The author considers the situation prevailing in post-conflict societies, basing her reflections on the assumption that a key element of the peace process should be the formation (even if incomplete) of a model of group identity. As an example, she references the ethnic identities of the two main actors in the Northern Ireland conflict: the Irish Catholics and the Ulster Protestants. The decades of conflict in Ulster caused the emergence of an ethnic group identity that was defined as being “war-related,” and was oriented toward confrontation with the “enemy” and defense of the group’s rights. The author analyzes examples of creating common actions, initiated both from below and from the top down (the “shared future” policy), paying attention to the potential changes in ethnic attitudes and identities, in order to verify her assumptions.
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