The Origins of Ethnic Conflict in Africa


Book Description

From Darfur to the Rwandan genocide, journalists, policymakers, and scholars have blamed armed conflicts in Africa on ancient hatreds or competition for resources. Here, Tsega Etefa compares three such cases—the Darfur conflict between Arabs and non-Arabs, the Gumuz and Oromo clashes in Western Oromia, and the Oromo-Pokomo conflict in the Tana Delta—in order to offer a fuller picture of how ethnic violence in Africa begins. Diverse communities in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya alike have long histories of peacefully sharing resources, intermarrying, and resolving disputes. As he argues, ethnic conflicts are fundamentally political conflicts, driven by non-inclusive political systems, the monopolization of state resources, and the manipulation of ethnicity for political gain, coupled with the lack of democratic mechanisms for redressing grievances.




Theory and Practice in Ethnic Conflict Management


Book Description

Throughout the world there are efforts both large and small to address ethnic conflicts-identity based disputes between groups who are unable to live side-by-side in the same state. This book brings together a collection of case studies on interventions in ethnic conflicts throughout the world in which the nature of the state is a core concern (Turkey, Russia, Macedonia, Guatemala, Israel, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, South Africa, US) and asks how the projects themselves understand success and failure in ethnic conflict resolution. It emphasises the complexity and importance of better understanding ways in which small-scale interventions can sometimes have a large impact on large-scale ethnic conflict, and how the goals of the intervenors shift as the participants redefine the identities and interest at stake.







Politicized Ethnicity


Book Description

This book offers a rigorous comparative historical analysis of Kenya, Tanzania, Bolivia, Peru, and the United States to demonstrate how colonial administrative rule, access to resources, nation building and language policies, as well as political entrepreneurs contribute to the politicization of ethnicity.




Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa


Book Description

This book models the trade-off that rulers of weak, ethnically-divided states face between coups and civil war. Drawing evidence from extensive field research in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo combined with statistical analysis of most African countries, it develops a framework to understand the causes of state failure.




Confronting Ethnic Conflict


Book Description

Given the pervasive threat of ethnic conflict and the growing incidence of internal wars spilling across borders, understanding the impact of third-party intervention on conflict prevention, durable peaceful governance, and amicable social relations becomes critical exercises for any scholar of conflict management. The purpose of this project is to determine whether intervention strategies undertaken by international, regional, and subregional actors can be devised or improved so as to maximize the likelihood of successful conflict management in the case of internal conflicts, particularly ethnic conflicts. As the literature and empirical evidence suggest, third-party intervention does not always prevent or end violence. Jennifer L. De Maio contends that external involvement is more likely to lead to effective conflict management if it works to alter the perceptions of the antagonists and ensures that the parties truly own the peace. Book jacket.




Ethnic Groups in Conflict


Book Description

To understand ethnic conflict is an ambitious task, but by focusing on the logic and structure of conflict and discussing measures to abate it, Horowitz brings important insight into an urgent issues that affects all strata of society everywhere. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.




Ethnic Politics


Book Description

In this timely book Milton J. Esman surveys a recurrent and seemingly intractable factor in the politics of nations: ethnicity. As the author notes, virtually no contemporary nation-state is ethnically homogeneous. Most address the political effects of domestic ethnic difference, and many fail in the attempt—with devastatingly violent results.Esman focuses on ethnic mobilization and the management of conflict, on the ways ethnic groups prepare for political combat, and on measures that can moderate or control ethnic disputes, whether peaceful or violent.Opening with a broad synopsis of current understandings of ethnicity and its varying political salience, he illustrates his theories by analyzing experiences in South Africa, Israel-Palestine, Canada-Quebec, and Malaysia. He also outlines the political issues and dilemmas, transnational as well as domestic, caused by the vast labor migrations of Mexicans to the United States, North Africans to France, Turks to Germany, and Koreans to Japan.Can economic growth and prosperity ease ethnic conflicts? Esman addresses this question and draws conclusions based on the empirical chapters. In his view, ethnic pluralism and ethnic politics are not collective psychoses or aberrations, to be deplored and exorcised, but rather pervasive realities that observers can confront and politicians can manage.




The Logic of Ethnic and Religious Conflict in Africa


Book Description

The book is aimed at students and scholars of conflict, Africa, ethnic politics, and religion. It may also appeal to religious and political leaders. It proposes a new perspective on how ethnicity and religion shape political outcomes and violence in Africa, adding psychological elements to standard political science arguments.




Handbook of Ethnic Conflict


Book Description

Although group conflict is hardly new, the last decade has seen a proliferation of conflicts engaging intrastate ethnic groups. It is estimated that two-thirds of violent conflicts being fought each year in every part of the globe including North America are ethnic conflicts. Unlike traditional warfare, civilians comprise more than 80 percent of the casualties, and the economic and psychological impact on survivors is often so devastating that some experts believe that ethnic conflict is the most destabilizing force in the post-Cold War world. Although these conflicts also have political, economic, and other causes, the purpose of this volume is to develop a psychological understanding of ethnic warfare. More specifically, Handbook of Ethnopolitical Conflict explores the function of ethnic, religious, and national identities in intergroup conflict. In addition, it features recommendations for policy makers with the intention to reduce or ameliorate the occurrences and consequences of these conflicts worldwide.