Breaking Patterns of Conflict in Northern Ireland: New Perspectives

This volume focuses on the changes in the state frameworks, laws and practices that ac-companied, facilitated and encouraged the process of settlement which led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and the later transformation of institutions and political relations in Northern Ireland and also on these islands. It explores the interrelations of different levels of state and institutional change. These range from the broadest concepts of sovereignty and ideology, through elite political assumptions and strategies, through inter-state coordination practices, to the actual impact of large changes on particular institutions and laws – the impact in such areas as the new British-Irish institutional architecture, and new legal norms, such as those governing broadcasting. In this introductory article, we review the broad field that the special issue addresses, we indicate how it is tackled in the articles that follow, and we discuss the data sources that are available to support this analysis.