This book examines the role of economic aid in the management and resolution of protracted ethnic conflicts, focusing on the case study of Northern Ireland. The book describes the results of a study of the role of economic aid within Northern Ireland, through the viewpoints of citizens collected in an opinion poll as well as community group leaders whose projects received funding, funding-agency civil servants and development officers. The study explains the importance of economic and social development in promoting cross-community contact as well as within single-identity communities, and the need for a multitrack intervention approach to transform the conflict in Northern Ireland. It makes an important contribution to our understanding of how economic assistance impacts on a divided society with a history of protracted violence and provides important perspectives on the "peace through development" idea. One of the key unanswered questions relating to economic aid and preventing future violence is that of the significance of external economic aid in building peace after violence. By examining the respondents’ political imagery, this book expands on existing work on economic aid and peace building in other societies coming out of violence. Northern Ireland’s changing social-economic and political context reflects the fact that economic aid and sustainable economic development is a cornerstone of the peacebuilding process. The goal of the book is to provide a foundational knowledge base for students and practitioners about the role of economic aid in building the peace dividend in post-accord societies. The book will be of great interest to students of conflict resolution, peacebuilding, Irish politics, peace and conflict studies, and politics and IR in general.

A major restriction to Western aid efforts has been a lack of coordination. This book delves into the determinants of successful cooperation between bi- and multilateral donor agencies at the example of Western aid to Eastern Europe in the period from 1990 to 1996. In raising the assumption that networking between international organizations cannot be stimulated by appealing to norm-oriented behavior but is contingent upon the existence of common interests, the idealist view of international relations is seriously challenged. Comparing different assistance sectors - energy, telecoms, mass privatization, agriculture, statistics, central banking, environment and education - it is shown that donor coordination is a form of collective action initiated by donors in response to sectoral market failure which is perceived as significant because it threatens the non-attainment of basic goals or inflicts own projects with high costs or risks.