PROF Adrian Guelke of Queen's University, Belfast has suggested that a referendum be held in Northern Ireland on the principle of a negotiated settlement.
Speaking at a conference organised by the Women's Coalition last weekend, Prof Guelke said: "If it looks like the talks are stalling and going nowhere, then one possibility to break the impasse is to ask the electorate whether they want a negotiated settlement or if they would prefer another option such as repartition.
"A positive response to the principle of a negotiated settlement could have a major impact on politicians who had previously lacked the will to reach an accommodation."
Around loo people attended the conference which focused on the need for confidence building measures in deeply divided societies.
Prof Guelke compared the peace processes in South Africa, the Middle East, and the North.
In South Africa, most concessions were made by whites, whereas in the Middle East and the North, the dominant communities were extremely reluctant to compromise.
Unionists were reluctant to give any ground at all, he said. Apart from the two fringe loyalist parties, they remained "wedded to the rhetoric of betrayal and surrender".
Prof Guelke said that it had been a bad year for the peace process in the North, with growing polarisation between the communities.
The formation and success of the Women's Coalition was one of the best things to emerge in 1996, he added.
The positive impact it had on the political process was quite out of proportion to its share of the vote, he added.
In an open session at the conference, a speaker called for an end to the economic boycott of Protestant businesses across the North.
Women were the ones carrying out the boycotts as they did the shopping and bought the school uniforms she said.
It was sad that women, at the behest of various political factions, were engaging in such divisive behaviour, she added.
Several speakers said that the lack of political progress during the loyalist and republican ceasefires had shown that the paramilitaries had been made scapegoats during the Troubles.
There was heavy criticism of constitutional politicians for the lack of political movement.
Dr Beverley Milton Edwards, of Queen's University's politics department, suggested that too much attention was being focused on the need for another IRA ceasefire and that progress was possible without such a development.
She said that the peace process could move forward by ordinary people looking to themselves and not always to the Irish and British governments.
Ms Pearl Sagaar, of the Women's Coalition, criticised the constitutional politicians at the Stormont talks for not wanting to broad en the agenda to include social and economic issues.