Conflict resolution is a ‘vibrant, interdisciplinary field where theory and practice pace real-world events’. Conflict resolution theory seeks to understand and support practical interventions. conflict resolution is a multilateral process which addresses both state-level and group-level aspirations behind political violence. Hence, this process is relevant to explore solutions to ethno-nationalist violence between states and sub-state armed groups. In this context, conflict resolution theory differs from realism because of the realist approach's overemphasis on conflicts between states.

In this chapter, I focus on two interrelated arguments. Firstly, that conflict resolution efforts of states, sub-state groups and third parties provide a framework for ending ethno-nationalist violence. Secondly, that conflict resolution as a process develops an understanding of non-violent resolution efforts during the pre-negotiation and negotiation stages. This chapter aims to justify the theoretical foundations of the book. It outlines how the characteristics of conflict resolution approaches adapted in this book produce a convenient framework for analysing non-violent resolution attempts. These two arguments provide a comprehensive theoretical background for analysing the Northern Irish and Turkey's Kurdish conflicts. Within a specific context, the ethno-nationalist conflicts in Northern Ireland and Turkey, as well as the claims of the British and Turkish governments on the one hand, and the republican and pro-Kurdish movements on the other, can be emphasised in relation to efforts to reach a peace settlement. It underlines the importance of two directions for understanding this infl uence: a particular time period in which states and armed groups can be directed from an armed struggle to political or non-violent disputes, and a particular level of approaches which uncover the relationships between conflicting parties and an independent third party in terms of peace attempts.