Niall Ó Dochartaigh is Personal Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland Galway. He has published extensively on the Northern Ireland conflict and on mediation, peace negotiations, and territorial conflict. Previous publications include the co-edited books Political Violence in Context (ECPR Press 2015), Dynamics of Political Change in Ireland: Making and Breaking a Divided Island (Routledge 2017), and a seminal study of the Northern Ireland conflict: Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the birth of the Irish Troubles(Palgrave Macmillan 2005). He was a founding convener of the Standing Group on Political Violence of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and the Specialist Group on Peace and Conflict of the Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI).

• Introduction: Negotiating Political Violence 1: Escalation: 'Their War Got Out of Hand and Ours Got Out of Hand Too' 2: Negotiation: 'Dogmatic and Impossible Demands' 3: The Intermediary: 'A Vessel to be Used' 4: Contact: 'Climbing a Mountain Without Ropes' 5: 1975 Ceasefire: 'Everyone Trying' 6: Long War and a Policy Vacuum: 'Passing the Time Decently' 7: The Hunger Strikes: 'Playing Their Last Card'? 8: British Policy and IRA Strategy: 'A Difficult Hand to Play' 9: Back to the Back-Channel: 'They Should Tell Us Privately' 10: Peace Process: 'All Their Cards on the Table Including the Deeds of Their House' Conclusion: Negotiation, Transformation and Strategic Action Epilogue: Diaries of a Long-Distance Runner

An impressive book. Drawing on previously unmined sources…he offers a subtle account of a complex courtship… offers important evidence of shifting strategy over the years [and] thoughtful analysis of his own. [Intermediary Brendan Duddy] was a long-distance runner, with all the loneliness and determination of the breed. So, too, in his own way, is Professor O Dochartaigh. To collect and collate the Duddy archive, to piece together the story it tells, to place that story in broader historical and theoretical contexts, to acknowledge that it is only one of many stories in the convoluted history of Ireland-these things take effort and stamina… [We are] in his debt for his solid and serious monograph.