Religious Communities as Peacemakers: A Comparison of Grassroots Peace Processes in Sudan and Northern Ireland

Abstract

Vibrant grassroots peace processes served as a prelude to the formal peace agreements in both Northern Ireland and between Sudan's north and south. The comparative analysis of these two processes provided in this article yields information on how local NGOs brought people in deeply divided societies to engage in constructive inter-ethnic interaction. In so doing, it illustrates the efficacy of John Paul Lederach's conceptual framework explaining ‘reconciliation’ as a process. The comparative analysis also produces evidence for testing the efficacy of three hypotheses on the contributions a local peace process can make to peacemaking between the parties.