GUELKE, Adrian

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: Earned M.A. in Capetown, South Africa, and Ph.D. in London, England.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Center for Study of Ethnic Conflict, Queens University Belfast, 19-21 University Square, Belfast BT7 1PA, Northern Ireland. Agent—c/o I. B. Tauris, 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Educator and author. Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, professor of political science, director of the Center for Study of Ethnic Conflict.

WRITINGS:

(With Stanley Siebert) The Control of Wages in South Africa, Mandate Trust (London, England), 1973.

Northern Ireland: The International Perspective, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Interdependence and Transition: The Cases of South Africa and Northern Ireland, South African Institute of International Affairs (Johannesburg, South Africa), 1993.

(Editor) New Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Conflict, Avebury (Aldershot, England), 1994.

The Age of Terrorism and the International Political System, I. B. Tauris Publishers (New York, NY), 1995.

South Africa in Transition: The Misunderstood Miracle, I. B. Tauris Publishers (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor, with Michael Cox and Fiona Stephen) A Farewell to Arms?: From 'Long War' to Long Peace in Northern Ireland, Manchester University Press (Manchester, England), 2000.

Also coauthor of The Police, Public Order, and the State. Contributor of articles to scholarly journals.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

A general text on deeply divided societies and how they were impacted by the end of the Cold War.

SIDELIGHTS:

An expert in international relations, Adrian Guelke has focused his writings and academic career on the politics of deeply divided societies, particularly South Africa and Northern Ireland. He has also investigated terrorism and its roots. In addition to teaching in the School of Politics at Queen's University, Belfast, Guelke is director of the Centre for Study of Ethnic Conflict, which was established at the university to promote research on societies that are deeply divided with regard to issues such as national and ethnic identity. Guelke is also acquainted with terrorism on a personal basis. In 1991, he was shot by loyalist terrorists in Ireland who were believed to be associated with South African terrorists.

"In the past I have done a considerable amount of work on political violence," wrote Guelke on his Queen's University Belfast Web site. Both that work and his interest in terrorism fit into "the international dimensions of internal conflicts," and are thus natural subjects for him to study.

In his 1989 book Northern Ireland: The International Perspective, Guelke explores the violence in and problems of Northern Ireland in light of its uncertain international status. According to Guelke, because of the questions surrounding Northern Ireland's legitimacy as a state and its occupation by England, violence can be rationalized by both sides, and the country's people must deal with their sense of isolation as though they are under siege. Guelke delves into analyses of both the Irish and British political cultures and discusses the Irish-American influence. He also compares the conflicts in Northern Ireland with other volatile regions and issues.

Writing in the American Political Science Review, Paul F. Power noted that Guelke does innovatively examine some of the conflict's "international dimensions," but questioned some of the evidence to support parts of his case. He added, "The Guelke book assumes, rather than demonstrates, that the conflict has been internationalized in some broad sense." J. E. Finn, writing in Choice, called Northern Ireland: The International Perspective "important and provocative," and noted that some its theories "are certain to spark a good deal of controversy." In the Irish Literary Supplement, Jennifer Todd pointed out that Guelke's pessimistic conclusion in the book is "that the British and Irish governments, by not clarifying the status of Northern Ireland in internationally accepted terms, have maintained their own political stability at the price of instability in the North." She concluded, "This is an important book which reveals that not all of the obstacles to a resolution of the conflict lie in Northern Ireland."

In The Age of Terrorism and the International Political System, Guelke examines the concept of terrorism and makes his case that the age of terrorism is fading away. Published several years before the terrorist attacks on the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., the book focuses more on European terrorism than the reemergence of ethnic nationalism as a basis for terrorist attacks. B. Schechterman, writing in Choice, felt that Guelke "undervalued" ethnic-based terrorism in his "overall evaluation." Nevertheless, the reviewer called the book "a challenge to established thinking, suitable for all readers." Another reviewer, Martha Crenshaw, wrote in the American Political Science Review that the book has several flaws, including her impression that Guelke fails to demonstrate many causal relationships. She noted that "study of the social construction of terrorism is valuable, however, and here it is developed at length and in broad scope." Addressing Guelke's in-depth analysis of what "terrorism" is and how it is defined, she said, "Guelke's observations about problematic usages are frequently interesting." Richard Clutterbuck in the Times Literary Supplement also wanted more "discernable" links made by Guelke in presenting his history but added that "it is valuable as such."

Having taught in South Africa, Guelke has also written extensively about that country's inner political turmoil. In his 1999 book South Africa in Transition: The Misunderstood Miracle, Guelke analyzes South Africa's transition from apartheid to black rule. Writing in Choice, R. I. Rotberg noted that "Guelke argues intelligently" about the transition and called the book a "brief but careful analysis."

His study of these diverse conflicts has led Guelke to draw analogies throughout his work between different causes and countries, especially South Africa and Northern Ireland. In a review of 2000's A Farewell to Arms?: From 'Long War' to Long Peace in Northern Ireland, a contributor to the Socialist Democracy Journal, noted, "In a short contribution, Adrian Guelke makes a few perceptive remarks about Sinn Fein's use of the South African peace settlement's zeitgeist to develop a peace strategy of its own. He suggests that the South African analogy has been preferred in republican quarters to the Middle East one only because the outcome has been more successful for the ANC than it has been for the PLO."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, March, 1997, Martha Crenshaw, review of The Age of Terrorism and the International Political System, pp. 231-232; September, 1990, Paul F. Power, review of Northern Ireland: The International Perspective, pp. 1033-1035.

Choice, May, 1989, J. E. Finn, review of Northern Ireland: The International Perspective, pp. 1594-1595; January, 1996, B. Schechterman, review of The Age of Terrorism and the International Political System, p. 865; November, 1999, R. I. Rotberg, review of South Africa in Transition: The Misunderstood Miracle, p. 595.

Irish Literary Supplement, fall, 1989, Jennifer Todd, review of Northern Ireland and the International Perspective, p. 38.

Times Literary Supplement, December 29, 1995, Richard Clutterbuck, review of The Age of Terrorism and the International Political System, p. 23.

ONLINE

Queens University, Belfast,http://www.qub.ac.uk/ (May 7, 2003), profile of Adrian Guelke.

Socialist Democracy Journal,http://members.lycos.co.uk/socialistdemocracyie/Journal.htm/ (May 7, 2003), review of A Farewell to Arms?: From 'Long War' to Long Peace in Northern Ireland.*