Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The transformative power of integration: conceptualising border conflicts
- 2 The influence of the EU towards conflict transformation on the island of Ireland
- 3 Catalysis, catachresis: the EU's impact on the Cyprus conflict
- 4 Transforming the Greek–Turkish conflicts: the EU and ‘what we make of it’!
- 5 Border issues in Europe's North
- 6 The EU and the Israel–Palestine conflict
- 7 The EU as a ‘force for good’ in border conflict cases?
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
3 - Catalysis, catachresis: the EU's impact on the Cyprus conflict
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The transformative power of integration: conceptualising border conflicts
- 2 The influence of the EU towards conflict transformation on the island of Ireland
- 3 Catalysis, catachresis: the EU's impact on the Cyprus conflict
- 4 Transforming the Greek–Turkish conflicts: the EU and ‘what we make of it’!
- 5 Border issues in Europe's North
- 6 The EU and the Israel–Palestine conflict
- 7 The EU as a ‘force for good’ in border conflict cases?
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
In Europe they don't understand and they want to know if Cypriots understand that Europe is built on reconciliation.
(UN official, interviewed on the eve of the referendum, evaluating reactions in the EU Commission to the prospect of a Greek-Cypriot rejection of the reunification plan prior to the Republic's accession to the EU)The (hazy) edge of Europe
In considering the impact of the European Union on the Cyprus conflict, it is important to keep in mind that Cyprus has long been a favourite example in International Relations (IR) of an ‘intractable conflict’ and as such has been viewed as a challenge for the capacity of the United Nations for conflict resolution (Manrod 1974; Richmond 1998; Aall et al. 2000: 30; Hannay 2005). This decades-long history of failed attempts at resolution has provided the context, since the 1990s, to argue that a change in the dynamics of the resolution structures could be the answer to breaking the stalemate. The island's entry to the EU could in these terms be considered the most radical change to these dynamics imaginable (save war). Indeed, it is in this capacity that the EU has come to be viewed as a new dimension in discussions of the conflict (Joseph 1997; Brewin 2000; Diez 2002; Christou 2004; Tocci 2005b). More often than not, the EU has been seen in these discussions as the ultimate answer to the solution of the Cyprus problem.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The European Union and Border ConflictsThe Power of Integration and Association, pp. 64 - 93Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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