A critical analysis of conflict resolution through peace agreements based on the power-sharing model

Abstract

The last four decades have seen a reconceptualization of the term’s “peace”, “conflict” and “security”, as different forms of conflict have emerged, particularly since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990’s. These reconceptualization’s have brought about different studies, which have offered new forms of concept resolution tools and models aimed at assisting societies to end conflicts and achieve peace. The concept of power-sharing has two different models: centripetal and consociational respectively, both of which aim to establish conditions that enable the resolution of conflicts and the institution of peace in societies which are ethnically divided. ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland is a very strong example of both the benefits and limitations of using a power-sharing model to establish and maintain peace in society. This work aims to investigate and analyse this conflict, with a view to explaining how the conflict emerged and endured over the course of more than thirty years; and how it eventually reached a point where a power-sharing model could be instituted, and lasting peace achieved, in a society which endured significant violence and trauma which is still remembered to this day.