Conflict Regulation or Conflict Resolution: Third-Party Intervention in the Northern Ireland Conflict - Prospects for Peace

This article evaluates previous third-party efforts to broker a consociational power-sharing solution on the peoples of Northern Ireland. Instead, an original and dynamic community-based problem-solving linkage system proposes cooperation between Northern Ireland's grassroots constituents, paramilitary groups and political elites. The process would be facilitated by a quasi-mediator comprising the three Northern Irish Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and four MEPs - two each from the Netherlands and Belgium. This is a vision of how to create a mutually beneficial process linking psychocultural and structural dimensions by promoting dialogue, understanding, tolerance and the sharing of commonalities in beliefs, identity, and behaviors among groups involved in intercommunal conflict situations.