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Abstract
The present book uses Sri Lanka’s failed attempt at negotiating peace with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, to examine the politics of state and market reforms towards liberal peace. Sri Lanka is seen as a critical case that demonstrates key characteristics and shortcomings of liberal peace, vividly demonstrated by internationally facilitated elite negotiations and donor-funded neoliberal development.
‘‘Liberal Peace in Question’ addresses critically, exhaustively, and in-depth [the] consequences and implications [of the liberal peace model in Sri Lanka], highlighting the importance of undertaking a critical evaluation of what went wrong in a process that raised such high expectations and ended in such a dramatic way. […] This book constitutes an important contribution to this much-needed debate.’ —María Villellas Ariño, Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre Book Review
The present book examines the internationally facilitated peace process between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in order to provide critical insights on contemporary attempts at crafting liberal peace in intrastate conflicts. The general argument is for a broadened political perspective on conflict resolution, extending the focus from the narrow confines of formal peace negotiations and elitist crafting of liberal peace, to the contextual politics of state reforms for group rights and power-sharing and the associated politics of economic reforms for neoliberal development. In examining the contextual politics of state and market reforms in Sri Lanka, the book highlight the tensions between liberal peace and Sinhalese and Tamil nationalisms, demonstrated in the contestations over political exclusion vs. inclusion in peace negotiations, individual human rights vs. group rights, territorial power sharing vs. state sovereignty and neoliberal development vs. social welfare.
'A valuable edited volume on a paradigm for peace making which will both inform and enrich academic and policy level debate on the subject, and the particular challenge Sri Lanka now faces of moving from a post-war to a post-conflict situation.' —Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Sri Lanka
'The essays in this book deserve a wide readership. Together they provide an illuminating examination of the failure of international attempts to craft a liberal peace in Sri Lanka, in the context of analyses of the impacts of neo-liberalism on Sri Lanka’s polity, economy and society. Their findings are certainly not happy ones, but they are of great importance for all those who are concerned with peace-building, both in general and in Sri Lanka in particular.' —John Harriss, Professor and Director, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Kristian Stokke is professor of human geography at the University of Oslo (Norway), specialising in movement politics, democratisation and conflict transformation.
Jayadeva Uyangoda is professor of political science at the University of Colombo (Sri Lanka) and an acknowledged authority on conflicts in Sri Lanka and South Asia.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Matter\r | i | ||
| Half Title\r | i | ||
| Title\r | iii | ||
| Copyright\r | iv | ||
| Contents\r | v | ||
| List of Illustrations\r | vii | ||
| List of Contributors\r | ix | ||
| Chapter 1 \rLIBERAL PEACE IN QUESTION: THE SRI LANKAN CASE | 1 | ||
| The Making of Intrastate Conflict in Sri Lanka\r | 3 | ||
| Institutionalisation of Liberal Democracy (1948–1956)\r | 6 | ||
| Ethnonationalist Political Incorporation (1956–1970)\r | 7 | ||
| Constitutionalisation of Sinhalese Majoritarianism (1970–1977)\r | 10 | ||
| Political Centralisation and Militarisation of Ethnonationalisms\r | 12 | ||
| Global Framing of Intrastate Conflict and Liberal Peace\r | 17 | ||
| Peace, Development and Security after the Cold War\r | 19 | ||
| The Politics of State and Market Reforms in Sri Lanka\r | 23 | ||
| Contextual Politics of Peace and Development in Sri Lanka\r | 27 | ||
| Peace: From Exclusion to Inclusion\r | 32 | ||
| Chapter 2 \rTRAVAILS OF STATE REFORM IN THE CONTEXT OF PROTRACTED CIVIL WAR IN SRI LANKA | 35 | ||
| Introduction\r | 35 | ||
| Backdrop: Necessity and Impossibility of State Reform\r | 37 | ||
| State Reform from Above\r | 41 | ||
| State Reform: The Question of Agency\r | 43 | ||
| The Myth of ‘Local Ownership’ of Peace\r | 46 | ||
| From ‘Peace Trap’ to ‘War Trap’\r | 48 | ||
| Shifts in the Minority Rights Discourse\r | 49 | ||
| Discussion: The Ethnocratic State and its Contradictions\r | 52 | ||
| Conclusions: Prospects for State Reform?\r | 58 | ||
| Postscript\r | 59 | ||
| Chapter 3 \rFALLACIES OF THE PEACE OWNERSHIP APPROACH: EXPLORING NORWEGIAN MEDIATION IN SRI LANKA | 63 | ||
| Introduction\r | 63 | ||
| Mediation Approaches and the Liberal Peace\r | 65 | ||
| Peace Ownership in Sri Lanka\r | 67 | ||
| Mandate\r | 67 | ||
| Participation\r | 68 | ||
| Public Relations\r | 69 | ||
| Monitoring\r | 70 | ||
| Internationalization\r | 72 | ||
| Concluding Discussion\r | 73 | ||
| Chapter 4 \rTHE POLITICS OF MARKET REFORM AT A TIME OF ETHNIC CONFLICT: SRI LANKA IN THE JAYEWARDENE YEARS | 77 | ||
| Introduction\r | 77 | ||
| Causal, Functional or Accidental?\r | 80 | ||
| The Politics of Market Reform\r | 83 | ||
| Ideological and Economic Compensatory Mechanisms\r | 88 | ||
| Conclusions\r | 101 | ||
| Chapter 5 \rFROM SIHRN TO POST-WAR NORTH AND EAST: THE LIMITS OF THE ‘PEACE THROUGH DEVELOPMENT’ PARADIGM IN SRI LANKA | 103 | ||
| Post-liberalization Economic Development in Sri Lanka: Embedding a Neo-liberal Consensus\r | 104 | ||
| SIHRN and P-TOMS: A Critical Assessment of the ‘Peace through Development’ Paradigm during the Peace Process, 2002–2005\r | 108 | ||
| Mistaking Politics for Governance: The Politics of Development and Reconstruction\r | 110 | ||
| Mistaking Politics for Governance: The Dynamics of the Politics of the South\r | 113 | ||
| Post-war Peace through Development: Repeating Failed Strategies\r | 116 | ||
| Conclusion\r | 119 | ||
| Chapter 6 \rBUYING PEACE? POLITICS OF RECONSTRUCTION AND THE PEACE DIVIDEND ARGUMENT | 121 | ||
| War, Peace and the Peace Dividend Argument\r | 123 | ||
| What Peace Dividend?\r | 127 | ||
| The Politics of Reconstruction\r | 129 | ||
| Local Politics of Reconstruction\r | 133 | ||
| Conclusions\r | 138 | ||
| Chapter 7 \rWOMEN’S INITIATIVE IN BUILDING PEACE: THE CASE OF NORTHERN SRI LANKA | 141 | ||
| Introduction\r | 141 | ||
| Tamil Women in Peace Building\r | 142 | ||
| Women for Peace on a Social Level\r | 143 | ||
| The Cases of Lalitha and Saila\r | 145 | ||
| Women for Peace on a Political Level\r | 147 | ||
| The Sub-Committee on Gender Issues (SGI)\r | 150 | ||
| At the Negotiation Table\r | 151 | ||
| Conclusion\r | 154 | ||
| Chapter 8 \rLIBERAL PEACE AND PUBLIC OPINION | 157 | ||
| The Peace Process and the Excluded Public\r | 157 | ||
| Governmentality and Populations\r | 159 | ||
| Public Opinion on Liberal Peace\r | 161 | ||
| Active Peace Negotiations, 2002–2004\r | 161 | ||
| Negative Peace, 2004–2006\r | 163 | ||
| War for Peace, 2006–2009\r | 164 | ||
| Public Opinion on the Solution to the Conflict\r | 166 | ||
| Public Support for Negotiations\r | 168 | ||
| What is Agreeable to the People?\r | 169 | ||
| Federalism\r | 170 | ||
| Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA)\r | 172 | ||
| Post Tsunami Operational Mechanism Structure (P-TOMS)\r | 172 | ||
| All Party Representative Committee (APRC)\r | 173 | ||
| Opinions on the Protagonists’ Commitment to Negotiated Peace\r | 175 | ||
| Why are they Committed?\r | 177 | ||
| Third Party International Involvement\r | 177 | ||
| Conclusion\r | 180 | ||
| End Matter\r | 183 | ||
| NOTES\r | 183 | ||
| Chapter 1: Liberal Peace in Question: The Sri Lankan Case\r | 183 | ||
| Chapter 2: Travails of State Reform in the Context of Protracted Civil War in Sri Lanka | 183 | ||
| Chapter 3: Fallacies of the Peace Ownership Approach: Exploring Norwegian Mediation in Sri Lanka | 184 | ||
| Chapter 4: The Politics of Market Reform at a Time of Ethnic Conflict: Sri Lanka in the Jayewardene Years | 184 | ||
| Chapter 5: From SIHRN to Post-War North and East: The Limits of the ‘Peace through Development’ Paradigm in Sri Lanka | 185 | ||
| Chapter 6: Buying Peace? Politics of Reconstruction and the Peace Dividend Argument | 187 | ||
| Chapter 7: Women’s Initiative in Building Peace: The Case of Northern Sri Lanka | 188 | ||
| Chapter 8: Liberal Peace and Public Opinion\r | 188 | ||
| REFERENCES\r | 191 |