Violent Politics: Strategies of Internal Conflict

262 Pages·2002·1.07 MB·English

by  Michael Addison

Violent Politics
Strategies of Internal Conflict
Michael Addison
St Antony’s Series
General Editor: Richard Clogg(1999–), Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford
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Violent Politics
Strategies of Internal Conflict
Michael Addison
in association with
St Antony’s College, Oxford
© the estate of Michael Addison 2002
Forewords © Bruce Hoffman; Simon Winchester 2002
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
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Companies and representatives throughout the world.
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ISBN 0–333–73085–2
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made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Addison, Michael, 1935–2000.
Violent politics : strategies of internal conflict/Michael Addison.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–333–73085–2
1. Political violence. 2. Political violence – Ireland – History. 3. Political
violence – Northern Ireland – History. 4. Terrorism. 5. Terrorism – Ireland –
History 6. Terrorism – Northern Ireland – History. I. Title.
JC328.6 .A33 2002
322.4’2–dc21 2001054888
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
Typeset by EXPO Holdings, Malaysia
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd. Chippenham, Wiltshire
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vi
Foreword by Bruce Hoffman vii
Forewordby Simon Winchester xi
1 Violence and Politics: The Search for Meaning 1
2 The Search for Theory 29
3 The Search for Strategy 52
4 Politics: Northern Ireland 1968–98 74
5 Violence: Northern Ireland1968–98 82
6 Crime: Northern Ireland1968–78 113
7 Countermeasures: Criminal Law 132
8 Countermeasures: Political Crime 145
9 Countermeasures: Internal War 150
10 Countermeasures Outside the Law 164
11 Conclusions and Consequences 170
Appendix 181
Notes 203
References 233
Index 239
v
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
5.1 Casualties from the Troubles in Northern
Ireland, 1969–1998 86
5.2 Responsibility for the deaths, 1966–98 87
5.3 Pattern of the deaths, 1969–98 88
5.4 Responsibility for the killings, 1969–73 94
5.5 Sectarian battle, 1969–73 97
5.6 Battle for union, 1971–72 98
5.7 Tribal warfare: 1973–76 100
5.8 Deaths and events: the first ten years
of stalemate, 1977–86 104
5.9 Deaths and events: the next eight
years of stalemate, 1987–94 105
5.10 Deaths and events: the peace process, 1995–98 110
6.1 Deaths, murders and convictions in
Northern Ireland, 1969–98 118
6.2 Comparative conviction rates for murder,
1969–95 120
6.3 Comparative conviction rates for indictable
crime, 1968–78 121
6.4 Comparative crime rates, 1968–78 123
6.5 Comparative police strengths, 1969–95 125
6.6 Casualties and compensation, 1968–97 126
6.7 Terrorist activity and charges, 1969–98 128
6.8 Outcome of notifiable offences,
Northern Ireland 129
Tables
A.1 Deaths by violence, Northern Ireland, England
and Wales, 1969–98 182
A.2 Estimate of terrorist crime in Northern Ireland,
1968–98 190
A.3 Comparative crime and conviction rates,
UK, 1968–78 196
A.4 Compensation expenditure in Northern
Ireland 1968–97 200
vi
Foreword by Bruce Hoffman*
The study of terrorism has long suffered from two separate but not
unrelated weaknesses. One is the disjuncture between theory and
empiricism that too often has divested otherwise erudite works of any
policy relevance or practical application. The other is that most
research on terrorism takes place in a vacuum: lacking the insight and
perspicacity accessible only through first-hand observation of the polit-
ical, social and cultural milieu in which terrorists – and the govern-
ments and security forces opposing them – operate. The result has been
an academic discourse that at times seems completely divorced from
reality and thus totally irrelevant to ‘real-world’ problems.
Violent Politics, however, is different. It was written by a soldier turned
scholar who sought to make sense of what he had seen and done in con-
frontations such as Cyprus, Borneo and Northern Ireland. That the book’s
focus is on Northern Ireland – one of the perennially frustrating conflicts
of recent times – makes it all the more valuable. Even though the litera-
ture on the latest iteration of the ‘Troubles’ is of course now vast, few
treatments have addressed the subject with the same authoritative knowl-
edge base of first-hand experience combined with scholarly rigour as
Violent Politics. The reader, though, should be cautioned that this immea-
surable strength is also the book’s salient weakness. It is a work written
with a distinct point of view – one forged by thirty years of military
service commanding airborne sapper, commando, Gurkha and combat
engineering units, but shaped and tempered by academic discourse and
debate and most of all informed by an open, sceptical and enquiring
mind. This unique combination of attributes and perspectives is precisely
what makes Violent Politicsboth so interesting and important. Indeed, it
stands as one of the few works on this subject to creditably bridge the
chasm that has long separated theory from practice.
Mike Addison’s interest in the challenges faced by governments in
responding to terrorism and civil unrest began at a time when the
* Dr Bruce Hoffman is Vice President for External Affairs and Director of the
RAND Corporation Washington, DC Office. He is also the author of Inside
Terrorism and was previously Director, Centre for the Study of Terrorism and
Political Violence, and, Chairman, Department of International Relations,
University of St Andrews, Scotland.
vii
viii Foreword
British Empire had ceased to exist, but its military forces still remained
enmeshed in the post-colonial ferment and upheaval afflicting some of
its former possessions. He was commissioned in 1959 as a lieutenant in
the Royal Engineers and a few years later found himself serving as a
liaison officer with the United Nations peacekeeping contingent
deployed to Cyprus. Conditions on that divided island in 1964
exemplified the challenges of military operations in an ambiguous,
highly fluid and potentially explosive environment. Nicosia, for
example, was not some neatly defined battlefield where opposing
armies clashed and the enemy was clearly identified, engaged and
defeated, but a densely populated urban area within which the terrorist
effectively concealed him or herself, indistinguishable from the sur-
rounding populace, until they emerged from hiding to strike only to
disappear once again. An officer had therefore to be flexible and clever,
not least perceptive and decisive. Restraint and uncomfortably restric-
tive rules of engagement were paradoxically the essential elements
required to keep the peace and maintain order in hopes of rebuilding
intercommunal confidence and encouraging negotiation. Delicacy and
tact, in sum, counted for more than force and firepower.
Borneo was another formative experience in Mike’s thinking about
the role of the military in internal conflict. Although his time spent
withtheGurkhaRiflesinthejunglesalongtheIndonesianbordercould
not have been more different from that with the UN in Cyprus, the
overridingimperativeofrestraintintheuseofforcewasstillthesame.
Rather than having to separate two warring communities, the con-
frontation in Borneo involved the defeat of a rebellion fomented by
Jakartaintandemwiththeremovalofcross-borderstagingbasesestab-
lishedbytheIndonesianArmy.Here,thechallengewastoapplypres-
sure in a manner calculated to compel the Indonesians both to
withdraw and desist from aiding the rebels, whilst still preventing a
furtherescalationofhostilities.Theoperation’ssuccessunderscoredthe
importanceofinnovation,adaptationandfreshthinkingintheconduct
ofmilitaryoperationsinpoliticallysensitiveandcomplexsituations.
By the time Mike arrived in Northern Ireland in 1973, he had therefore
amassed a diversity of experience and wealth of knowledge that was a
great asset to understanding the deteriorating security situation in that
beleaguered province. The violence had reached its peak the year before
with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) unleashing a massive
bombing campaign. Car bombs, containing anywhere from a few pounds
of explosives to over a thousand pounds, had become a melancholy
fixture of daily life. Incendiary devices were planted in shops and depart-