The politics of conflict and transformation: the island of Ireland in comparative perspective

Abstract

This volume arises out of a conference celebrating the work of Jennifer Todd, Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin. Todd has been one of the leading scholars of her generation, producing ground-breaking theoretical, empirical, and comparative work on conflict, identity, ethnicity, borders, and conflict transformation. This volume is timely not only because it provides a focal point to mark the ongoing contributions of one of the island’s pioneering scholars, but also because it provides critical analysis at a key juncture in the history of conflict and transformation on the island. The 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in 2018 has prompted a period of reflection on the achievements and the shortcomings of the peace process. This issue provides new insights on how the politics of the peace process have unfolded over time. At the same time, the June 2016 referendum in the UK, which resulted in a decision to leave the EU, comes to fruition when the UK leaves in January 2021, a process dubbed as ‘Brexit’. Brexit threatens to destabilise the peace process, raising new questions about the Irish border, and challenging relationships within Northern Ireland, between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and between the Republic and the UK. The diverse disciplinary backgrounds and research topics of the contributors to this volume testify to the continuing relevance of Todd’s scholarship across the broad sweep of the social sciences, including history, politics and political theory, social psychology, social anthropology, and sociology. One of the hallmarks of Todd’s work has been a refusal to accept narrow understandings of politics: she conceives of the discipline broadly, and in the process has enriched our knowledge of how politics is conducted at the highest levels of the state, as well as our understanding of how political, ethnic, social and religious identities are constructed at the grassroots. Todd also has resisted an exclusive focus on the island of Ireland, consistently using international comparisons in her work and, over the years, editing numerous publications in