Ethnic Conflicts
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An ethnic conflict or ethnic war is a war between ethnic groups often as a result of ethnic nationalism. They are of interest because of the apparent prevalence in the aftermath of the Cold War and because they frequently result in war crimes such as genocide.
Theories of ethnic conflict
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The symbolic grave of Margot and Anne Frank at Bergen-Belsen concentration campThe causes of ethnic conflict are debated by political scientists who generally fall into one of three schools of thought: primordialist, instrumentalist, and constructivist. More recent scholarship draws on all three schools in order to increase our understanding of ethnic conflict.
Instrumentalist accounts
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Anthony Smith notes that the instrumentalist account ?came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, in the debate about (white) ethnic persistence in what was supposed to have been an effective melting pot?. This new theory sought to explain such persistence as the result of the actions of community leaders, ?who used their cultural groups as sites of mass mobilization and as constituencies in their competition for power and resources, because they found them more effective than social classes?.In this account of ethnic identification, ?[e]thnicity and race are viewed as instrumental identities, organized as means to particular ends?.
Constructivist accounts
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A refugee camp for displaced Rwandans in ZaireA third, constructivist, set of accounts stress the importance of the socially constructed nature of ethnic groups, drawing on Benedict Anderson`s concept of the imagined community. Proponents of this account point to Rwanda as an example since the Tutsi/Hutu distinction was codified by the Belgian colonial power in the 1930s on the basis of cattle ownership, physical measurements and church records. Identity cards were issued on this basis, and these documents played a key role in the genocide of 1994.
More recently, scholars of ethnic conflict and civil wars have introduced theories that draw insights from all three traditional schools of thought. In The Geography of Ethnic Violence, for example, Monica Duffy Toft shows how ethnic group settlement patterns, socially constructed identities, charismatic leaders, issue indivisibility, and state concern with precedent setting can lead rational actors to escalate a dispute to violence, even when doing so is likely to leave contending groups much worse off. Such research addresses empirical puzzles that are difficult to explain using primordialist, instrumentalist, or constructivist approachs alone; such as why some ethnic disputes escalate to violence while others - even in the same geographic region - do not.
From: http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2007/6/15853_space.html
===============
An ethnic conflict or ethnic war is a war between ethnic groups often as a result of ethnic nationalism. They are of interest because of the apparent prevalence in the aftermath of the Cold War and because they frequently result in war crimes such as genocide.
Theories of ethnic conflict
===========================
The symbolic grave of Margot and Anne Frank at Bergen-Belsen concentration campThe causes of ethnic conflict are debated by political scientists who generally fall into one of three schools of thought: primordialist, instrumentalist, and constructivist. More recent scholarship draws on all three schools in order to increase our understanding of ethnic conflict.
Instrumentalist accounts
------------------------
Anthony Smith notes that the instrumentalist account ?came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, in the debate about (white) ethnic persistence in what was supposed to have been an effective melting pot?. This new theory sought to explain such persistence as the result of the actions of community leaders, ?who used their cultural groups as sites of mass mobilization and as constituencies in their competition for power and resources, because they found them more effective than social classes?.In this account of ethnic identification, ?[e]thnicity and race are viewed as instrumental identities, organized as means to particular ends?.
Constructivist accounts
-----------------------
A refugee camp for displaced Rwandans in ZaireA third, constructivist, set of accounts stress the importance of the socially constructed nature of ethnic groups, drawing on Benedict Anderson`s concept of the imagined community. Proponents of this account point to Rwanda as an example since the Tutsi/Hutu distinction was codified by the Belgian colonial power in the 1930s on the basis of cattle ownership, physical measurements and church records. Identity cards were issued on this basis, and these documents played a key role in the genocide of 1994.
More recently, scholars of ethnic conflict and civil wars have introduced theories that draw insights from all three traditional schools of thought. In The Geography of Ethnic Violence, for example, Monica Duffy Toft shows how ethnic group settlement patterns, socially constructed identities, charismatic leaders, issue indivisibility, and state concern with precedent setting can lead rational actors to escalate a dispute to violence, even when doing so is likely to leave contending groups much worse off. Such research addresses empirical puzzles that are difficult to explain using primordialist, instrumentalist, or constructivist approachs alone; such as why some ethnic disputes escalate to violence while others - even in the same geographic region - do not.
From: http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2007/6/15853_space.html
