political mobilization. While the spatial aspects of social movement mobilization have received increased attention over the last decade, the specifically territorial aspects of mobilization remain undertheorized. This article elaborates on Sack's (1986) characterization of territoriality as a means to exert power by delimiting area. We analyze territoriality's role in the civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland through the late 1960s. The empirical analysis indicates that significant campaign power was rooted in the territorial boundaries and contexts that were deployed in the course of mobilization. Our intent in introducing the concept of territoriality is threefold: first, to help explain how mobilization is interwoven, through agency, with local context; second, to emphasize the utility of spatial concepts in the social movement literature; and third, to broaden the comparative range of case studies in the field of collective action by considering societies where boundaries are actively contested (weakly "naturalized"). We conclude with a discussion of how the concept of territoriality enhances a new reading of our empirical case and an analysis of the study's theoretical implications for our understanding of the relationship between mobilization and boundaries. Adapted from the source document.