Northern Ireland: 20 Years After the Cease-Fires

In the closing months of 1994, the principal paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland declared that their campaigns of violence were at an end. The cease-fires called by republican and loyalist groupings represented the most significant heralds of a complex process of conflict transformation that continues to unfold even twenty years on. In this introduction, we set out to map the key developments that have shaped the tortuous narrative of the Northern Irish ‘peace process’, thereby providing the historical backdrop for the articles that follow. While remarkable progress has been made over the two decades since the paramilitary cease-fires, the political context and future of the region remain rather more fraught than is often assumed abroad. It is perhaps best, then, to speak of the six counties in terms not of resolution but rather of ambiguity. Twenty years on from the optimism that greeted the paramilitary cease-fires, Northern Ireland retains the essential ‘inbetweenness’ of a political space that has moved from a ‘long war’ through a ‘long peace’ and into a profoundly undecided future.     

Rentier fiscal crisis and regime stability: Business-state relations in the Gulf

Are sectorally dependent states destined to regime instability as a result of chornic fiscal crisis? Literature emphasizing the importance of a country’s sectoral endowment suggests that oil exporters in particular should exhibit similar policy stagnation and regime decay as a result of fiscal crisis. The cases of Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain in the 1980s and 1990s demonstrate that fiscal crisis outcomes are not uniform. This article develops the critique that structuralist assumptions about what drives business-state relations during crisis are flawed. Abstract logics typing exogenous price sifts to the character of business-state interaction neglect the historical and instituional grounding of those relations. It is variation in the historical and institutional crafting of business-state relations that best explains how these relations shape reform under crisis and how regime stability is affected.     

Forward to the Past? Loyalist Paramilitarism in Northern Ireland Since 1994

This article considers in detail loyalist paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland since the paramilitary cease-fires of 1994. The continuing nature of contemporary loyalist violence is documented with reference to sectarian attacks against members of the “Other”/Catholic community and associated symbols of that community, violence directed at other loyalists, and the potential for future violence given constitutional uncertainty regarding Northern Ireland's position within the United Kingdom. The article also challenges assumptions within the broader literature of an inability within loyalist paramilitary groups to move beyond violence in the post-cease-fire period with particular reference to their conflict transformation efforts.     

Military Experience,Identity Discrepancies,and Far Right Terrorism: An Exploratory Analysis

The relationship between far right extremism and military involvement is a complex problem and the dynamics that explain this relationship are not well understood. The present article addresses this gap by discussing the relationship between military experience, identity discrepancies, and far right terrorism. This article proposes that identity discrepancies occur when individuals experience involuntary role exits from the military or when individuals perceive that personal achievements earned while enlisted are unrecognized or unappreciated. Identity discrepancies may facilitate a change in behavior toward far right extremism and eventually terrorism. Case study examples are provided to illustrate this relationship.     

Researching Environmental Crime in Non-democratic Regimes

This article describes how one might study environmental crime in non-democratic regimes. Environmental crimes and harms are committed in both democratic and non-democratic regimes, yet in non-democratic regimes, researchers face unique methodological challenges (e.g., threats to physical integrity). Despite these challenges, studying environmental crime in autocratic regimes is a worthwhile endeavor for both students and scholars of autocratic regimes and environmental crime, as well as the overlap thereof. First, such inquiries illuminate how environmental crime provides autocratic leaders with the resources to cement their power. Second, studying environmental crime in autocratic settings encourages a reconceptualization of the meaning of environmental crime. Namely, environmental crime in autocratic regimes does not start at the law implementation stage, but already at the law-making stage. In this article, we summarize and reflect on our work on environmental crime in the Armenian mining industry (Stefes and Theodoratos in Fighting environmental crime in Europe and Abroad: the role of the EU and its member states, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2016). Much of this work relied on interviews conducted with journalists, NGO representatives, and foreign diplomats familiar with the situation in the Armenian mining sector. As we present our findings, we highlight the challenges that researchers face when tracing the institutions, actors, and their networks that facilitate environmental crime. We conclude with some practical advice for researchers who want to study environmental crime under such autocratic conditions.