Making Peace

Making Peace by George J. Mitchell

I just finished reading Making Peace by George J. Mitchell, the former majority leader of the United States Senate.  The book is his behind-the-scenes account of the negotiations that culminated in the signing of the Northern Ireland Peace Accord on April 10, 1998, also known as the Good Friday Agreement. Mitchell spent three years, the last 22 months as chairman of the negotiations, working to resolve the conflict between eleven political parties and the British and Irish governments.

The negotiations Mitchell chaired involved a period of political violence in Northern Ireland known euphemistically as “the Troubles.”  The Troubles lasted from the late 1960s to the late 1990s, claiming over 3,500 lives and leaving many more injured. The conflict was between two main groups: the Irish nationalists, who wanted Northern Ireland to join the Republic of Ireland, and Ulster unionists, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom.

The violence continued for decades, with both sides carrying out bombings, shootings, and other attacks. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was signed, bringing an end to the Troubles. The agreement created a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, and it also provided for a number of reforms to address the discrimination that had led to the conflict in the first place.

Mitchell’s account of the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement is riveting. To call the negotiations complex would be an understatement. The complexity of the negotiations is for another blog.  My purpose here is to distill from Mitchell’s account the key attributes that made the negotiations a success. Two things stand out.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the negotiations was Mitchell’s insistence that the parties commit to the “Mitchell Principles.”  The six principles demanded that the parties commit to:

·       Democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues;

·       The total disarmament of all paramilitary organizations;

·       Agreeing that such disarmament must be verifiable to the satisfaction of an independent commission;

·       Renouncing for themselves, and to oppose any effort by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all-party negotiations;

·       Agreeing to abide by the terms of any agreement reached in all-party negotiations and to resort to democratic and exclusively peaceful methods in trying to alter any aspect of that outcome with which they may disagree; and,

·       Urging that "punishment" killings and beatings stop and to take effective steps to prevent such actions.

          Throughout the years of negotiations, Mitchell made clear that the talks could not proceed without adherence to the six principles. Two parties that were unwilling to adhere to the Mitchell Principles ultimately withdrew from the negotiations before an accord was reached.

          The other key aspect to the negotiations was Mitchell’s willingness to listen. He recounts countless hours spent listening over and over again to the same grievances.  He prided himself on being a good listener as Senate Majority Leader, but he said nothing compared to the three years spent negotiating the Good Friday Agreement.

          Setting and securing commitment to ground rules and mustering the patience to listen as long as it takes have served me well as a mediator. Mitchell’s account in Making Peace is a compelling reminder of that.