Northern Ireland: Coming out of conflict?
Despite the considerable academic attention paid to the causes of conflict, relatively little has been devoted to the factors that underlie its diminution. The possible explanations for such a diminution range from those pertaining to the individuals engaged in conflict, to those relating to shifts in the international system. The extent to which these latter global trends help to explain cessations of violence has probably been underestimated. Northern Ireland provides a valuable case‐study because it has always appeared to be one of the most insoluble of conflict situations. Although the ending of the Cold War has been advanced as a likely explanation for ceasefires in Northern Ireland, it is argued here that the separate process of Europeanisation has been the most constructive. This is not to ignore, however, factors indigenous to the conflict that have played at least an ancillary role in a continuing, but fragile, peace process.