International Intervention, Identity and Conflict Transformation ─ Bridges and walls between groups

This book addresses the challenges of international intervention in violent conflicts and its unintended impact on groups in conflict.

Arguing that group identity is malleable, the work discusses the role of the international community in the reification or the transformation of group identities.When intervening in a violent internal conflict, intervening powers may harden divisions, constructing walls between groups.Alternatively, while intervening in a violent conflict, the international community may foster transformation, or soften barriers and build bridges between conflicting groups. The book examines the impact of types of external intervention processes and strategies on the salience of conflicting group identities.

The first part examines different types of external processes, including united, divided, neutral and partisan, and their respective contributions to softening or hardening divisions between conflicting groups. How does united versus divided external intervention impact on group identity? What are the key variables that determine whether external intervention process is neutral or partisan? The book also analyses types of conflict resolution strategies, including integration, accommodation and partitioning. Under what conditions does the international community decide to pursue a particular strategy? Do the different strategies contribute to solidification or transformation of group identities? Intended or not, external process and strategies have a short- and a long-term impact on the salience of group identities.

In the second part of the book, three case studies shed light on how different types of external interventions impacted on the identities of the conflicting groups. Elaborating on external interventions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Northern Ireland and Israel-Palestine, the author examines the nature of external processes and strategies which contributed to the freezing, transforming and hardening the conflicting group identities in the respective conflicts. The main concern of the volume is how states and international organizations ought to intervene in order to stimulate the building of bridges rather than walls between conflicting groups. The book sheds light on some of the pitfalls in international interventions and highlights the importance of united external process which promotes transformation through inclusive strategies that bridge differences between conflicting groups.

This book will be of much interest to students of intervention, peace and conflict studies, ethnic conflict, security studies and IR.