Abandoning Armed Resistance? The Ulster Volunteer Force as a Case Study of Strategic Terrorism in Northern Ireland

Bibliographic Data

ID8070787
AuthorsAaron Edwards (0000-0002-1496-9010, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume32
Issue2
Pages146-166
Publication date2009-01-20
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Conflict and Terrorism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1057-610X • E-ISSN: 1521-0731
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10576100802628405
OpenAlexW1771895973
LanguageEN
Citations received10

This article explores the Ulster Volunteer Force's (UVF) decision in May 2007 to abandon its campaign of “armed resistance” and pursue “a non-military, civilianized, role” in Northern Ireland. It does so by analyzing the UVF's actions in light of the academic literature on strategic terrorism. The central argument advanced in the article is that the UVF's decision to put its weapons “beyond reach” and re-structure its organization along civilian lines is (a) internally consistent with its stated policy of countering “violent nationalism,” (b) symptomatic of the transformation in the sociopolitical context since the 1994 paramilitary cease-fires, and (c) the logical outworking of the group's lack of popular legitimacy among its core Protestant working-class support-base. The article concludes with an assessment of the risks and possible dividends that the end of UVF terrorism holds for the Northern Ireland peace process

Argument (complex analysis · Context (archaeology · Criminology · Legitimacy · Nationalism · Northern ireland · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Terrorism · Engineering · History · Irish and British Studies · Law · Medicine · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

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