Can the achievement of a peace agreement between two historically hostile groups in part of Europe give guidance about how to resolve conflict and enmity in the Middle East?
It’s a question some political observers have asked since the hostilities between pro-British Protestant unionists and pro-Irish Catholic nationalists in the North of Ireland were calmed by the Irish Peace Process. They think this blueprint can resolve problems of Israel’s relations with the Palestinians and its other Arab neighbors. One expert who agrees there are helpful lessons also cautions that the challenges, nevertheless, will prove difficult to overcome.
“In comparing the two situations, there are differences despite perceived similarities, but also important similarities despite perceived differences,” says Lord John Alderdice, whose expertise includes working with political conflict and terrorism not only in Ireland but in various other parts of the world, including the Middle East.
Alderdice will give today’s (Sept. 13) 2010 Josh Rosenthal Education Fund Lecture at 4 p.m. in Annenberg Auditorium at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. In his lecture, “If Ireland Can Find Peace, What Chance for Israel?” he will address the value as well as the limits of lessons learned from Ireland, and the problems of implementing them in the Middle East.
He is an appointed life member of the British House of Lords of the British Parliament at Westminster. Recently the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the House of Lords elected him as its new convener (chair) and in this position he provides an essential link between Liberal Democrat and Conservative peers in the Coalition, and Liberal Democrat Members of Parliament in the House of Commons.
The Irish Peace Process began with the negotiations for the Anglo-Irish Agreement in the early 1980s. Since later in that decade, Alderdice has played a role in developing and then negotiating in the inter-party and inter-governmental talks, which led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. He then became the first speaker of the new Northern Ireland power-sharing Assembly.
“In the end, dealing with these long-term intractable violent struggles is about building relationships, not just between individuals, but between peoples,” he says. “While peace has a very real price, failure to achieve it will have a terrible cost, and in the case of the Middle East not alone to those who live in the region.”
Alderdice will describe how many ingredients contributed to the peace process’ success, but central was the recognition that the process needed all stakeholders, including those who supported the use of politically motivated violence. Another crucial element in creating the process was recognizing that “one should not set up as pre-conditions those things which one wants as an outcome of the process,” he says.
The lecture is supported by the Ford School’s Josh Rosenthal Education Fund, which was created in memory of 1979 U-M graduate Josh Rosenthal, who died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The fund supports lectures, research and student internships that encourage public discussion and greater understanding of changes in the world since 9/11.
The Ford School’s International Policy Center is co-sponsoring the lecture.
