Revisiting Ethnic Framing in Conflicts: Challenging the Concept of Ethnic Conflict

Year 2024, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 49 - 64, 11.06.2024

İbrahim Fevzi Güven

https://doi.org/10.26650/hupej.2024.10.1.1459672

Abstract

One of the primary research agendas in the fields of conflict resolution, security studies, and international relations in the post-Cold War era has been the rise of ethnic conflicts. Ethnic conflict has been one of the most widely used concepts in the scholarly literature, as well as by international organizations, peace practitioners, and other stakeholders working to end conflicts and build peace. During the 1990s when interstate wars were overshadowed by civil wars, conflicts in the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union and in Africa, the Middle East, and many other parts of the world were defined as ethnic conflicts. But do ethnic conflicts really have different characteristics that could call for a different conceptualization than other comparable conflicts? Has it been the increase in ethnic conflicts in the post-Cold War period, or has it been the ethnic framing of conflicts in certain geographies? Is a discussion of the ontological differences that distinguish an ethnic conflict from other interstate or intrastate wars possible? The study assumes that wars identified as ethnic conflicts do not have different dynamics that require a different conceptual framework than other civil wars. The concept of ethnic conflict would only be useful if it offered a different causal explanation than other alternative concepts for the conflict patterns it addresses. However, empirical analysis indicates both ethnic and non-ethnic conflicts to be largely related to the same factors. In other words, ethnic conflicts do not arise as a result of different causes, processes, or actors that place them in a separate category. While the concept of ethnic conflict does not effectively fill an analytical gap in understanding civil war dynamics, causes, and consequences, focusing on ethnic identity differences while leaving other conflict dynamics to the side risks losing sight of the real root causes that need to be addressed.

Keywords

Bosnia Herzegovina, Conflict resolution, Ethnic conflict, Ethnic framing, War

References

• Ali, R., & Lifschultz, L. (1994). Why Bosnia? Third World Quarterly, 15(3), 367-401. https://doi.org/l0.1080/01436599408420387 google scholar
• Bağcı, H. (1994). Bosna Hersek: Soğuk Savaş Sonrası Anlaşmazlıklara Giriş. Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi, 16(27), 257-279. google scholar
• Bakic-Hayden, M., & Hayden, R. M. (1992). Orientalist Variations on the Theme “Balkans”: Symbolic Geography in Recent Yugoslav Cul-tural Politics. Slavic Review, 51(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.2307/2500258 google scholar
• Berents, H., & McEvoy-Levy, S. (2015). Theorising youth and everyday peace(building). Peacebuilding, 3(2), 115-125. https://doi.org/10. 1080/21647259.2015.1052627 google scholar
• Biondich, M. (2011). The Balkans: Revolution, War, and Political Violence since 1878. Oxford University Press. google scholar
• Bora, T. (1995). Yugoslavya: Milliyetçiliğin Provokasyonu. Birikim Yayınları. google scholar
• Brubaker, R. (1996). Rethinking nationhood: Nation as institutionalized form, practical category, contingent event. In R. Brubaker (Ed.), Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe (pp. 13-22). Cambridge University Press. https:// doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511558764.002 google scholar
• Brubaker, R. (2004). Ethnicity Without Groups. Harvard University Press. google scholar
• Brubaker, R., Feischmidt, M., Fox, J., & Grancea, L. (2006). Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town. Princeton university press. google scholar
• Brubaker, R., & Laitin, D. D. (1998). Ethnic and Nationalist Violence. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 423-452. https://doi.org/10.1146/ annurev.soc.24.1.423 google scholar
• Burg, S. L., & Shoup, P. S. (1999). The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention. M.E. Sharpe. google scholar
• Campbell, D. (1999). Apartheid cartography: The political anthropology and spatial effects of international diplomacy in Bosnia. Political google scholar
• Geography, 18(4), 395-435. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0962-6298(98)00110-3 google scholar
• Carment, D. (1994). The ethnic dimension in world politics: Theory, policy and early warning. Third World Quarterly, 15(4), 551-582. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436599408420398 google scholar
• Carmichael, C. (2002). Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans: Nationalism and the Destruction of Tradition. Routledge. google scholar
• Çelik, A. B. (2009). Etnik Çatışmaların Çözümünde Siyaset Bilimi ve Uyuşmazlık Çözümü Yaklaşımları. In N. Beriker (Ed.), Çatışmadan Uzlaşmaya: Kuramlar, Süreçler ve Uygulamalar (pp. 163-188). İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları. google scholar
• Cigar, N. (1995). Genocide in Bosnia: The Policy of “Ethnic Cleansing.” Texas A&M University Press. google scholar
• Çınar, K. (2019). Dismemberment of Yugoslavia: Lessons for the Ethnic Conflict Literature. Balkan Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 8(15), 15-27. google scholar
• Cordell, K., & Wolff, S. (2010). Ethnic Conflict: Causes, Consequences, and Responses. Polity Press. google scholar
• Cordell, K., & Wolff, S. (2016). The Study of Ethnic Conflict: An Introduction. In K. Cordell & S. Wolff (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Ethnic Conflict (pp. 1-11). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315720425 google scholar
• Doder, D. (1993). Yugoslavia: New War, Old Hatreds. Foreign Policy, 91, 3-23. google scholar
• Ekinci, M. U. (2014). Bosna-Hersek Siyasetini Anlama Kılavuzu. Siyaset, Ekonomi ve Toplum Araştırmaları Vakfı (SETA). http://file.setav. org/Files/Pdf/20141103175216_bosna-hersek-siyasetini-anlama-kilavuzu-pdf.pdf google scholar
• Eminoğlu, A., & Aydın, Y. (2021). Bosna-Hersek Bağlamında Antropolojinin Yeni Kullanım Alanı Olarak Barış Çalışmaları ve Barış İnşası. google scholar
• Balkan Araştırma Enstitüsü Dergisi, 10(1), 49-75. https://doi.org/10.30903/Balkan.954231 google scholar
• Fearon, J. D., & Laitin, D. D. (1996). Explaining Interethnic Cooperation. American Political Science Review, 90(4), 715-735. https://doi.org/ 10.2307/2945838 google scholar
• Fearon, J. D., & Laitin, D. D. (2000). Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity. International Organization, 54(4), 845-877. https://doi.org/10.1162/002081800551398 google scholar
• Fearon, J. D., & Laitin, D. D. (2003). Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War. American Political Science Review, 97(01), 75-90. https://doi.org/ 10.1017/S0003055403000534 google scholar
• Forbes, H. D. (1997). Ethnic Conflict: Commerce, Culture, and the Contact Hypothesis. Yale University Press. google scholar
• Foroughi, P. (2002). Tajikistan: Nationalism, Ethnicity, Conflict, and Socio-economic Disparities-Sources and Solutions. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 22(1), 39-61. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602000220124827 google scholar
• Fox, J. E., & Jones, D. (2013). Migration, everyday life and the ethnicity bias. Ethnicities, 13(4), 385-400. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 1468796813483727 google scholar
• Fox, J. E., & Miller-Idriss, C. (2008). Everyday nationhood. Ethnicities, 8(4), 536-563. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796808088925 google scholar
• Gagnon, V. P. (1995). Ethnic Nationalism and International Conflict: The Case of Serbia. International Security, 19(3), 130-166. https://doi. org/10.1162/isec.19.3.130 google scholar
• Gagnon, V. P. (2004). The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s. Cornell University Press. google scholar
• Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), 167-191. google scholar
• Gilbert, A., & Mujanovic, J. (2015). Dayton at twenty: Towards new politics in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Southeast European and BlacK Sea google scholar
• Studies, 15(4), 605-610. https://doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2015.1130359 google scholar
• Gilley, B. (2004). Against the concept of ethnic conflict. Third World Quarterly, 25(6), 1155-1166. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 0143659042000256959 google scholar
• Gil-White, F. J. (1999). How thick is blood? The plot thickens . . .: if ethnic actors are primordialists, what remains of the circumstantialist / primordialist controversy? Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22(5), 789-820. https://doi.org/l0.1080/014198799329260 google scholar
• Glaurdic, J. (2011). The Hour of Europe: Western Powers and the Breahup of Yugoslavia. Yale University Press. google scholar
• Gurr, T. R. (1993). Minorities at Risk: A Global View of Ethnopolitical Conflicts. United States Institute of Peace Press. google scholar
• Güven, İ. F. (2023). Bosna-Herseh’te Savaş, Güvenlihleştirme ve Siyasi Liderler. Nobel Yayıncılık. google scholar
• Henderson, E. A., & Singer, J. D. (2000). Civil War in the Post-Colonial World, 1946-92. Journal of Peace Research, 37(3), 275-299. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0022343300037003001 google scholar
• Hierro, M. J., & Gallego, A. (2018). Identities in between: Political Conflict and Ethnonational Identities in Multicultural States. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 62(6), 1314-1339. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002716682593 google scholar
• Hirschman, A. O. (1970). The Search for Paradigms as a Hindrance to Understanding. World Politics, 22(3), 329-343. https://doi.org/10. 2307/2009600 google scholar
• Holbrooke, R. (1999). To End a War: The Conflict in Yugoslavia—America’s Inside Story—Negotiating with Milosevic. Modern Library. google scholar
• Huntington, S. (1996). The Clash of Civilizations and the Remahing of World Order. Simon & Schuster. google scholar
• Jenne, E. K. (2012). When Will We Part with Partition Theory? Flawed Premises and Improbable Longevity of the Theory of Ethnic Partition. google scholar
• Ethnopolitics, 11(3), 255-267. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2011.587956 google scholar
• Jesse, N. G. (2014). Ethnicity and Identity Conflict. In E. Newman & K. DeRouen (Eds.), Routledge Handbooh of Civil Wars (pp. 93-103). Routledge. google scholar
• Jesse, N. G., & Williams, K. P. (2011). Ethnic Conflict: A Systematic Approach to Cases of Conflict (1st edition). Congressional Quarterly Press. google scholar
• Kalyvas, S. N., & Sambanis, N. (2005). Bosnia’s Civil War: Origins and Violence Dynamics. In P. Collier & N. Sambanis (Eds.), Understanding Civil War: Evidence and Analysis, Volume 2: Europe, Central Asia, and Other Regions (pp. 191-229). The World Bank. https://doi.org/ 10.1596/978-0-8213-6049-1 google scholar
• Kaplan, R. (1993). Balhan Ghosts: A Journey Through History. St. Martin’s Press. google scholar
• Karner, C. (2007). Ethnicity and Everyday Life. Routledge. google scholar
• Kaufman, S. J. (1996). Spiraling to Ethnic War: Elites, Masses, and Moscow in Moldova’s Civil War. International Security, 21(2), 108-138. https://doi.org/10.1162/isec.21.2.108 google scholar
• Kaufman, S. J. (2001). Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War. Cornell University Press. google scholar
• Kaufman, S. J. (2023). The roots of ethnopolitical conflict. İn J. Senehi, I. M. Scott, S. Byrne, & T. G. Matyok (Eds.), Routledge Handbooh of Peacebuilding and Ethnic Conflict (pp. 17-27). Routledge. google scholar
• Kaufmann, C. (1996a). Intervention in ethnic and ideological civil wars: Why one can be done and the other can’t. Security Studies, 6(1), 62-101. https://doi.org/10.1080/09636419608429300 google scholar
• Kaufmann, C. (1996b). Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic Civil Wars. International Security, 20(4), 136-175. https://doi.org/10. 1162/isec.20.4.136 google scholar
• Kaufmann, C. (1998). When all else fails: Ethnic population transfers and partitions in the twentieth century. International Security, 23(2), 120-156. google scholar
• Kaufmann, C. (2003). Keeping the Peace: Lasting Solutions to Ethnic Conflicts.(Book Reviews). Political Science Quarterly, 118(1), 156-157. JSTOR. google scholar
• Kennan, G. F. (1993). The Other Balhan Wars: A 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry in Retrospect. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. google scholar
• Kennedy-Pipe, C., & Jones, C. (1998). An introduction to civil wars. Civil Wars, 1 (i), 1-15. https://doi.org/l0.1080/l3698249808402364 google scholar
• King, C. (2001, November 1). The Myth of Ethnic Warfare. Foreign Affairs, 80(6), 165-170. google scholar
• Kissinger, H. (1997). Limits to What the US Can Do in Bosnia. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/ 1997/09/22/limits-to-what-the-us-can-do-in-bosnia/3457772b-5819-455e-81c9-00f41cbf30dd/ google scholar
• Kitromilides, P. M. (1996). ‘Balkan Mentality’: History, Legend, Imagination. Nations and Nationalism, 2(2), 163-191. https://doi.org/10. 1111/j.1354-5078.1996.00163.x google scholar
• Kılavuz, İ. T. (2009). The Role of Networks in Tajikistan’s Civil War: Network Activation and Violence Specialists. Nationalities Papers, 37(5), 693-717. https://doi.org/10.1080/00905990903122909 google scholar
• Kuran, T. (1998a). Ethnic Dissimilation and Its International Diffusion. In D. A. Lake & D. S. Rothchild (Eds.), The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict: Fear, Diffusion, and Escalation (pp. 35-60). Princeton University Press. google scholar
• Kuran, T. (1998b). Ethnic Norms And Their Transformation Through Reputational Cascades. The Journal of Legal Studies, 27(S2), 623-659. https://doi.org/10.1086/468038 google scholar
• Laitin, D. D. (1995a). Marginality: A Microperspective. Rationality and Society, 7(1), 31-57. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043463195007001003 google scholar
• Laitin, D. D. (1995b). National revivals and violence. European Journal of Sociology, 36(1), 3-43. https://doi.org/10.1017/S 0003975600007098 google scholar
• Lemarchand, R. (2007). Consociationalism and Power Sharing in Africa: Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. African Affairs, 106(422), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adl041 google scholar
• Lowe, R. D., & Muldoon, O. T. (2014). Shared national identification in Northern Ireland: An application of psychological models of group inclusion post conflict. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 17(5), 602-616. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430214525808 google scholar
• Mac Ginty, R. (2012). Routine peace: Technocracy and peacebuilding. Cooperation and Conflict, 47(3), 287-308. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0010836712444825 google scholar
• Mac Ginty, R. (2014). Everyday peace: Bottom-up and local agency in conflict-affected societies. Security Dialogue, 45(6), 548-564. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0967010614550899 google scholar
• Mac Ginty, R. (2021). Everyday Peace: How So-called Ordinary People Can Disrupt Violent Conflict. Oxford University Press. google scholar
• Malcolm, N. (1999). Kosova: Balkanları Anlamak İçin (Ö. Arıkan, Trans.). Sabah Kitapları. google scholar
• Malesevic, S. (2004). The Sociology of Ethnicity. Sage Publications. google scholar
• Mayor, F. (1995). How psychology can contribute to a culture of peace. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 1(1), 3-9. https:// doi.org/10.1207/s15327949pac0101_2 google scholar
• Mazower, M. (2014). Balkanlar: Bizans’ın Çöküşünden Günümüze (A. Ozil, Trans.). Alfa Yayıncılık. google scholar
• McKeown, S. (2014). Perceptions of a superordinate identity in Northern Ireland. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 20(4), 505-515. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000051 google scholar
• Mearsheimer, J. J., & Pape, R. (1993). The answer: A three-way partition plan for Bosnia and how the US can enforce it. The New Republic, 22-27. google scholar
• Merton, R. K. (1948). The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. The Antioch Review, 8(2), 193-210. https://doi.org/10.2307/4609267 google scholar
• Mitchell, P., Evans, G., & O’Leary, B. (2009). Extremist Outbidding in Ethnic Party Systems is Not Inevitable: Tribune Parties in Northern Ireland. Political Studies, 57(2), 397-421. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2008.00769.x google scholar
• Mueller, J. (2000). The Banality of “Ethnic War.” International Security, 25(1), 42-70. google scholar
• Mueller, J. (2004). The Remnants of War. Cornell University Press. google scholar
• Mujanovic, J. (2018). Hunger and Fury: The crisis of Democracy in the Balkans. Oxford University Press. google scholar
• Murtagh, C. (2016). Civic Mobilization in Divided Societies and the Perils of Political Engagement: Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Protest and Plenum Movement. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 22(2), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537113.2016.1169060 google scholar
• Murtagh, C. (2020). The plight of civic parties in divided societies. International Political Science Review, 41(1), 73-88. https://doi.org/10. 1177/0192512119859349 google scholar
• Oberschall, A. (2000). The manipulation of ethnicity: From ethnic cooperation to violence and war in Yugoslavia. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 23(6), 982-1001. https://doi.org/10.1080/014198700750018388 google scholar
• Oliver, I. (2005). War & Peace in the Balkans: The Diplomacy of Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia. I.B. Tauris. google scholar
• Pfaffenberger, B. (1995). Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 20(2), 121-147. google scholar
• Pickering, P. M. (2009). Explaining Support for Non-nationalist Parties in Post-conflict Societies in the Balkans. Europe-Asia Studies, 61(4), 565-591. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668130902826121 google scholar
• Richmond, O. P. (2009a). A post-liberal peace: Eirenism and the everyday. Review of International Studies, 35(3), 557-580. https://doi. org/10.1017/S0260210509008651 google scholar
• Richmond, O. P. (2009b). Becoming Liberal, Unbecoming Liberalism: Liberal-Local Hybridity via the Everyday as a Response to the Paradoxes of Liberal Peacebuilding. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 3(3), 324-344. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 17502970903086719 google scholar
• Rohner, D., Thoenig, M., & Zilibotti, F. (2013). Seeds of distrust: Conflict in Uganda. Journal of Economic Growth, 18(3), 217-252. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10887-013-9093-1 google scholar
• Roudometof, V. (2001). Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: The Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in The Balkans. Greenwood Pub-lishing Group. google scholar
• Ruane, J., & Todd, J. (2004). The Roots of Intense Ethnic Conflict may not in fact be Ethnic: Categories, Communities and Path Depen-dence. European Journal of Sociology, 45(2), 209-232. https://doi.org/l0.1017/S0003975604001432 google scholar
• Rumelili, B. (2014). Kimlik. İn Ş. Kardaş & A. Balcı (Eds.), Uluslararası ilişkilere Giriş: Tarih, Teori, Kavram ve Konular (pp. 377-385). Küre Yayınları. google scholar
• Sambanis, N. (2001). Do Ethnic and Nonethnic Civil Wars Have the Same Causes?: A Theoretical and Empirical İnquiry. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 45(3), 259-282. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002701045003001 google scholar
• Sandole, D. J. D. (2003). Virulent Ethnocentrism and Conflict İntractability: Puzzles and Challenges for 3rd Party İntervenors. Peace and Conflict Studies, 10(1), 72-86. https://doi.org/10.46743/1082-7307/2003.1032 google scholar
• Sarkees, M. R., Wayman, F. W., & Singer, J. D. (2003). İnter-State, İntra-State, and Extra-State Wars: A Comprehensive Look at Their Distri-bution over Time, 1816-1997. International Studies Quarterly, 47(1), 49-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2478.4701003 google scholar
• Sells, M. A. (1996). The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia. University of California Press. google scholar
• Senehi, J., Scott, I. M., Byrne, S., & Matyok, T. G. (2023). Introduction: Peacebuilding and Ethnic Conflict. İn J. Senehi, I. M. Scott, S. Byrne, & T. G. Matyok (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Peacebuilding and Ethnic Conflict(pp. 1-13). Routledge. google scholar
• Sisk, T. D. (2022). Power Sharing After Civil Wars: Matching Problems to Solutions. In R. Mac Ginty & A. Wanis-St. John (Eds.), Contemporary Peacemaking: Peace Processes, Peacebuilding and Conflict (pp. 407-425). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10. 1007/978-3-030-82962-9_20 google scholar
• Smith, A. D. (2010). Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History (2nd edition). Polity Press. google scholar
• Snyder, J. (1993). Nationalism and The Crisis of Post-Soviet State. In M. E. Brown (Ed.), Ethnic Conflict and International Security (pp. 79101). Princeton University Press. google scholar
• Stroschein, S. (2005). Examining ethnic violence and partition in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ethnopolitics, 4(1), 49-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 17449050500072655 google scholar
• Taras, R., & Ganguly, R. (2016). Understanding ethnic conflict (Fourth edition). Routledge. google scholar
• Todorova, M. (2009). Imagining the Balkans. Oxford University Press. google scholar
• Touquet, H. (2015). Non-ethnic Mobilisation in Deeply Divided Societies, the Case of the Sarajevo Protests. Europe-Asia Studies, 67(3), 388-408. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2015.1019430 google scholar
• Tunçer-Kilavuz, I. (2011). Understanding Civil War: A Comparison of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Europe-Asia Studies, 63(2), 263-290. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2011.547698 google scholar
• Vaughan, K. (2018). Who Benefits from Consociationalism? Religious Disparities in Lebanon’s Political System. Religions, 9(51), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9020051 google scholar
• Vulliamy, E. (1994). Seasons in Hell: Understanding Bosnia’s War (First Edition). St Martin’s Press. google scholar
• Waever, O. (2008). Toplumsal Güvenliğin Değişen Gündemi. Uluslararası ilişkiler Dergisi, 5(18), 151-178. google scholar
• Weidmann, N. B. (2011). Violence “from above” or “from below”? The Role of Ethnicity in Bosnia’s Civil War. The Journal of Politics, 73(4), 1178-1190. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381611000831 google scholar
• Wimmer, A. (2013). Waves of War: Nationalism, State Formation, and Ethnic Exclusion in the Modern World. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139198318 google scholar
• Wolff, S. (2006). Ethnic Conflict: A Global Perspective. Oxford University Press. google scholar
• Yılmaz, M. E. (2007). Soğuk Savaş Sonrası Dönemde Etnik Çatışmalar: Etnik Çatışmaların Nedenleri ve Etnik Barışın Tesisi. Nobel. google scholar