Fred och försoning i Bosnien-Hercegovina och på Nordirland: Top-down eller bottom-up?: En jämförande studie av freds- och försoningsprocesser i två delade samhällen

Sammanfattning: Bosnia-Herzegovina and Northern Ireland are similar in many ways. Both cases have experienced wars that left the people fragmented and traumatized. But one aspect that separates them is their peace processes. In Bosnia, a peace deal was brokered after three months of intense negotiations. In Northern Ireland, it took two years for an agreement to be reached. Furthermore, both post-war Bosnia and Northern Ireland have had lengthy reconciliation processes. This qualitative, comparative case-study examines these reconciliation initiatives in relation to top-down and bottom-up processes of reconciliation. Furthermore, there is an ambition to examine if aspects of the peace processes could be reflected in the subsequent reconciliation processes. Could, for example, a top-down peace process be reflected in the post-war reconciliation process? Through a structured, focused comparison of the two cases the tentative conclusions that can be drawn from this essay is that both cases have aspects that relate to both top-down and bottom-up processes, but do not always complement each other. Bosnia could tentatively be described as having a more prominent top-down reconciliation process, whereas Northern Ireland’s process can be understood as more bottom-up. In both cases, some aspects of the peace process are reflected in the reconciliation process.