Analysing the Sri Lankan civil war through the lens of conflict resolution theory

Abstract

The Sri Lankan ethnic conflict can be identified as a landmark event in recent history, reflecting a visible social disunion between the majority and minority ethnic communities. Sri Lanka witnessed a major turnover of events, from circumscribed ethnic clashes to a full-scale civil war. The ripple effects of the Sri Lankan civil war crossed borders and drew global attention. The crisis involved successive governments in power in Colombo and Tamil separatist group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), paving way for the deadliest social unrest in Sri Lankan history. To mediate the conflict and bring adversaries to negotiation, neutral third parties were involved. Norway played a significant role as a third-party mediator who applied various means for mitigating Sri Lanka’s conflict. However, the complicated ethno-centric politics of Sri Lanka and their inconsistent outlook towards the peace process restricted the scope for a successful conflict resolution. This paper highlights both conditions for success and failure of conflict resolution, and the use of third-party intervention as a crucial toolkit.This research also points out the equation between mediators and adversaries, and how their behavioural patterns affect conflict resolution processes. The unpredictable nature of adversary behaviour exposes a variety of challenges that the mediators are often unprepared for. The Sri Lankan peace process uncovered the powerlessness of non-coercive third-party mediation. This study holds potential to drive future researchers closer to exploring means to minimize the impacts of such limitations on forthcoming reconciliations.