Civil servants and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland : 'keep people talking' / Giada Lagana.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lagana, Giada, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civil service--Northern Ireland.

Civil service.

Ireland--Foreign relations--Northern Ireland.

Ireland.

Northern Ireland--Politics and government.

Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland--Foreign relations--Ireland.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations

illustration

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

Although the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement brought an end to large-scale violence in Northern Ireland, the durability of peace has remained fragile. Persistent sectarian division, institutional instability, and the shock of Brexit have repeatedly tested the settlement. Yet while political leaders, parties, civil society actors, and international mediators have been extensively studied, one crucial dimension of the peace process has remained largely invisible: the role of the public bureaucracy. This book offers a systematic analysis of how the British, Irish, and Northern Irish civil services helped to design, stabilise, and sustain peace. It argues that peace was not only negotiated politically but also built administratively, through the everyday practices of officials who organised negotiating arenas, drafted texts, cultivated cross-border networks, and maintained continuity during periods of crisis.

Contents:

Designing peace: metagovernance and the rise of interactive governance in Northern Ireland

Administrative culture in Northern Ireland

Who got to talk? civil service diplomacy and the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA)

From breakdown to breakthrough: civil servants and the architecture of the talks process

Metagoverning through secrecy: backchannels, bureaucracy, and the management of peace

Constitutionalising dialogue: civil servants and the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement

Conclusion: civil servants and the hidden architecture of peacebuilding.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (Oxford Academic, viewed on October 9, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version : Lagana, Giada. Civil servants and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland.

ISBN:

9780198981602

0198981600

OCLC:

1610823536

Publisher Number:

CIPO000429476

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license