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The end of the Cold War, and the September 11, 2002 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, show that ethnic conflicts – especially those based on religion – can be neglected only at international peril. In an era of globalization, the transnational reach of these conflicts, and their potential to affect greater regions and international relations, is painfully clear.
Of the eighty plus ethnic conflicts that beset the world today, the most intractable are the ones that flow from territorial partitions. Whether they are historical, as in India and Pakistan or Northern Ireland, de facto, as in Cyprus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Kosovo, or incomplete, as between Israel and Palestine, ethnic partitions create recurrent cycles of conflict that drag more and more countries into their wake.
Can ethnic partitions be stabilized, or is conflict inherent in their structure?
Today, the international community is actively engaged in the search for an answer to this question. There are ongoing or attempted peace processes in Ireland, South Asia, the Middle East, Cyprus and the Balkans. In this web site, we explore the lessons learned from each of these partition conflicts, and the options ahead for settling them.
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Partitions at a Glance:
• Historically, ethnic partitions occur in the context of colonial transfers of power, as part of a policy of divide and quit.
• Even when negotiated peacefully, they are generally imposed by force and cause large-scale death, destruction and displacement.
• Partitioned lands tend to remain in long-term flux, so that national and individual security are sensitive even to minor irritants, and thus conflict erupts frequently.
• Without tackling the central dilemma of partition, attempts at post-conflict reconstruction and stabilization remain hostage to party rivalries.
• Even in the longer term post-conflict phase, trade, infrastructure, and demographic or familial interests are unable to undermine or bypass the hostilities of partition without outside stimuli.
• In a post-colonial and globalized era, ethnic partitions do not even offer the option to divide and quit.
• Instead, partition more often constitutes an entry that embroils great powers and international institutions in a long-term and ever-extending program of stabilization.
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