Endgame for ETA

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 un- finished business of Spain´s transition to democ- racy. 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.