DIVInvestigates whether international development assistance helps or aggravates ethnic strife /div

DIVInvestigates whether international development assistance helps or aggravates ethnic strife /div

Mediation has become a common technique for terminating violent conflicts both within and between states; while mediation has a strong record in reducing hostilities, it is not without its own problems. In The Mediation Dilemma, Kyle Beardsley highlights its long-term limitations. The result of this oft-superficial approach to peacemaking, immediate and reassuring as it may be, is often a fragile peace. With the intervention of a third-party mediator, warring parties may formally agree to concessions that are insupportable in the long term and soon enough find themselves at odds again. Beardsley examines his argument empirically using two data sets and traces it through several historical cases: Henry Kissinger's and Jimmy Carter's initiatives in the Middle East, 1973–1979; Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 mediation in the Russo-Japanese War; and Carter’s attempt to mediate in the 1994 North Korean nuclear crisis. He also draws upon the lessons of the 1993 Arusha Accords, the 1993 Oslo Accords, Haiti in 1994, the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement in Sri Lanka, and the 2005 Memorandum of Understanding in Aceh. Beardsley concludes that a reliance on mediation risks a greater chance of conflict relapse in the future, whereas the rejection of mediation risks ongoing bloodshed as war continues. The trade-off between mediation’s short-term and long-term effects is stark when the third-party mediator adopts heavy-handed forms of leverage, and, Beardsley finds, multiple mediators and intergovernmental organizations also do relatively poorly in securing long-term peace. He finds that mediation has the greatest opportunity to foster both short-term and long-term peace when a single third party mediates among belligerents that can afford to wait for a self-enforcing arrangement to be reached.

"Investigating the causes and consequences of ethnic conflict, the authors argue that the most effective responses are those that take into account factors at the local, state, regional and global level and that avoid seeking simplistic explanations and solutions to what is a truly complex phenomenon." "Ethnic conflicts are man-made, not natural disasters, and as such they can be understood, prevented and settled. However, it takes skilful, committed and principled leaders to achieve durable settlements that are supported by their followers, and it takes the long-term commitment of the international community to enable and sustain such settlements." --Book Jacket.

One of the most remarkable features of the post-Cold War period has been the upsurge of international involvement in questions of ethnic diversity. From the United Nations and the European Court of Human Rights to diverse international philanthropic and advocacy organizations, a wide range of international actors have adopted policies and principles for addressing questions of ethnic rights, identity, and conflict. International Approaches to Governing Ethnic Diversity explores whether and how these international actors contribute to the peaceful and democratic governance of ethnic diversity. It focuses on two broad areas of international work: the evolution of international legal norms regarding the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples, and international approaches to conflict and post-conflict development. The book charts new territory by mapping the range of international actors who affect the governance of ethnic diversity, and exploring their often contradictory roles and impacts. Most international actors come to questions of ethnic diversity indirectly and reluctantly, on the basis of widely varying mandates many of which were established to fulfill other objectives.They naturally therefore have different priorities and perspectives. And yet, the book identifies a striking convergence amongst international actors around discourses of diversity and equality, demonstrating the existence of an epistemic community where actors work within common vocabularies, discourses and principles that attempt to link human rights, pluralism, development and peace.

Understanding Ethnic Conflict provides all the key concepts needed to understand conflict among ethnic groups. Including approaches from both comparative politics and international relations, this text offers a model of ethnic conflict's internationalization by showing how domestic and international actors influence a country's ethnic and sectarian divisions. Illustrating this model in five original case studies, the unique combination of theory and application in Understanding Ethnic Conflict facilitates more critical analysis of contemporary ethnic conflicts and the world's response to them.

This volume offers a major tour de force in bringing together for the first time key scholars, journalists, and policymakers from a variety of discipline perspectives to fully explore the wide range of issues involved in ethnic conflict and to offer concrete resolutions. The authors focus on prevention, intervention, and institutional regulation, but through it all, they bring a realistic perspective to bear on what is happening and what can be done. The wrenching circumstances of ethnic conflicts in Rwanda, Bosnia, Chechnya, or South Africa must never be forgotten or borne again, and the authors in this monumental work remind us-graphically, but groundedly-why. Visit our website for sample chapters! Published in co-operation with the Center for Development Research, University of Bonn.

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.

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.

Through an examination of the critical junctures in post-colonial Sri Lanka, Kenneth D. Bush refines and advances our understanding of the dynamics underpinning violent and non-violent 'ethnic' conflict. The book enables us to understand how the ebb and flow of relations within ethnic groups affects relations between groups, for good or for ill.