Civil Society, Entrepreneurship, & Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland

• In Event: Building and Breaking Peace

Abstract

International efforts to end protracted conflicts have included sustained investments in combatants' disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR). Nevertheless, there is limited information known surrounding the factors that account for successful reintegration at the microlevel. Additionally, it is unclear how such programs adapt to the process of conflict prevention and peacebuilding in at risk communities. We consider how state programs and civil society initiatives foster entrepreneurship and economic independence among ex-prisoners, leading to peaceful coexistence in a community. Examining the reintegration of Northern Ireland’s ex-prisioners offers a case study for understanding how veterans use various state- and civil society-based tools to return to civilian life. The case also shows how such programs, when adopted alongside political changes, can help to prevent conflict resurgence. Our theoretical argument builds on recent evidence that peacebuilding is a grassroots process (Autesserre 2021) and national prosperity is often linked with grass-roots, bottom-up innovation (Christensen, Ojomo, and Dillion 2019), as well as a growing literature on the relationship between the private sector and peace (Melin 2021). We present new data on ex-prisoner entrepreneurship projects and examine their relationship to local peace and violence. We examine local level criminal data and show that criminality is much less likely when ex-prisoners engage in training programs that enable their economic independence. The results suggest there is an important role for small, local business in building stronger national institutions and peaceful political dialogue.

Authors

• Dale Pankhurst, Queen's University Belfast

• Santiago Sosa, Universidad EAFIT

• Molly M. Melin, Loyola University Chicago