Paul Dixon is Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. He was Professor of Politics and International Studies at Kingston University, UK (2005-17). He also taught at Queen’s University Belfast, Luton, Leeds and Ulster (1997-2005). He has 30 years of experience researching the conflict in Northern Ireland and has published Northern Ireland: The Politics of War and Peace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001; 2nd edition 2008), and edited The British Approach to Counterinsurgency (Palgrave Macmillan 2012). He has published nearly 40 academic articles and over 20 book chapters mainly on the Northern Ireland conflict, conflict management and war.

1. INTRODUCTION2. IN DEFENCE OF ‘REAL’ POLITICS3. POLITICS AS THEATRE4. ‘A TRAGEDY BEYOND WORDS’: INTERPRETING BRITISH POLICY TOWARDS NORTHERN IRELAND5. WERE THE IRA DEFEATED?6. THEATRICAL POLITICS AND POLITICAL SKILLS7. THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT, ‘DIRTY POLITICS’ AND THE BELFAST AGREEMENT8. DEFENDING THE POLITICAL MORALITY OF THE PEACE PROCESS9. ‘PEACE WITHIN THE REALMS OF THE POSSIBLE?’ DAVID TRIMBLE, UNIONIST IDEOLOGY AND THEATRICAL POLITICS10. ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE 11. CONCLUSION: INTERPRETING THE PEACE PROCESS AND THE FUTURE OF NORTHERN IRELAND