ASOK05003U Conflict and Peacemaking in Divided Societies

Course Description

Although violence and group conflict is hardly new, over the past two decades that has followed the end of the Cold War, nationalism and ethnic conflict has replaced ideological competition as the main source of strife within and between nation-states. Violence between ethnic groups, religious communities, and clans has shaken countries across the globe. From Russia to Yugoslavia, from Sri Lanka to Indonesia, from Iraq to Afghanistan, from Sudan to Congo, most of the violent conflicts taking place in the world today are framed in cultural terms, as ethnic, nationalist, or religious.  In many cases, these conflicts have spilled over the borders of states, threatening regional security and, some scholars argue, even world order. Even in the supposed "nation-states" of the "First World," where populations were once thought to be unified by a common national identity, cultural conflict has emerged as a major political issue (e.g. separatist movements in Canada, UK & Spain). Throughout the world, minority groups have become increasingly assertive, demanding recognition and rights, while the powerful, seeking to protect their positions, have responded with repression and violence. At the same time, international relations have increasingly been shaped by what Samuel Huntington famously termed as the “Clash of Civilization.” Yet, other argued it is poorly understood and instead termed the rise of religious movements/religious dimensions of political movements and violence as the “Clash of Fundamentalism.”

The increasing frequency and deadliness of nationalist conflict at the international and the intrastate level, from mass expulsions to state-sponsored genocide, has prompted international and humanitarian interventions that have challenged time-honoured norms of state behaviour and its integrity. However, despite widespread recognition amongst intellectuals and policymakers of the virulent resurgence of nationalism, there is a widespread lack of consensus on the meaning and origins of, as well as the management strategies for dealing with, nationalist conflict.