How can scholars develop better co-operation between competing theoretical approaches to conflict management? This study analyses real peacemaking strategies in Northern Ireland from 1969 to the present, including case-studies of the Brooke Initiative political talks and the Community Relations Council. In the light of this wealth of practical evidence, the theoretical debate is re-examined in order to develop a flexible and more inductive model of complementarity which can enable the best elements of all theoretical approaches to conflict management.

In 1991 the politicians of Northern Ireland sat down at the formal negotiating table for the first time in seventeen years. This book tells the fascinating story of the Initiative's three years of painstaking political deals in an enlightening and entertaining narrative, using the words of many of the participants. It shows how the Initiative laid the necessary groundwork for the subsequent Irish peace process and how its failures also illuminate current events.

This is the first published study of the political negotiations in Ireland in 1992. Based on interviews with many of the participants and on unprecedented access to the confidential talks documents, it documents in lively and readable fashion the important events in this early but crucial stage of the Irish peace process, highlighting the significance of these early talks as a vital precursor to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. It will appeal to analysts, academics, politicians, students, and more broadly to all those interest in Irish political affairs.