Endgame for ETA: Elusive Peace in the Basque Country - Hardcover

Whitfield, Teresa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199387540 ISBN 13: 9780199387540

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2014

Synopsis

The violent Basque separatist group ETA took shape in Franco's Spain, yet claimed the majority of its victims under democracy. For most Spaniards it became an aberration, a criminal and terrorist band whose persistence defied explanation. Others, mainly Basques (but only some Basques) understood ETA as the violent expression of a political conflict that remained the unfinished business of Spain's transition to democracy. Such differences hindered efforts to 'defeat' ETA's terrorism on the one hand and 'resolve the Basque conflict' on the other for more than three decades.

Endgame for ETA offers a compelling account of the long path to ETA's declaration of a definitive end to its armed activity in October 2011. Its political surrogates remain as part of a resurgence of regional nationalism - in the Basque Country as in Catalonia - that is but one element of multiple crises confronting Spain. The Basque case has been cited as an ex- ample of the perils of 'talking to terrorists'.

Drawing on extensive field research, Teresa Whitfield argues that while negotiations did not prosper, a form of 'virtual peacemaking' was an essential complement to robust police action and social condemnation. Together they helped to bring ETA's violence to an end and return its grievances to the channels of normal politics.

About this title

About the Author

Teresa Whitfield is a fellow of New York University's Center on International Cooperation. She is the author of Paying the Price: Ignacio Ellacuría and the Murdered Jesuits of El Salvador and Friends Indeed? The UN, Groups of Friends and the Resolution of Conflict.

Review

"Endgame for ETA is a wonderful book - academically rigorous and well researched, yet engaging and accessible to the general reader. Avoiding simplistic arguments, Whitfield counterbalances the complex factors leading to ETA's demise with a sober critique of Spain's counterterrorism. The thoughtful lessons that she draws from this fascinating case deserve a broad reading and high-level attention." -- Audrey Kurth Cronin, author of How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns

"The most detailed study to date of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue's involvement in the Basque Conflict. ... This is an enjoyable, well-written book by an expert in the theory and practice of conflict resolution." -- Iñigo Gurruchaga, El Correo

"...an admirably clear and perceptive analysis of the conflict's tortuous path towards resolution over the past 15 years .... Endgame for Eta asks some difficult but pertinent questions." --The Irish Times

'"Whitfield is a sure-footed guide to the involvement of moderators and peacemakers from other parts of Europe and the US, who eventually prevailed against the hard-liners in the Basque country and in Madrid who were set on the elimination of their opponents. Her book deserves to become a classic for peacemakers." -- The Tablet

"Highly recommended for researchers interested in the Basque conflict or actively working in the peace process." -- LSE Review of Books

"...excellent and exhaustive." -- El Imparcial

"This book describes the peace process that recently resulted in a definitive end to what Whitfield correctly terms 'the last organized armed insurgency in Western Europe.'"
-- Foreign Affairs

"The gruesome story of the ETA's activities has been studies from many different angles, but Teresa Whitfield's elegantly written study is the first serious analysis of the highly complex process leading to the group's decision to declare a general, permanent and verifiable ceasefire in January 2011. Whitfield, an expert in conflict resolution at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, presents a well-researched, highly convincing and subtly nuanced account of this process, which will be of interest both to those already familiar with ETA'S history and readers seeking broader insights into how terrorist organizations come to an end." -- Charles Powell, The Times Literary Supplement

"Teresa Whitfield's elegantly written study is the first serious analysis of the highly complex process leading to [ETA's] decision to declare a general, permanent and verifiable ceasefire in January 2011. Whitfield ... presents a well-researched, highly convincing and subtly nuanced account of this process, which will be of interest both to those already familiar with ETA's history and readers seeking broader insights into how terrorist organisations come to an end." -- Times Literary Supplement

"...essential reading" -- Foreign Affairs

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0199387540
• ISBN 13: 9780199387540
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 402