Politique comparée

B14(b) - Roundtable: 20 Years After the Good Friday Agreement: Uncertain Political Futures in Northern Ireland and Beyond

Date: May 31 | Heure: 03:45pm to 05:15pm | Location: Classroom - CL 434 Room ID:15726

Chair/Président/Présidente : Allison McCulloch (Brandon University)

20 Years After the Good Friday Agreement: Uncertain Political Futures in Northern Ireland and Beyond:

Siobhan Byrne (University of Alberta)
Joanne Wright (University of New Brunswick)
Sean Byrne (University of Manitoba)
Rebecca Graff-McRae (Parkland Institute, University of Alberta)

Abstract: April 2018 marks the 20-year anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in Northern Ireland, which ended the protracted and bloody 30-year conflict known as the Troubles and ushered in a period of ostensible peace and stability amongst British Unionist and Irish Nationalist communities. The “Northern Ireland model” of institutional design, and post-conflict peacebuilding is popularly applied to conflicts around the world by both scholars and practitioners. And yet, Northern Ireland faces an uncertain political future: the collapse of the power-sharing executive in January 2017, uncertainty over the impacts of the 2016 Brexit vote, and poor human rights and equality protections, particularly around women’s health and sexuality, has left communities divided over the best way to move toward a shared peace. This roundtable brings together experts on the Northern Ireland case to assess the legacy of the Good Friday Agreement. We will examine the future of the Northern Ireland power-sharing model; the curtailment of feminist activism and persistent division over reproductive rights and access to abortion; the role of external intervention and funding; and struggles over memory and memorialization projects in the post-Agreement period. This panel will contribute to a number of political science subfields such as the comparative politics of institutional design; gender and security in international relations; peace and post-conflict studies; and the growing interdisciplinary field of memory and memorialization. The GFA’s 20th anniversary serves as an opportunity to reflect on the legacy of the Agreement and to extract the lessons for peacebuilding in Northern Ireland and beyond.