Peacemaking Strategies in Cyprus: In Search of Lasting Peace

Eleftherios A. Michael

Sep 2015 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

About this ebook

This book takes a systematic and holistic approach to examining all 41 peacemaking initiatives used to settle the Cyprus question from 1955 onward under the auspices of the United Nations and/or other actors in the international system, including the United States, Canada, the UK, Greece and Turkey. The analysis of peacemaking strategies, dynamics and obstacles fleshes out numerous relationships between:

(i) peacemaking processes, dynamics and outcomes, from signaling to negotiations and to post-accord completion and implementation;

(ii) concessions, constraints and leverage during peacemaking negotiations and third party mediation; and

(iii) obstacles to finding an endgame solution and satisfying conditions for lasting peace expectations that all parties can agree on and implement successfully.

After documenting 62 interviews with top political leaders in Cyprus (including top tier elected elites and third party mediators) and about 70 more interviews with key informants (including academics, researchers, members of negotiating teams, technical committees and working groups), this book concludes with a plethora of descriptive, as well as prescriptive, propositions on how peacemaking processes could lead to more sustainable and implementable peacemaking initiatives in Cyprus and in similar protracted and seemingly intractable cases.

About the author

Eleftherios A. Michael is the Associate Dean for International Education at Notre Dame of Maryland University, a position he has held since 2014. He received his PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. He was the Academic Director and Assistant Professor of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Program at the School of Professional and Extended Studies at American University in DC from 2007–2014, where he also served as the school’s Associate Dean for Faculty. He has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including Communities without Boundaries International and the Serbian Institute, having most recently been a committee member of the Global Solidarity Group at NDMU. His research interests include conflict analysis, conflict resolution, identity-type conflicts, peacemaking, and peacebuilding in the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean and parts of Africa. He is a conflict analyst and conflict resolution practitioner with field experience in post-conflict zones. He has trained hundreds of high school students, undergraduate and graduate students and community leaders in conflict resolution and collaborative problem-solving skills in more than a dozen countries and cross-cultural settings.