Nationalist Conflict

1. Nationalist Conflict Causes, Myths, and Solutions

2. What is nationalist conflict? 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.

3. 60 percent of the world’s 20 million refugees are fleeing ethnopolitical conflicts and repression

4. 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.

5. There are currently about 250 active ethnopolitical movements using various forms of protest and rebellion. Nationalist conflict occurs in all regions of the world Serious conflicts, 1995-98: 16 Europe 10 Middle East 31 Asia 31 Africa 7 Latin America

6. Myths of nationalist conflict (#1): MYTH: “Nationalist conflict occurs because of ancient tribal or ethnic hatreds.” (primordialism) NO. Nationalist conflicts nearly always occur because of economic and political policies pursued by modern-day states. In other words, so-called “nationalist conflict” is rarely a conflict over ethnicity, and much more a conflict about politics.

7. What are some of the practices that might create nationalist grievances? Creation of an “official” language Banning of certain forms of cultural expression (music, dress) Preferential employment opportunities Preferential political opportunities Changing of place names

8. What causes nationalist conflict? Various theories State-building nationalism ? sense of discrimination among culturally coherent ethnic group ? peripheral nationalism and ethnic conflict Competition over resources ? inter-elite competition ? nationalist mobilization (“instrumentalism”) Note: Nationalism is often the “framing ideology” of ethnic conflict even when nationalism is not at the root of the conflict

9. Myths of Nationalist Conflict (#2) MYTH: “There is more nationalist and ethnic conflict today than in any other time, and the number of such conflicts keeps increasing.” NO. The rate of nationalist conflict rose steadily from the 1950s to the early 1990s and has since been dropping.

11. Myths of nationalist conflict (#3): MYTH: “Nationalist conflict usually occurs between two or more different social groups or ethnic communities.” NO. Most nationalist conflicts occur between a minority group (or PART OF A MINORITY group, and a state (and its forces).

12. Modes of nationalist 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)

13. Note: the most common form of nationalist 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.

14. What factors help determine whether an ethnic conflict will be violent? (Gurr and Harff) Level of group cohesion Regime type Level of external support Depends in part on status of target state

15. Resolving nationalist conflict State acknowledgement of collective rights and provision of institutional means for pursuing interests Federalism (Hechter) independence Only 5 new states emerged from ethnic conflict in the last 40 years (East Timor, Slovenia, Croatia, Eritrea, Bangladesh)