'Hope and History': the US and peace in Northern Ireland by John Dumbrell
"A Farewell to Arms? From "long war" to long peace in Northern Ireland"
Edited by Michael Cox, Adrian Guelke and Fiona Stephen Published by Manchester
University Press, 2000
Of course, in Northern Ireland as elsewhere, interests and ideals are intertwined. The US has an interest in internationalism as well as an idealistic commitment to it. Robert Fisk has argued that America's Irish interventions were "calculated to produce a winner, a side with whom Washington feels comfortable, an ally upon which it can depend".40 Whatever their origins, the forces set in play by the December 1993 policy review were bound to transform the search for peace. No party to the conflict could sensibly ignore pressure from the global hegemony. The final outcome could not, and still cannot, be predicted. A short-to-medium judgement, however, is that a reasoned, measured and appropriate intervention brought Clinton his greatest diplomatic success.
26 E. Alterman, Who Speaks for America? Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1998), p.146. See also J. O'Grady, "An Irish Policy Born in the USA", Foreign Affairs, 75:3 (1996), 2-7.
27 Mail On Sunday, 25 August 1996.
28 K. Cullen, interview with Soderberg (n.17 above), p.24.
29 O'Clery, The Greening of the White House, p.138.
30 Interview on the BBC Today programme, 22 September 1994.
31 See M.J. Brady, "Democratic Audit", Fortnight, 345 (December 1995), p.8.
32 See K. Cullen, "The Fraying of the Green", Fortnight, 351 (June 1996), p.8.
33 M. Cox, "Cinderella at the Ball: Explaining the End of the War in Northern Ireland", Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 27:2 (1998),325-42, at 330. See also M. Cox, "The War that Came in From the Cold: Clinton and the Irish Question", World Policy Journal, 16:1 (1999), 59-67.
34 See A. Seldon, Major: A PoliticalLife (London, Weidenfield & Nicholson, 1997), pp.363-4, 443-6, 538-40, 621-2.
35 O'Clery, The Greening of the White House, p.98.
36 See P. Starobin, "The Liberal Hawk Soars", National Journal, 15 May 1999, 1310-16.
37 See W. G. Hyland, Clinton's World: Remaking American Foreign Policy (Westport, Praeger, 1999).
38 See A. Guelke, "The United States, Irish Americans and the Northern Ireland Peace Process", International Affairs, 72:3 (1996), 521-36, at 536.
39 For a critical (Irish) perspective, see "American Foreign Policy: Mindless Muscle?", Times Change, 16 (1988-89), 4-5.
40 R. Fisk, "No Use Relying on Uncle Bill", Fortnight, 346 (January 1996),
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