The Foreign Service Journal, September 2007

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53 orn by sectarian conflict for many years, Northern Ireland at last is man- aging to put old hatreds and paramili- tary violence aside. Recent elections confirmed the primacy of political parties prepared to give peace a chance, allowing participation in governance by both of the province’s main communities. On May 8, responsibility for self-government was devolved from Westminster to an assembly in Belfast (Stormont) jointly headed by the Democratic Unionist Party’s Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuiness. Given the fact that over the last 40 years more than 3,600 people have died as a result of the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, it is heartwarming to see these two longtime adversaries now working together for the common good. I have spent nearly 10 years in Belfast and Dublin as the American member of an international commission created to help put paramilitary arms beyond use, so I’ve had a good deal of time to think about lessons that might be drawn from the Northern Ireland experience. What follows are some personal views about principles that might well be taken into account when thinking about how to bring an ethnic or sectarian conflict to an end. It seems to me that serious negotiations only became possible about 12 years ago, when the British government moved from a long-term strategic focus on security — which frequently led to actions that were provocative and counterproductive — to a discussion of legitimate griev- ances. These talks eventually produced agreement on a more equal application of the rule of law, a structure for power-sharing within the provincial government and, over time, reforms of institutions and practices that were seen by one side or the other as discriminatory. A political basis for further progress came in 1998 when the British and Irish governments and the political parties representing both communities in Northern Ireland con- cluded the Good Friday Agreement — as Nationalists, usu- ally Catholic, refer to it — or the Belfast Agreement — as Unionists, usually Protestant, call it. (Unionists are deter- mined to maintain Northern Ireland’s link to the United Kingdom, while Nationalists seek the eventual reunification of the six counties that form the U.K. province of Ulster with the 26 counties that make up the Republic of Ireland.) This pact outlined a power-sharing political structure to L ESSONS FROM N ORTHERN I RELAND ’ S P EACE P ROCESS T HE RECENT BREAKTHROUGH IN THE TROUBLED REGION COULD BE A MODEL FOR EASING OTHER SECTARIAN CONFLICTS . T B Y A NDREW S ENS Andrew Sens, a Foreign Service officer from 1966 to 1997, served in Uganda, France, Norway, Iran, Pakistan, Argen- tina and Washington, D.C. His last assignment was as exec- utive secretary to the National Security Council. Since retir- ing from the Service, he has served as the American member of the Independent International Commission on Decom- missioning, set up by the British and Irish governments in 1997 in Belfast and Dublin to facilitate the disposal of para- military arms from both sides of the Northern Ireland con- flict. He also lectures and consults.