ABSTRACT
The aim of this book is to explore what lessons can be drawn from the Northern Ireland conflict in terms of combating terrorism. The implication is that internationally applicable counter-terrorism lessons can be drawn from Northern Ireland and terrorism successfully combated. This immediately raises the old problem of defining terrorism, which will be addressed later since it has important implications for successful counter-tactics. Further, it also raises questions as to what exactly underpins the conflict in Northern Ireland, hence a whole chapter is devoted to that alone. Questions of both terrorism and the nature and causes of the Northern Ireland conflict are legitimate, since they go to the heart of what kind of strategy and tactics are relevant in combating terrorism and thus how transferable lessons are. Indeed, one criticism of the state in Northern Ireland has been its lack of ability to clearly define the core problem it confronted, e.g. was it dealing with religious conflict or ethnic/national conflict? An internal UK conflict or an inter-Irish one? Answers to these questions have serious implications for tactics and strategy both in the political and security force spheres.
