Performing the Northern Ireland Peace Process offers a nuanced and stimulating analysis which
goes beyond standard explanations by exploring the motives and means used by those who made
peace in Northern Ireland. (Professor Timothy White Xavier University USA)Paul Dixon has
produced an impressive and challenging book. Dixon defends the Northern Ireland peace process
as a carefully-crafted drawn-out episode in realist pragmatic politics. However he pulls few
punches in highlighting the moral deceptions which have kept the process in play. Provocatively
Dixon also challenges a wide range of academic interpretations of the processes and their
associated political prescriptions. Thoughtful and well-researched throughout Performing the
Northern Ireland Peace Process is an essential read for anyone interested in conflict
management. (Professor Jon Tonge University of Liverpool)In this outstanding book Dixon shows
yet again the importance of the theatrical metaphorfor Northern Ireland. More importantly still
he demonstrates that the adoption of a critically realist outlook actually enhances our
capacity to think creatively about the political choices we face in international politics and
the alternative policies and institutions we might construct. (Professor Adrian Little The
University of Melbourne)This book is exceptional in defending the 'dirty politics' of the
Northern Ireland peace process. Political actors in Britain Ireland and the United States
performed the peace process and used 'political skills' often including deception and
hypocrisy in order to wind down the conflict and achieve accommodation. These political skills
it is argued are often morally justifiable even as they are popularly condemned. The Northern
Ireland peace process has been highly successful in reducing violence and an accurate
understanding of its politics is an important contribution to international debates about
managing conflict.
