Abstract
We have argued that Norway’s distinctive approach to peacemaking and peacebuilding rests on five basic factors: a domestic consensus that permits long-term sustained commitments to peace building and peacemaking efforts, multilateralism, a reputation for impartiality and discretion, “ground truth”/local knowledge provided by local nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners, and parallel peace processes (see chapter 3). Of major initiatives undertaken by Norway over the last 20 years, Sri Lanka stands as an outlier with respect to several factors that comprise what has become known as the Norwegian “policy of engagement.”1 The mission did fit well with the idea of Norway as the “humanitarian great power.”2 Unlike earlier engagements where Norway worked behind the scenes, leaving the public diplomacy to other engaged countries and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), Norway publicly took the lead as principal sponsor of the negotiation process. This placed Norway and the process directly in the spotlight. Rather than secrecy, activities were subjected to constant media coverage. Active facilitation became the principal mode rather than serving as a backdrop—that is, as a more private exercise in support of a broader public process.
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Ann Kelleher and James Larry Taulbee, “Bridging the Gap: Building Peace Norwegian Style,” Peace & Change 31:4 (2006), 479–505;
Ann Kelleher and James Larry Taulbee, “Building Peace Norwegian Style: Studies in Track I ½ Diplomacy,” in Subcontracting Peace The Challenges of NGO Peacebuilding ed. Henry W. Carey and Oliver P. Richmond (Ashgate, 2005), 69–84.
Asoka Bandarage, “The ‘Norwegian Model’: Political Economy of NGO Peacemaking,” Brown Journal of World Affairs, 17:2 (2011), 221.
Jan Egelund, “The Oslo Accord: Multiparty Facilitation through the Norwegian Channel,” in Chester Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aal, (eds.), Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 1999), 541–542. See also, Tove Strand, “Norway’s Approach to Democracy and Development,” Wang Symposium: Pathways to Peace, Pacific Lutheran University (January 12, 2005). Ms. Strand served as Director General, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). Kelleher and Taulbee, “Bridging Peace Norwegian Style.”
See, Eva Bertram, “Reinventing Governments: The Promise and Perils of United Nations Peace Building,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 39:3 (September 1995), 387–418 for a discussion of the importance of this dimension in United Nations operations. Roger Winter, a member of the USAID team in Sudan, emphasized “field experience” as one of the most important elements. Interview, June 7, 2005.
Camilla Orjuela, The Identity Politics of Peacebuilding; Civil Society in War-Torn Sri Lanka (London: Sage, 2008), 7.
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Jonas Gahr Støre, “Norway and the US: Partners in peace” Speech at Harvard University (March 7, 2007). http://www.norway.org/News_and_events/Policy/Speeches/umin_harvard/
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Robert D. Putnam, “Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games,” International Organization 42:3 (1988), 427–460
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Jane Corbin, Gaza First — The Secret Norway Channel to Peace Between Israel and the PLO (London: Bloomsbury Publishing Limited, 1994), 40;
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For an extended discussion, See, Nira Wickramasinghe, Sri Lanka in the Modern Age: A History of Contested Identities (London: Hurst & Co., 2006).
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Rajan Hoole (Michael Richard Ratnarajan Hoole), Sri Lanka: The Arrogance of Power Myths, Decadence and Murder (Colombo: University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), 2001) catalogs the grievances.
See also, Øivend Fuglerud, “Fractured Sovereignty: The LTTE’s State-Building in an Interconnected World,” in Spatialising Politics: Culture and Geography in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka, ed. Catherine Brun and Tariq Jazeel (London: Sage, 2009), 194–215; and Nihal Perera, “Rebuilding Lives, Undermining Oppositions: Spaces of War and Peace in the North”, Spatialising Politics, 168–193;
Patrick Peebles, “Sinhalese and Tamil Nationalism,” in Peebles, The History of Sri Lanka (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006), 83–94.
Dennis McGilvray and Mirak Raheem, “Origins of the Sri Lankan Muslims and Varieties of the Muslim Identity,” in The Sri Lanka Reader: History, Culture, Politics, ed. John Clifford Holt (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011), 410–419; S. L. Mohamed, “Who Are the Moors of Ceylon?” in The Sri Lanka Reader, 429–434.
Bass, Everyday Ethnicity, 7. A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2000).
See M. R. Narayan Swamy, Inside an Elusive Mind: Prabhakaran (Colombo: Yapa Publications, 2003).
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The classic history of Tamil militancy is Rajan Hoole, Daya Somasundaram, K. Sritharan, Rajani Thiranagama, The Broken Palmyra: The Tamil Crisis in Sri Lanka — An Inside Account (Claremont, CA, 1988).
Thiranagama was murdered, probably by the LTTE, in 1990. On the LTTE, see M. R. Narayan Swamy, Tigers of Lanka: From Boys to Guerrillas (Colombo, 2002).
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K. M. de Silva, “Sri Lanka in 1948,” in The Sri Lanka Reader, 598; see also, Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology: Implications for Politics and Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka, Policy Studies 40 (Washington, D.C.: East-West Center, 2007);
Neil DeVotta, Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004).
S. J. Tambiah, “The Colombo Riots of 1983,” in The Sri Lanka Reader, 643; DeVotta, “Control Democracy, Institutional Decay, and the Quest for Eelam,” 63–65; See also, J Tambiah, Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986);
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Kumar Rupesinghe, “Ethnic Conflicts in South Asia: The Case of Sri Lanka and the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF),” Journal of Peace Research, 25:4 (1988), 348–50.
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Fjørtoft came to Sri Lanka in 1967 as a journalist. Prior to establishing Worldview International, he founded Cey-Nor Development Foundation Limited as a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the education and welfare of the domestic fishing community. For his activities and reflections, see, Arne Fjørtoft, Rapport frå paradis; ein idé om fred og utvikling (Report from paradise, an idea of peace and development) (Sandnes: Commentum Forlag AS, 2007).
Gunnar Sørbø, Jonathan Goodhand, Bart Klem, Ada Elisabeth Nissen, and Hilde Selbervik, Pawns of Peace—Evaluation of Norwegian Peace Efforts in Sri Lanka, 1997–2009 (Oslo: Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, 2011), 29.
See, Henry W. Carey and Oliver P. Richmond (eds.), Subcontracting Peace The Challenges of NGO Peacebuilding (Ashgate, 2005).
Bidisha Biswas, “The Challenges of Conflict Management: A Case Study of Sri Lanka,” Civil Wars 8:1 (2006), 55.
United Nations, Report of the Secretary-General’s Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka (November 2012), http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/SrI_Lanka/The_Internal_Review_Panel_report_on_SrI _Lanka.pdf
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Anton Balasingham, War and Peace: Armed Struggle and Peace Efforts of the Liberation Tigers (Mitcham: Fairmax Publishing, 2004), 405.
Balasingham, War and Peace: Armed Struggle and Peace Efforts of Liberation Tigers, 403–408; see also, International Crisis Group, “Sri Lanka: The Failure of the Peace Process,” Asia Report 124 (November 28, 2006), 7.
Neil DeVotta, “The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Lost Quest for Separatism in Sri Lanka,” Asian Survey 49:6 (November/December 2009), 1023.
Jayadeva Uyangoda, “Government-LTTE Peace Negotiations in 2002–2005 and the Clash of State formation projects,” in Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka: Caught in the Peace Trap? ed. Jonathan Goodhand, Benedikt. Korf, and Jonathan Spencer (London: Routledge, 2011), 31.
See, Charan Rainford and Ambika Satkunanathan. Mistaking Politics for Governance: the Politics of Interim Arrangements in Sri Lanka, 2002–2005 (Colombo: International Centre for Ethnic Studies 2009).
International Crisis Group, “Sri Lanka: The Failure of the Peace Process,” 6; Neil DeVotta states that between the mid-1990s and 2006, the LTTE controlled nearly one-quarter of Sri Lanka’s territory and controlled an army of over 20,000. DeVotta, “The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Lost Quest for Separatism in Sri Lanka,” Asian Survey 49:6 (November/December 2009), 1023.
Carmilla Orjuela, “Sri Lanka: Peace Activists and Nationalists,” in Civil Society and Peacebuilding: A Critical Assessment ed. Thania Paffenholz (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2010),
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See also, Oliver Walton, ‘Conflict, Peacebuilding and NGO Legitimacy: National NGOs in Sri Lanka,’ Journal of Conflict, Development and Security 8:1 (2008), 133–167.
See Arve Ofstad, “Countries in Violent Conflict and Aid Strategies: The Case of Sri Lanka,” World Development 30:2 (2002), 165–180 for a discussion of aid dilemmas before the ceasefire agreement.
Adam Burke and Anthea Mulakala, Donors and Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka 2000 — 2005 (Colombo: The Asia Foundation, 2005), 17.
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Goodhand and Klem, “Aid, Conflict, and Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka 2000 — 2005,” 80; Kristian Stokke, “Crafting Liberal Peace? International Peace Promotion and the Contextual Politics of Peace in Sri Lanka,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 99:5 (2009, 932–939.
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Kristian Stokke, “The Soft Power of a Small State: Discursive Constructions and Institutional Practices of Norway’s Peace Engagement,” Journal of Power, Conflict and Democracy in South and Southeast Asia II:1 (2010), 164. Ajit Kumar Singh, “Endgame in Sri Lanka,” Faultlines 20 (January 2011),
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Ajit Kumar Singh, “Endgame in Sri Lanka,” Faultlines 20 (January 2011). http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/faultlines/volume20/Article6.htm
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© 2014 James Larry Taulbee, Ann Kelleher, and Peter C. Grosvenor
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Taulbee, J.L., Kelleher, A., Grosvenor, P.C. (2014). Sri Lanka: A Bridge Too Far?. In: Norway’s Peace Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137429193_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137429193_5
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