Regional and Ethnic Conflicts

Perspectives from the Front Lines

Judy Carter, George Irani, Vamik D Volkan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138436091
• eBook ISBN: 9781317344650
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book provides readers alternative, first-hand, front-line perspectives and insights on some of the major ethnopolitical conflicts plaguing the planet. It promotes the cultivation of a global culture of conflict prevention and peace promotion.

1

Ethnopolitical Conflict in Perspective

Judy Carter, George E. Irani, and Vamik Volkan

Ethnopolitical conflicts are a leading cause of violence, suffering, and instability around the world. The end of the Cold War failed to produce stability and peace. Some interstate conflicts abated, but intrastate conflicts escalated sharply, both in number and deadliness. Many of the world’s most intractable conflicts involve age-old cycles of oppression, victimization, and revenge. Violence, war, and “ethnic cleansing” are among the most dramatic manifestations of this cycle. From Sri Lanka to Cyprus, from Nigeria to Northern Ireland, and from Rwanda to Kashmir, the recurrent, intractable nature of ethnopolitical conflicts is evident in the cases discussed in this book.

While researchers’ understanding of and ability to manage conflict have increased during the past two decades, ethnopolitical conflicts remain difficult to understand and mitigate. Ethnopolitical conflicts are especially complex and multi-causal. As well, the forces and factors at play are different, steeped in history, and in some ways alien to those at play in other contemporary conflicts. One salient feature that distinguishes ethnopolitical conflict is the role that ethnicity plays. Ethnopolitical conflicts occur when some aspect of a group’s ethnicity becomes politicized. Groups may define themselves or be defined by others using ethnic criteria. They may allege that their collective interests are being threatened or thwarted by internal (national or state government) or external (political or economic) forces.

Alternatively, ethnicity may be advanced as the reason for attacking or even trying to exterminate a group. Ethnicity, in many cases, plays a key role in disputing parties’ sense of identity, which explains why threats to culture, beliefs, and values sometimes result in virulent ethnopolitical conflict.

Looking ahead, ethnopolitical conflicts are forecast to be a leading cause of violence and war in the twenty-first century. Conventional efforts to mitigate ethnopolitical conflict are slow, can be ineffective, and are sometimes inappropriate. Consequently, economic, social, political, ecological, and human costs associated with ethnopolitical conflict are continuing to accrue.

Humanity’s failure to prevent, mitigate, and resolve intractable interstate and intrastate ethnopolitical conflicts suggests that those seeking to end them may be missing certain insights or new, alternative perspectives into the parties, issues, and dynamics involved in these deadly, tragic conflicts. The urgency with which new insights, deeper understanding, and more effective approaches to ethnopolitical conflict must be sought continues to be driven home by nightly news headlines of violence, war, and suffering. Terrorist attacks on centers of political and economic power and the targeting of civilians underscore developed countries’ inability to shield citizens from ethnopolitical conflicts occurring elsewhere in the world and the violent tactics that desperate disputing parties employ.

Perspectives from the Front Lines aims to provide an alternative vantage point, one that offers new perspectives to the study of ethnopolitical conflict. Perspectives from the Front Lines endeavors to deepen and broaden the global community’s understanding of ethnopolitical conflict. Two key features distinguish this text.

First and foremost, chapters comprising this book have been contributed by people who have lived or worked in regions afflicted by ethnopolitical conflict. Perspectives from the Front Lines gives readers alternative, firsthand, front-line perspectives and insights on some of the major ethnopolitical conflicts plaguing the planet. It also gives people who have lived on the front lines an opportunity to tell their stories in their words, thereby humanizing their plight. Contributors describe and explain the factors and forces that have instigated and perpetuated the conflict in which they, their compatriots, and their enemies are ensnared. Contributors’ chapters provide front-line accounts of the realities and complexities of ethnopolitical conflict. In addition, they note the clear and present danger that ethnopolitical conflicts pose to global security.

The second distinguishing feature of this book is its multidisciplinarity. Contributors come from several fields, including international relations, conflict management, government, nongovernmental organizations, military, diplomatic service, law, political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, psychiatry, engineering, and project management. In an effort to contribute new insights to a sometimes overlooked aspect of ethnopolitical conflict, special attention is paid to its socio-psychological dimensions. Purposely inviting contributors from diverse fields and perspectives to share their views succeeds in illustrating the many perspectives from which ethnopolitical conflicts can be viewed. Chapters are, in some cases, presented in pairs so that readers can study disputing sides’ views and reflect on their differing perspectives of the same conflict. Especially noteworthy is the chapter on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. By co-writing this chapter, its authors exemplify how parties with differing perspectives can respect each others’ views and work together.

Perspectives from the Front Lines aims to broaden the discussion and go beyond the usual single-discipline view presented in most academic texts. Rather than focusing on a specific conflict resolution theory or intervention strategy, this text encourages readers to inventory, weigh, and contemplate the interplay between the many forces and factors involved in these intractable, violent conflicts.¹ It encourages readers to consider the multi-dimensionality of ethnopolitical conflict, its many intertwined causes, and the multi-pronged approaches needed to effect enduring, systemic change. By inviting front-line observers to share their stories, it is hoped that their passion and depth of expression will convey the complexity of these conflicts and the challenges that must be surmounted to resolve them and achieve lasting peace.

While contributors’ chapters demonstrate how different disputants’ interpretations of the conflict in which they are mired can be, they also reveal striking similarities. Chapters in this book make it possible for readers to see how old conflicts, as well as previous peacemaking efforts, are impacting current events. They illustrate how, after several generations, conflict can become embedded in group identity, such that disputing parties define themselves in terms of their fight with one another. They show, too, the tragedies that unresolved ethnopolitical conflicts cause.

Equally, if not more, important, contributors propose recommendations for action. They flag those aspects of the conflict they are analyzing that are most volatile and potentially deadly. They propose interventions and initiatives they believe will reduce and resolve tensions and promote peace. Contributors’ recommendations are synthesized, and guidelines for action are presented in the concluding chapter.

Ethnopolitical conflicts discussed in Perspectives from the Front Lines include those in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka, as well as those between Israel and Palestine, Turkey and Greece, Croatia and Serbia, Macedonia and Albania, and India and Pakistan. In the cases presented, contributors go beyond conventional “real politik” analyses of ethnopolitical conflict. They look behind facts, figures, dates, and names. They discuss how history, politics, geography, economic development, and psychosocial factors such as identity, culture, beliefs, and values can contribute to ethnopolitical conflict. Contributors write candidly about international intervention and show how it can cause or aggravate ethnopolitical conflict. Some reveal the effects of globalization and explain how it and modernization actually exacerbate ethnopolitical conflict. Others show how the uneven distribution of power and wealth, injustice, oppression, inequity, poverty and hopelessness can precipitate violence and terrorism.

By taking a case analysis approach, this book answers calls from within the conflict management field for less state-centric and more humanistic approaches to both conflict analysis and intervention. In addition, this text showcases the power of disputants’ personal narratives to articulate what is at issue in a given conflict. It also reveals disputants’ ability to propose solutions that will resonate with and receive popular support from those who see aggression and even terrorism as the only effective ways of achieving their aspirations.

Contributors were invited to discuss the following aspects of the conflict afflicting their homeland:

• The history of the conflict

• The parties and issues involved in the conflict

• The way in which group identity, beliefs, values, sense of belonging, and security are impacted or threatened by the conflict

• Past glories, traumas, and events that sparked the conflict or are contributing to its persistence

• The way in which one group perceives “the enemy”

• Efforts that have been made to resolve the conflict and reasons for their success or failure

• Future predictions and recommendations on how best to promote peace

Each author chose how to best share his or her story and insights. Chapters are, as a consequence, wonderfully diverse. Each provides a snapshot of a dynamic conflict, details of which will likely have changed and continue to change. To gain a fuller understanding of the conflicts included in this text, readers are encouraged to seek additional and updated information.

Broadly speaking, contributors look to the past to explain how previous conflicts that were not satisfactorily resolved are impacting contemporary conflicts. They show how current conflicts open old wounds and reactivate old hurts and grudges. They demonstrate how conflict can be time-collapsed, resulting in centuries-old issues influencing contemporary conflicts. They demonstrate how a seemingly small incident or “chosen trauma” can become a lightning rod. In detailing disputing parties’ divergent perspectives and concerns, they make plain the improbability of achieving a single, consensual truth about the past. They show, too, that when conflict becomes a defining aspect of group identity, disputes are inclined toward intractability and recurrence.

Contributors analyze the present. They delve behind the headlines and investigate the forces and factors contributing to the conflict plaguing their community. They describe the tangled web of political, historical, socio-cultural, military, legal, economic, psychological, ecological, and other factors contributing to most ethnopolitical conflicts. They explain how differing beliefs and values, large group identity and threats to it, and the role that political and community leaders play can influence ethnopolitical conflict. In explaining these intangible aspects of ethnopolitical conflict, contributors call into question, albeit unintentionally, the prevailing ethnocentric tenet that if disputing parties’ underlying interests are addressed, their conflict can be resolved.

Contributors also look at the future. After summarizing efforts to resolve the conflict plaguing their community and reasons for their success or failure, contributors proffer their suggestions for reducing and hopefully ending ethnopolitical violence and discord.

Perspectives from the Front Lines is intended for use by concerned thinkers interested in deepening their understanding of ethnopolitical conflict and learning how the suffering it inflicts can be reduced or prevented. This book is intentionally accessible to a wide range of readers. It is not for experts and pundits alone. It is meant to serve as a forum to stimulate thought, dialogue, and change.

This book is for college and university students. Student’s gain interest and insights into how complex ethnopolitical conflicts can be mitigated, resolved, and prevented, and this gives hope to the future. Perspectives from the Front Lines is meant to complement other texts. It can serve as a reader for undergraduate and graduate students. It is designed for use in a range of disciplines, including, but not limited to, peace and conflict studies, international relations, political science, history, sociology, public administration, and anthropology.

From a pedagogical perspective, this text is designed to expose students to alternative perspectives. It is intended to add realism and insight to students’ understanding of distant ethnopolitical conflicts. Contributors were purposely asked to discuss a range of factors to bring to light the complexity of ethnopolitical conflict. Their chapters are meant to prod students to internalize the importance of analyzing and understanding ethnopolitical conflicts from multiple perspectives.

In addition to students, this book is for professionals working in the fields concerned with ethnopolitical conflict. It is for academics, practitioners, researchers, business leaders, and policy makers alike. The perspectives it presents and insights it offers are equally pertinent for diplomats, negotiators, legal professionals, and members of the media wanting to learn more about ethnopolitical conflict.

Perspectives from the Front Lines aims to foster deeper understanding of the issues involved in ethnopolitical conflict. Cases constituting this text bring to light the common characteristics of the ethnopolitical conflict and illustrate why complex ethnopolitical conflicts do not lend themselves to simple solutions. Contributors’ stories give readers a front-line view of the tragedy ethnopolitical conflict causes and underscore the need to develop new, alternative approaches.

With regard to public policy and action, Perspectives from the Front Lines aims to provoke vigorous, thoughtful debate. It endeavors to challenge...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Ethnopolitical Conflict in Perspective
• 2 Macedonia
• 3 Kashmir
• 4 Cyprus
• 5 Israel/Palestine
• 6 Rwanda
• 7 Sri Lanka
• 8 Greece and Turkey
• 9 Northern Ireland
• 10 Serbia/Croatia
• 11 Nigeria
• Lessons to Ponder: Insights and Advice from the Front Lines