Ethnic Conflict

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Ethnic Conflict

• Causes, Myths, and Solutions

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What is ethnic conflict?

• An ethnic conflict is a conflict in which a
  sub-national (minority) group challenges the
  policies of the state or other political actors,
  usually by asking for group rights or recognition
  of some sort.

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• 60 percent of the worlds 20 million refugees are
  fleeing ethnopolitical conflicts and repression
  

Top photo a woman from Abkhazia, Georgia who was
forced to flee her home bottom right, Chechen
refugees. Photos Fred Clarke, International Red
Cross
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• Since the end of World War II, 16.5 million
  people have died in internal conflicts, compared
  with 3.3 million in interstate wars. There have
  been about 122 civil wars since 1945, compared
  with 25 conventional wars. Many are between
  different ethnic groups.

Youths in Kabul, Afghanistan, sift through rubble.
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• There are currently about 250 active
  ethnopolitical movements using various forms of
  protest and rebellion.
  

• Ethnic conflict occurs in all regions of the
  world
  
• Serious conflicts, 1995-98
• 16 Europe
• 10 Middle East
• 31 Asia
• 31 Africa
• 7 Latin America

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Myths of ethnic conflict

• MYTH Ethnic conflict occurs because of ancient
  tribal or ethnic hatreds.
  
• NO. Ethnic conflicts nearly always occur because
  of discriminatory economic and political policies
  pursued by modern-day states.

Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
Photo BBC.
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What causes ethnic conflict?

• State-building nationalism
• Peripheral nationalism
• Competition over resources
• discrimination
• Note Nationalism is often (but not always) the
  framing ideology of ethnic conflict

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Myths about Ethnic Conflict

• MYTH There is more ethnic conflict today than
  in any other time, and the number of such
  conflicts keeps increasing.
  
• NO. The rate of ethnic conflict rose steadily
  from the 1950s-early 1990s and has since started
  dropping.

Source Minorities at Risk Project
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Source Minorities at Risk Project
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Myths of ethnic conflict

• MYTH Ethnic conflict usually occurs between two
  or more different social groups or ethnic
  communities.
  
• NO. Most ethnic conflicts occur between a
  minority group (or PART OF A MINORITY group, and
  a state (and its forces).

A Russian tank in Chechnya.
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Modes of ethnic conflict

• Conventional politics
• Nonviolent protest and direct action
• Rebellion
• 70 ethnic groups have waged armed conflicts for
  autonomy or independence since the 1950s (not
  including liberation movements of former European
  colonies)

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Note the most common form of ethnic conflict is
NOT violence

• Of 161 groups pursuing self-determination in
  1998-2000, only about 41 (a quarter) used
  violence. The rest used conventional politics and
  nonviolent protest.

Kurdish-rights activist Osman Baydemir on the
campaign trial in Diyarbakir, Turkey, March 2004.
Photo NFWatts
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Resolving ethnic conflict

• Settlement that acknowledges collective rights
  and provides institutional means for pursuing
  interests
  
• Regional autonomy
• Federalism (Hechter)
• independence
• Only 5 new states emerged from ethnic conflict in
  the last 40 years (East Timor, Slovenia, Croatia,
  Eritrea, Bangladesh)