Power politics as usual in Cyprus and Northern Ireland: Divided islands and the roles of external ethno‐guarantors

Abstract

The Cypriot 1960 Constitution and the Northern Ireland 1985 Anglo‐Irish Agreement are compared to explore the third‐party intervention roles of bilateral external ethno‐guarantors in protracted conflicts in Cyprus and Northern Ireland. Ethno‐guarantors have intervened in both of these long‐standing intractable ethno‐territorial conflicts between local ethnic groups with competing claims to the same territory. This article focuses on some of the reasons why the coercive consociational elite model failed in Cyprus, yet has provided the framework for the establishment of a power‐sharing, devolved government in Northern Ireland within the context of the Anglo‐Irish Agreement.