Even people with good intentions sometimes do the wrong thing. It is my impression, from frequent high-level contacts, that the Governments of Latvia and Estonia recognize this, which is why they have expressed their willingness to continue to work with me. In fact, individual Tutsi and Hutu are not easily distinguishable from each other, which is why they were issued with identity cards to "fix" their identities. What is Ethnic Conflict? Efforts to improve intergroup relations often overstate differences among and within racial and ethnic groups, and neglect beliefs and values that are shared across racial and ethnic lines. The search for generalizations that would promote sensitivity to differences and encourage positive responses to those differences often leads to oversimplification. Intermediate patch sizes, patches of a particular size, are likely to be the culprit. Accordingly, moving the boundaries would have been a peaceful alternative to the disastrous violence that took place. This insight provides guidance for how the worst of ethnic violence can be prevented. Indeed, there are big differences in the cultures of groups that are encompassed by terms such as Latino and Anglo. If this can happen in a nation where the government was recently massacring its Mayan citizens, then one can hope that few circumstances are so desperate as to make ethnic approximation completely impossible. Making sense of when ethnic differences generate conflict -- and knowing how best to attempt to prevent or respond to them when they do -- requires a deeper understanding of how ethnicity works. Any content older than 10 years is archival and Cultural Survival does not necessarily agree with the content and word choice today. Figure 1:Simulation of type separation with two types of agents [(A) to (E) show the system at 8, 64, 512, 4096, and 32768 attempted moves per particle, respectively]. Cultural Survival E-Newsletter - News and Updates, Information on conferences, meetings and global events pertaining to Indigenous Peoples, 18-2 Ethnic Conflict: The New World Order. However, there are also other significant reasons to focus on prevention. This suggests that as groups choose to separate the only solution to violence is to separate them even more. FEIN 23-7182593. Consider the fact that Ghana, a West African country with nearly 30 million people and a mix of . How has the High Commissioner balanced territorial integrity and self-determination? The Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect has developed a Framework of Analysis to identify some of the main risk factors for atrocity crimes. To prevent atrocity crimes, it is critically important to understand the root causes of these crimes. Complex systems scientist studying social and economic systems, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute. We performed case studies in Yugoslavia, India, and Switzerland and found indeed that when patches of ethnic groups are above a certain size, ethnic violence does not occur. The conflict has roots in contestations over the balance of power between the federal and TPLF governments and a war of attrition, with each side accusing the other of seeking to eliminate it . When patches are below a certain size, violence does not occur either. This behavior is universal, it does not depend on the specific details of what is happening or where. Figure 2 shows our analysis of ethnic geography and violence in Yugoslavia. [7] Comments can be sent to CODA, The College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. Efforts to form boundaries and separate conflicting groups are viewed negatively. Individuals have a natural tendency to choose to live near people similar to themselves. Atrocities crimes, particularly genocide and crimes against humanity, are not spontaneous acts. This gives people the opportunity to interact regardless of culture (Wang, 2018). Sites of reported violence are shown as red dots [18]. In the critical range for violence, expectations about public spaces are in conflict. Author of Making Things Work. An example can be found in data suggesting that some groups of Latinos are more likely than Anglos to prefer cooperative tasks. Joint study of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence and the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide on the contribution of transitional justice to the prevention of gross violations and abuses of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law, particularly to the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, and their recurrence. While Switzerland has a reputation as a peaceful country, it has a diverse population of Catholics and Protestants and French, German and Italian speakers. Often, race relations programs and activities focus on awareness and knowledge about, and behavior toward, persons of color. Yet, in spite of the efforts of these fundamentalists, their party (the BJP has recently been rejected at the polls in major north Indian states. Each ethnic group has its own spatial region in which its own values, customs, and traditions are expected to apply in public spaces by default. These principles for designing and implementing effective strategies for improving intergroup relations and reducing discrimination are not guarantees. On the other hand, when the patch size is very large, most people dont encounter members of the other groups, so they wouldnt be involved in fights. We respect individual differences in a society because of what each individual can contribute. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and overall international human rights law treaties contain provisions that oblige Member States to prevent those crimes or violations, including by ensuring the respect for the norms in them contained. The former Yugoslavia is an important case study. Still, there is one region where violence was predicted and in fact has been historically observed. Instead he urges Americans to live up to their ideals and practice the democratic inclusiveness that they preach. Yet, at the moment when francophone Quebecois seem to have achieved success, there is considerable sentiment among them to separate from Canada altogether. The Federation of Malaysia currently dubbed by its Tourism Authority as "Truly Asia" to showcase its ethnic diversity is in many ways an enviable, relatively successful, multi-ethnic country. 134. Preventing Ethnic Conflict: Macedonia and The Pluralist Paradigm During his forty-year career he has served his country in Bonn, Nairobi, New York, The Hague and, most recently, was Swedish Ambassador to the United States. A well integrated society is often held up as the ideal. Such boundaries are not needed if people choose to integrate, which is also present in many places. We should realize, however, that the idea of universal dynamics that applies to many different types of system does not mean that it happens in every instance. Sub-national boundaries aligned with natural communities can reduce ethnic tensions and prevent violence. However, the presence or absence of borders in the rest of the country has little effect on the geography of violence. This is a complex and to some extent a unique job and every day brings up something new and interesting. How it is that people, as stated in the editorial at the beginning of this quarterly, can be transformed from neighbors into enemies? People with power and authority send messages more by their deeds than by their words. Ethnic violence is a global problem | by Yaneer Bar-Yam | Complex systems channel | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. It is obvious that the better trained a person is to foster learning that improves intergroup relations, the more effective that person will be. In a well mixed society, with small patches, no one group has or expects to have a monopoly over behavior in public spaces. Respecting group decisions about public spaces, giving them the local autonomy to do so, is part of this respect. This is the reason we investigated the connection between patch size and ethnic violence. Self-governance at the neighborhood, municipal or district-level can offer communities a sense of autonomy and safety. 24 January 2023 Peace and Security. A well mixed neighborhood would correspond to the case when people are fine with living together. It was not the High Commissioner's decision to open or close the missions, and their closure has no formal bearing on my work. In 1995, the Carnegie Corporation commissioned a number of papers to summarize research that could be used to improve race relations in schools and youth organizations. While Switzerland has a reputation as a peaceful country, it has a diverse population of Catholics and Protestants and French, German and Italian speakers. In short, it is important to make clear that while racial and ethnic groups may have differences, they often have a lot in common. However, because the mandates of the missions related a great deal to minority issues, their closure would suggest that the Governments of those countries have taken important steps forward concerning the protection of persons belonging to national minorities over the past years. Certainly there is a lot of war in the ethnographic record, though it is far from universal. None of the programs reviewed met the criteria of all the principles. Learning what people believe about persons of other races and ethnic groups, and being prepared to correct misconceptions, should be the responsibility of those who work to improve intergroup relations. Kaapcke's paper shows how difficult it is to determine who are indigenous people in the Former Soviet Union and how such peoples fit into the bewildering kaleidoscope of new nations and new minorities that has emerged since the collapse of the Soviet state. Organizations work in diverse environments. Muller offers one explanation for why ethnic identities figure so centrally in political conflict. The system seems to offer hope and human fulfillment to people suffering under despotic regimes, but all too often it disappoints in practice, encouraging anomie and a kind of unsatisfying consumerism. Is Ethnic Conflict Avoidable? - E-International Relations The major . Lemarchand's article below stresses that Tutsi domination of the Hutu was exaggerated and institutionalized as a "natural fact" by Belgium in colonial times and that European writers invented a racial rationale for it - tall, aristocratic, Hamitic Tutsi lords ruling short, peasant, Bantu Hutu serfs. Complexity science adopts a multiscale perspective on society. But in this job, it is sometimes necessary to stick one's nose in where it may not be welcome. Our results suggest that in many cases boundaries and local autonomy are a constructive alternative to severe violence. The idea that local autonomy is a good way to organize a government is present in other places, including not just Switzerland but also the United States, which has municipal, district, state and federal government systems. It requires a great deal of travel in order fully to orient and engage myself on the spot. Principle 1 emphasized the importance of relating strategies to the particular context in which the participants are involved on a continuing basis. When those in positions of authority are too busy too participate in race relations programs, the impact of the program will be undermined unless the leaders record on the issue of discrimination is clear. International Response Rwandan Genocide Trials During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, also known as 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda, members of the Hutu ethnic majority in the. Q&A: Preventing ethnic conflict | OSCE Furthermore, the mandate prescribes it. This is true even of Rwanda, the scene of the most recent genocide in our genocidal age. Strategies for Reducing Racial and Ethnic Prejudice: Essential Given the differences in living conditions of various racial and ethnic groups, as well as the existence of discrimination throughout our society, improving intergroup relations is a challenge that requires ongoing work. Mexico too, as Stavenhagen shows in his article below, has decided that it must rethink itself and has proclaimed itself a "pluriethnic nation", though exactly what this means and how it will be put into effect over strong internal opposition is unclear. While they may have succeeded for a time, violence eventually broke out. The new states that issued from the former communist bloc are seen as being simply too heterogeneous in ethnolinguistic or ethnorelig ious terms to function as "normal" nation states. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, The International Day of Commemoration and Dignity/ 9 December, S/RES/1366 (2001) (on early warning and the prevention of armed conflict), E/CN.4/RES/2005/62 (2005) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, A/HRC/RES/7/25 (2008) Prevention of genocide, A/HRC/RES/22/22 (2013) Prevention of genocide, S/RES/2150 (2014) (on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide), A/HRC/RES/28/34 (2015) Prevention of genocide, A/RES/69/323 (2015) International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of This Crime, A/HRC/RES/33/19 (2016) Human Rights and Transitional Justice, A/HRC/RES/37/26 (2018) Prevention of genocide, A/HRC/RES/43/29 (2020) Prevention of genocide. All of these governments attempted to keep the peace between the countrys diverse ethnic groups. There are two areas where the borders do work as in Switzerland. As the peoples of Myanmar commemorate Union Day this week, Sai Wansai argues that "civic nationalism" can help address the crisis in "ethnic nationalism" that underpins state failure and the enduring cycles of conflict in the country. This violence led to the creation of a new canton in 1979, a political border created to promote separation and regional autonomy. There is still debate however over which peoples can properly be called "indigenous" and what rights they have. Note, however, that when strategies involving competition among groups are used to encourage cooperation, situations should be avoided in which racially or ethnically identifiable groups compete against one another. All Rights Reserved. People involved in intergroup activities bring to those experiences assumptions about the roles they should play that are based on expectations shaped by preexisting attributions of power, by stereotypes, and by habits of behavior of groups. Germany developed extreme national-ism of a mythical variety. Some would argue that persons who are bicultural or multicultural are a bridge to improved intergroup relations. I support this view. What Causes Ethnic Conflict? Many stereotypes and sources of conflict are based on myths and misinformation. This suggests that as groups choose to separate the only solution to violence is to separate them even more. Sub-national boundaries aligned with natural communities can reduce ethnic tensions and prevent violence. Refresh the. We can also consider the idea of patches as its own kind of respect for individual differences. The two broad categories of ethnic conflict. Malaysia is a classic case where there is a coexistence of some major ethnic groups with distinct identities and where the state has used wide . We can tell which is happening by looking at their geographical distribution and these cases should be treated differently. First, the level of commitment to the goal will vary within the school, program, or organization. Figure 4: Ethnic groups, political borders, and topographical boundaries, in the former Yugoslavia. Here, of course, we cannot conclude that all Latinos are more cooperatively oriented than all Anglos. As long as people move around and prefer to be near others of the same type, any system will display the same universal dynamica general process that applies to diverse social systems and even materials formed of atoms or biological organisms formed of cells. Moreover, whites have varying cultures and identities. Ethiopia: How to Resolve the Tigray Conflict - Foreign Policy Ethnic conflict | Definition, Causes, Types, Examples, & Facts Theories of causes It is argued that rebel movements are more likely to organize around ethnicity because ethnic groups are more apt to be aggrieved, better able to mobilize, and more likely to face difficult bargaining challenges compared to other groups. If the patch size is important in predicting violence, then it seems reasonable that there is a specific size of patches where violence will take place. The best way to resolve or handle cultural conflict is by learning about other cultures. But there is little evidence~ that this strategy, in and of itself, is adequate. For example, assumptions many whites hold about the proportion of black males who commit violent crimes, the percentage of black college students who receive race-based scholarships, and the rates of alcohol and drug abuse among Latinos and African Americans are invariably wrong, and substantially so. While most of the West focuses on the war in Ukraine, Moscow and Belgrade are fueling the fires over Kosovo on eve of sensitive historic anniversary. Such boundaries are not needed if people choose to integrate, which is also present in many places. This insight provides guidance for how the worst of ethnic violence can be prevented. Multiple ceasefires and international mediation efforts have failed to stop the conflict from escalating. Subsequently, ethnic agitators inflamed the Tutsi/Hutu divide, some (like the infamous Radio Milles Collines) systematically inciting one group to massacre the other. They are also meant to focus discussion and research on the characteristics of program effectiveness. 1.2 Children's ethnic socialization 2 1.3 The new math of ethnic violence 4 1.4 Nature and dynamics of violent ethnic conflict 4 1.5 A caveat: double minority complexes 5 1.6 Ethnicity, education and nation-building 6 2.
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