Decommissioning and paramilitary strategy in Northern Ireland: A problem compared

Journal of Strategic Studies

Volumn 23, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 77-106

  Schulze, Kirsten E ^a   Smith, M L R ^b,c  

^a LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS   (United Kingdom)

^b KING'S COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^c NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0034549496     PISSN: 01402390     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01402390008437813     Document Type: Article

References (112)

1. Statement by Senator George Mitchell, 'Concluding the Review of the Northern Ireland Peace Process', Northern Ireland Information Service (Northern Ireland Office) 18 Nov. 1999.
2. Statement by Peter Mandelson, 'Northern Ireland Assembly Suspended', Northern Ireland Information Service, 11 Feb. 1999.
3. Michael von Tangen Page, A Negative Peace? Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement, Studies in Global Security (London: Centre for Defence Studies 2000) p.1.
4. 'Implement the Agreement: We're Sick of British Rule and Unionist Vetoes', An Phoblacht/Republican News, 24 Feb. 2000.
5. Ibid.
6. Statement by Michael McGimpsey 'Sinn Féin/IRA Dishonouring the Agreement', Unionist Party Statement, 25 Feb. 2000.
7. Vincent Kearney, 'Breakaway Republicans Plan New Bomb Campaign', Sunday Times, 27 Feb. 2000.
8. Vincent Kearney, 'Battle Escalates as LVF Threatens UVF Leadership', Sunday Times, 27 Feb. 2000.
9. Joint statement of the governments, Sunday Times, 7 May 2000.
10. 'IRA Statement', BBC News Online, 6 May 2000.
11. Ibid.
12. See 'New Ground', The Times, 8 May 2000; Liam Clarke, 'Taking a Big Leap for a Safer Future', Sunday Times, 7 May 2000; Sean O'Callaghan, The IRA Are Beaten - Now Let's Move On', Daily Telegraph, 24 May 2000.
13. See 'New Ground', The Times, 8 May 2000; Liam Clarke, 'Taking a Big Leap for a Safer Future', Sunday Times, 7 May 2000; Sean O'Callaghan, The IRA Are Beaten - Now Let's Move On', Daily Telegraph, 24 May 2000.
14. See 'New Ground', The Times, 8 May 2000; Liam Clarke, 'Taking a Big Leap for a Safer Future', Sunday Times, 7 May 2000; Sean O'Callaghan, The IRA Are Beaten - Now Let's Move On', Daily Telegraph, 24 May 2000.
15. Quoted in 'Mixed Reactions to IRA Offer', BBC News Online, 6 May 2000.
16. John Battles, 'Unionists Divided over "Peace at their Fingertips"', Sunday Times, 7 May 2000.
17. Chris Ryder, The RUC: A Force Under Fire (London: Methuen 1987) pp.357-9.
18. Quoted in ibid, p.357.
19. Quoted in Eamon Mallie and David McKittrick, The Fight for Peace: The Inside Story of the Irish Peace Process (London: Mandarin 1997) p.62.
20. Sean Boyne, 'Arms and the IRA - What it Has, What it Wants, What it Can Afford to Decommission', Jane's Intelligence Review 12/4 (April 2000) p.16.
21. See ibid. p.16.
22. USA Today, 3 Sept. 1994.
23. Irish Independent, 11 Aug. 1994.
24. See The Sinn Féin/SDLP Talks (Dublin: Sinn Féin 1989).
25. Ulster Unionist Party Statement, 'UUP Assembly Team Condemns SF/IRA', 1 Feb. 2000.
26. Between January and March 1999 the pressure group Families Against Intimidation and Terror recorded 12 shootings and 24 beatings carried out by the IRA and 15 shootings and 48 beatings by loyalist groups. Cited in Jenny McCartney, 'Everything Has Changed, But Nothing Has Been Solved', Sunday Telegraph, 28 March 1999.
27. 'The Good Friday Agreement - A Contract Between Political Opponents', An Phoblact/Republican News, 15 April 1999.
28. 'Unionists Cannot Backslide on Good Friday Agreement', Sinn Fein Press Release, 18 April 1999.
29. 'Agreement Must be Implemented', Sinn Fein Press Release, 16 April 1999.
30. 'Implementing the Agreement', Sinn Féin Press Release, 16 April 1999.
31. 'Decommissioning', Ulster Unionist Party Statement, 29 March 1999.
32. 'Stand Firm - Protect the Integrity of the Agreement', Ulster Unionist Party Statement, 14 April 1999.
33. UUP Assembly Group Statement, 14 April 1999.
34. 'IRA Ends IICD Engagement', An Phoblacht/Republican News, 17 Feb. 2000.
35. Heinrich-W. Krumwiede, 'Regulierungsmöglichkeiten von Bürgerkriegen - Fragen und Hypothesen' in idem and Peter Waldman (eds.) Bürgerkriege: Folgen und Regulierungsmöglichkeiten (Baden-Baden: Nomos 1998).
36. Mats R. Berdal, Disarmament and Demobilization after Civil Wars: Arms, Soldiers, and the Termination of Conflicts, Adelphi Paper 303 (London: IISS/OUP 1996) p.73.
37. Joseph Maila, 'The Tai'f Accord: An Evaluation', in Deirdre Collings (ed.) Peace for Lebanon? From War to Reconstruction (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner 1994) p.36.
38. As-Saflr, 10 April 1991.
39. Volker Perthes, De r Libanon nach dein Bürgerkrieg: Von Tai'f zum gesellschaftlichen Konsens (Baden-Baden: Nomos 1994) pp.25-6. See also IISS, The Military Balance, 1991-92 (London: Brassey's 1991) p.111.
40. Volker Perthes, De r Libanon nach dein Bürgerkrieg: Von Tai'f zum gesellschaftlichen Konsens (Baden-Baden: Nomos 1994) pp.25-6. See also IISS, The Military Balance, 1991-92 (London: Brassey's 1991) p.111.
41. Elizabeth Picard, 'La Dissolution des Milices dans le Liban de l'Après Guerre', unpublished paper, p.4.
42. Perthes (note 37) p.27.
43. As-Safir, 17 May 1991 and Picard (note 38) p.15.
44. Terry Lynn Karl, 'El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution', Foreign Affairs 71/2 (Spring 1992) p.148.
45. Gerardo L. Munck, 'Beyond Electoralism in El Salvador: Conflict Resolution through Negotiated Compromise', Third World Quarterly 14/1 (1993) p.81.
46. Karl (note 41) p.148.
47. Munck (note 42) p.84.
48. Ibid. p.86.
49. Richard Synge, Mozambique: UN Peacekeeping in Action, 1992-94 (Washington DC: US Inst. of Peace Press 1997) p.17.
50. UNIDIR, Managing Arms in Peace Processes: Mozambique (NY and Geneva: UN Inst. for Disarmament Research 1996) p.56.
51. Ibid. p.65.
52. Synge (note 46) p.47.
53. UNIDIR (note 47) p.74.
54. Synge (note 46) p.63.
55. 'Final Report of the Chairman of the Ceasefire Commission', 3 Dec. 1994, p.13.
56. Synge (note 46) p.66.
57. UNIDIR (note 47) p.71.
58. Northern Ireland Office figures, March 2000.
59. Mitchell (note 1) and 'We Have a Basis for Peace', BBC News Online: UK: Northern Ireland, 19 Nov. 1999.
60. Liam Clarke and Vincent Kearney, 'IRA to Reveal Arms Dumps', Sunday Times, 7 May 2000.
61. See C.J. McInnes, 'The Decommissioning of Terrorist Weapons and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland', Contemporary Security Policy 18/3 (Dec. 1997) pp.83-103.
62. See Liam Clarke, 'IRA Keeps its Powder Dry for 'Nudge Factor"', Sunday Times, 17 Jan. 1999.
63. Quoted in 'The Green Book', reprinted in Tim Pat Coogan, The IRA (London: Fontana 1986) pp.679-80.
64. The exact words of the IRA's chief of staff, Frank Aiken, in his Suspension of Offensive Order, 27 April 1923 were: 'You will ensure that - whilst remaining on the defensive - all units take adequate measures to protect themselves and their munitions.' Reprinted in Arthur Mitchell and Padraig O Snodaigh (eds.) Irish Political Documents (Dublin: Irish Academic Press 1985) p.162.
65. Sean Brady, 'Decommissioning Row an Attempt to Sabotage Agreement', An Phoblact/Republican News, 24 Sept. 1998.
66. Sean McDougall, 'History's Finger on the Trigger', The Times, 9 Nov. 1998.
67. Address by Gerry Adams to Sinn Féin Party Conference, Dublin City University, 27 Feb. 2000.
68. M.L.R. Smith, Fighting for Ireland? The Military Strategy of the Irish Republican Movement (NY and London: Routledge 1995) p.215.
69. Michael von Tangen Page, 'Arms Decommissioning and the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement', Security Dialogue 29/4 (1998) p.411.
70. Kirsten E. Schulze and M.L.R. Smith, 'Getting Rid of Guns', The World Today 54/10 (Oct. 1998) p.262.
71. The only, tenuous, example of decommissioning it could be argued occurred when the original UVF in 1916 handed in arms at police stations for receipts in order to prevent the proliferation of conflict following the Easter Rising.
72. See Report of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, 31 Jan. 2000, sections 4 and 5.
73. Combined Loyalist Military Command Ceasefire Statement, 13 Oct. 1994.
74. Schulze and Smith (note 67) p.262.
75. See for example 'Adams Predicts United Ireland', BBC Online: UK: Northern Ireland, 14 Jan. 2000.
76. Smith (note 65) p.227.
77. M.L.R. Smith, 'A Still Distant Prospect: Processing the Peace in Northern Ireland', Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 21/3 (1998) p.365.
78. M.L.R. Smith, 'Peace in Ulster? A Warning from History', Jane's Intelligence Review 10/7 (July 1998) p.6.
79. Page, 'Arms Decomissioning' (note 66) pp. 412-3.
80. Brady (note 62).
81. Clarke (note 57).
82. See Sean Brady, 'Institutions Must be Reinstated', An Phoblacht/Republican, 24 Feb. 2000.
83. See Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict (NY: Oxford UP 1963) pp.187-92.
84. 'The IRA Response', An Phoblact/Republican News, 30 April 1998.
85. 'The Green Book' makes this explicit: 'The Irish Republican Army, as the legal representatives of the Irish people, are morally justified in carrying out a campaign of resistance against foreign occupation forces and domestic collaborators.' Cited in Coogan (note 60) p.680.
86. TUAS document, reprinted in Mallie and McKittrick (note 17) Appendix 3, p.422.
87. Ibid, p.421.
88. Ibid, pp.421-4.
89. Gerry Adams, Before the Dawn: An Autobiography (London: Mandarin 1997) p.82.
90. TUAS document, reprinted in Mallie and McKittrick (note 17) Appendix 3, p.423.
91. Henry Patterson, The Politics of Illusion: A Political History of the IRA (London: Serif 1997) p.285.
92. See Paul Bew and Gordon Gillespie, The Northern Ireland Peace Process, 1993-1996: A Chronology (London: Serif 1997) p.97.
93. Ed Moloney, 'IRA Defying 'Logic' on Decommissioning', Sunday Tribune, 30 Jan. 2000.
94. Schulze and Smith (note 67) p.262.
95. Quoted in 'Give Up IRA Guns or You're Out of Peace Deal', Reuters Report, 1 May 1998.
96. Peter Mandelson speech to British-Irish Parliamentary Body, Northern Ireland Information Office, 14 Feb. 2000.
97. Quoted in 'Blair Moves to Shore Up Support N. Irish Accord', Reuters Report, 14 May 1998.
98. Sean Brady, 'Peace Process Faces Major Crisis', An Phoblacht/Republican News, 15 Oct. 1998.
99. 'Trimble Must Decide', An Phoblacht/Republican News, 24 Sept. 1994.
100. Ibid.
101. Brady, 'Decommissioning an Attempt to Sabotage Agreement' (note 62).
102. Quoted in 'Decommissioning a Dead End Issue, Says Sinn Féin', Reuters Report, 25 May 1998.
103. Schulze and Smith (note 67) p.262.
104. Malachi O'Doherty, 'When Terrorists Talk', Sunday Times, 5 Oct. 1997.
105. Schulze and Smith (note 67) p.262.
106. Smith, 'Peace in Ulster?' (note 75) p.6.
107. Quoted in Liam Clarke, 'Hume Plea to IRA on Arms', Sunday Times, 20 Sept. 1998.
108. 'British to Blame for Crisis - IRA', An Phoblacht/Republican News, 17 Feb. 2000.
109. See for example interview with Gerry Adams in Magill, Aug. 1988.
110. See Ken Booth, Strategy and Ethnocentrism (London: Croom Helm 1979) pp.48-51 and Joseph L. Nogee and Robert H. Donaldson, Soviet Foreign Policy Since World War II (NY: Pergamon 1981) pp.235-92.
111. See Ken Booth, Strategy and Ethnocentrism (London: Croom Helm 1979) pp.48-51 and Joseph L. Nogee and Robert H. Donaldson, Soviet Foreign Policy Since World War II (NY: Pergamon 1981) pp.235-92.
112. Michael von Tangen Page, Prisons, Peace and Terrorism: Penal Policy in the Reduction of Political Violence in Northern Ireland, Italy and the Spanish Basque Country (London: Macmillan 1998)p.173