ABSTRACT
Introduction Ethnopolitical conflicts are traumatic because they leave damaging and potentially enduring psychological and cultural legacies, political and social inequality, a damaged infrastructure, deprivation, and economic ruin (Byrne 2009b; Wolff 2006). Efforts to rebuild societies after violence must occur at multiple levels and along multiple intervention tracks to prevent spoiler groups from using violence to destabilize and destroy nascent peace processes (Darby and MacGinty 2000). The economic motivations leading to the escalation of the ethnic violence and the links between economic assistance and peacebuilding, and economic recovery to restore peace have been comparatively neglected (Reychler and Paffenholz 2001; Väyrynen 1997). The international community uses economic aid as a critical component of any successful external intervention to tackle the key determinants of political violence such as economic deprivation, poverty, structural inequality, social and political exclusion, and injustice in the aftermath of political violence (Jeong 2005). Yet economic aid is not a panacea to resolve ethnopolitical conflicts; mere economic assistance for the sake of economic development might be futile (McCall and O’Dowd 2008). International economic assistance provided in the aftermath of protracted ethnopolitical conflicts may actually reinforce sectarian divisions, further escalating intergroup violence (O’Dowd and McCall 2008; Ryan 2007). Ethnic group leaders often describe the group’s economic interests as cultural or religious rights in order to mobilize ethnic groups to resist what it perceives as political, socioeconomic, and cultural marginalization (Brynen 2000). Comprehensive peacebuilding strategies do well to remedy past grievances by combining economic assistance with peacebuilding initiatives to begin the process toward peaceful reconciliation of ethnic conflict (Anderson 1999). The purpose of economic assistance in the post-Accord peacebuilding process is to provide resources to empower local grassroots communities to tackle economic inequality, promote intergroup contact, rebuild socioeconomic infrastructure, promote social inclusion, build capacities, and reduce the support for violence (Esman 1997). In addition, societies emerging from ethnic violence need to
restructure economic policies and encourage relationship building and group healing through a process of reconciliation (Carter et al. 2009; Lederach 2005). Cross-community joint venture projects encourage collaboration on superordinate economic goals, which can foster constructive interactions to build trust that strengthen shared identities in the process (Kaufman 2001; Senehi 2009b). Addressing the high levels of unemployment and economic marginalization within Republican and Loyalist working-class communities resonated with the U.S. view that sustainable economic development was a key peacebuilding mechanism to transform the Northern Ireland conflict (Cox et al. 2000). To this end, the IFI, the EU Peace and Reconciliation, or Peace I Fund (1995-99), the Peace II Fund (2000-04), the Peace II Extension (2005-06), and the Peace III Fund (2007-13) were organized by donor countries to promote sustainable socioeconomic development and peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. The EU Peace II Fund “carries forward the distinctive aspects of the EU Special Support Program for Peace and Reconciliation (1995-99) (Program for Peace and Reconciliation or Peace I Community Initiative) with a new economic focus” (PEACE Program 2008). The 2004 IFI Annual Report states, “the objectives of IFI are to promote economic and social advance; and to encourage contact, dialogue and reconciliation between nationalists and unionists throughout Ireland” (IFI 2004: 5). Economic grants from the IFI “were directed to disadvantaged areas, business enterprise, rural development, wider horizons (cross-community contact through development programs), community relations, science and technology, tourism, and urban development” (IFI 2004: 5). This chapter explores the images of 98 participants regarding the impact of international economic assistance on the Northern Ireland conflict, with specific reference to the IFI and the EU Peace II Fund. The chapter explores images of (1) peacebuilding, and (2) reconciliation.
