From Prison Protest to Peace Process: The Trans-Formation of the ‘Ex-Combatant’

Abstract

Transformative peace interventions, I have argued, create dynamics of irresistible radical threat by altering dynamics of pluralization and threatworks upon which groups rely to resist, shape and constrain (the threat of) violence. In Chapters 2 and 3, I argued that these dynamics can affect the relationships between groups such that dynamics of radical – and ultimately, physical or material – violence are likely to arise. Now, I shall examine how the transformative processes of securitization (driven by the logics of democratization, governance and development discussed earlier) create cycles of violence among and within a specific set of ‘target groups’: the ex-combatant. This chapter will explore how the category of the ‘ex-combant’ in Northern Ireland was created through transformative policies.