Ethnic conflict

Ethnic conflict, or ethnic war, is a dispute between two or more groups of differing ethnicities. These armed conflicts are a form of regional warfare that may be driven by such issues as ethnic nationalism, secessionist movements, religious disputes, discrimination, and challenges to political and social structures. Instances of this form of sustained violence often involve guerrilla warfare, militant action, genocide, war rape, and ethnic cleansing. Such conflicts are often considered humanitarian crises, requiring intervention from international bodies and foreign governments.

Overview

The study of ethnic conflict falls under the disciplines of sociology, political science, foreign affairs, and international studies. It became more widely studied in the 1990s after the end of the Cold War. Common lenses through which scholars view ethnic conflict include constructivism, primordialism, and instrumentalism. Other related social and political concepts include federalism, consociationalism, nationalism, and tribalism.

Ethnic conflicts most commonly occur in multiethnic or multinational states, where more than one nationality is represented in a single state. In these cases, groups can differ from one another in a variety of ways, including language and religion. Twenty-first-century multinational states include Canada, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. States containing numerous separate ethnic groups include India and China. Additional multinational states, such as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Austria-Hungary, existed prior to the twenty-first century but have since been broken into smaller nations. All of these cases raise issues of blurred lines and gray areas in regard to identity. For example, in Canada, a citizen may identify as both Canadian and Québécois; in Austria-Hungary, however, groups such as ethnic Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, and Serbs did not overlap. In the latter instance, language was also a major barrier in the multinational state.

Ethnic conflicts came into the international spotlight in the 1990s with conflicts such as the Rwandan Civil War, which raged from 1990 to 1993 as two ethnic groups, the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority, fought for control of the country. The fight ultimately led to the genocide of between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsis. During the same period, the Yugoslav wars saw different ethnic groups, including Serbs, Bosniaks, and Croats, fighting for sovereignty; this conflict led to the breakup of Yugoslavia and the creation of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Kosovo. The violence included mass murder and genocide of over 130,000 people.

One high-profile ethnic conflict of the 2000s was the War in Darfur, a conflict that began in Sudan in 2003 between multiple factions and militia groups and Arab and non-Arab populations. International involvement included the use of mercenaries by the warring sides and the contested intervention of groups such as the United Nations (UN) in ending refugee displacements and genocide. Despite a 2010 cease-fire agreement that led to peace talks and the drafting of a peace agreement, the conflict continued, with a new surge of violence erupting in 2013. Other examples of ethnic conflict in the 2000s include the Libyan civil war; violence in Assam, India; and the Sunni and Shia conflict in Iraq.

International intervention in ethnic conflict often involves the use of peacekeeping and nation-building forces from the likes of the UN Security Council and work of organizations such as Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group. The International Criminal Court, seated in the Hague, Netherlands, acts as a tribunal to prosecute those who perpetuate the crimes often associated with ethnic conflict.

Bibliography

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De Juan, Alexander. “Devolving Ethnic Conflicts: The Role of Subgroup Identities for Institutional Intergroup Settlements.” Civil Wars 15.1 (2013): 78–99. Print.

Huibregtse, Ada. “External Intervention in Ethnic Conflict.” International Interactions 36.3 (2010): 265–93. Print.

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Kempin Reuter, Tina. “Including Minority Rights in Peace Agreements: A Benefit or Obstacle to Peace Processes after Ethnic Conflicts?” International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 19.4 (2012): 359–97. Print.

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Wolff, Stefan. “Managing Ethnic Conflict: The Merits and Perils of Territorial Accommodation.” Political Studies Review 9.1 (2011): 26–41. Print.

Zembylas, Michalinos. “Citizenship Education and Human Rights in Sites of Ethnic Conflict: Toward Critical Pedagogies of Compassion and Shared Fate.” Studies in Philosophy and Education 31.6 (2012): 553–67. Print.