Brendan O’Leary Outlines the Path to Compromise in UKEXIT
Last summer Brendan O’Leary, Lauder Professor of Political Science, was in Ireland researching and writing his forthcoming book, tentatively titled Understanding Northern Ireland: Passages from Colonialism to Consociation and Confederation, 1603-2017, when the BREXIT referendum television broadcast interrupted his work.
The June 23 referendum termed BREXIT, an amalgamation of the words “British” and “Exit,” resulted in the United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union, a partnership of 28 nations designed to expand economic growth after World War II. While the referendum passed in England and Wales, voters in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Gibraltar wanted to remain.
“I’d hoped that the referendum would go the other way,” says O’Leary, a dual American and Irish citizen. “It would have been a nice finishing point to the book. Instead, we have a revolt against reason that could affect the stability of the peace process that I played a minor role in helping to negotiate.”
O’Leary, a specialist in power sharing and constitutional reconstruction, was influential in drafting the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, offering a peaceful resolution to nearly 30 years of conflict in and across Northern Ireland.
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