Paper long abstract:

Based on a research in Cyprus this paper explores the role of the nation in conflict and peace processes. Does peace need the nation as much as conflict did? Does peacebuilding redefine the nation and the state?

For the last two centuries the nation is the category that makes the state. The coexistence of nations in a state has often proven to be a major cause for conflict. The Republic of Cyprus constituted in 1960 is an impressive exemple of the failure of coexistence of two national groups in one state. In 1963, only three years after its constitution, the Turkish Cypriot community had withdrawn already from the republic. Since that date, the Republic of Cyprus has only represented Greek Cypriots. In 1983, nine years after the Turkish military intervention and the subsequent partition of the island, the Turkish Cypriots have proclaimed in the north part of Cyprus the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", a state without international recognition.

Efforts have been made since the partition to re-unite the island but it not until the 1990s that a bicommunal movement sees the day. The impossible category of the "Cypriot" now finds its claimants amongst Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

The study of the individuals' subjectivation to these new and old determinations of the category helps explore the viability and changes in the category though peace and conflict as well as the possibility for a viable "state of the nation".