The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict: Fear, Diffusion, and Escalation

by David A. Lake, Donald Rothchild

Overview

The wave of ethnic conflict that has recently swept across parts of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Africa has led many political observers to fear that these conflicts are contagious. Initial outbreaks in such places as Bosnia, Chechnya, and Rwanda, if not contained, appear capable of setting off epidemics of catastrophic proportions. In this volume, David Lake and Donald Rothchild have organized an ambitious, sophisticated exploration of both the origins and spread of ethnic conflict, one that will be useful to policymakers and theorists alike.


The editors and contributors argue that ethnic conflict is not caused directly by intergroup differences or centuries-old feuds and that the collapse of the Soviet Union did not simply uncork ethnic passions long suppressed. They look instead at how anxieties over security, competition for resources, breakdown in communication with the government, and the inability to make enduring commitments lead ethnic groups into conflict, and they consider the strategic interactions that underlie ethnic conflict and its effective management.


How, why, and when do ethnic conflicts either diffuse by precipitating similar conflicts elsewhere or escalate by bringing in outside parties? How can such transnational ethnic conflicts best be managed? Following an introduction by the editors, which lays a strong theoretical foundation for approaching these questions, Timur Kuran, Stuart Hill, Donald Rothchild, Colin Cameron, Will H. Moore, and David R. Davis examine the diffusion of ideas across national borders and ethnic alliances. Without disputing that conflict can spread, James D. Fearon, Stephen M. Saideman, Sandra Halperin, and Paula Garb argue that ethnic conflict today is primarily a local phenomenon and that it is breaking out in many places simultaneously for similar but largely independent reasons. Stephen D. Krasner, Daniel T. Froats, Cynthia S. Kaplan, Edmond J. Keller, Bruce W. Jentleson, and I. William Zartman focus on the management of transnational ethnic conflicts and emphasize the importance of domestic confidence-building measures, international intervention, and preventive diplomacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691016900
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	03/22/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	7.75(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

David A. Lakeis Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Entangling Relations: American Foreign Policy in Its Century and the coeditor of Strategic Choice and International Relations, both forthcoming from Princeton. Donald Rothchild is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis. He is a coeditor of Racial Bargaining in Independent Kenya: State Versus Ethnic Claims and a coauthor of Sovereignty as Responsibility: Conflict Management in Africa.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
About the Contributors
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Ch. 1	Spreading Fear: The Genesis of Transnational Ethnic Conflict	3
Ch. 2	Ethnic Dissimilation and Its International Diffusion	35
Ch. 3	Tactical Information and the Diffusion of Peaceful Protests	61
Ch. 4	Transnational Ethnic Ties and Foreign Policy	89
Ch. 5	Commitment Problems and the Spread of Ethnic Conflict	107
Ch. 6	Is Pandora's Box Half Empty or Half Full? The Limited Virulence of Secessionism and the Domestic Sources of Disintegration	127
Ch. 7	The Spread of Ethnic Conflict in Europe: Some Comparative-Historical Reflections	151
Ch. 8	Ethnicity, Alliance Building, and the Limited Spread of Ethnic Conflict in the Caucasus	185
Ch. 9	Containing Fear: The Management of Transnational Ethnic Conflict	203
Ch. 10	Minority Rights and the Westphalian Model	227
Ch. 11	Ethnicity and Sovereignty: Insights from Russian Negotiations with Estonia and Tatarstan	251
Ch. 12	Transnational Ethnic Conflict in Africa	275
Ch. 13	Preventive Diplomacy and Ethnic Conflict: Possible, Difficult, Necessary	293
Ch. 14	Putting Humpty-Dumpty Together Again	317
Ch. 15	Ethnic Fears and Global Engagement	339
References	351
Index	379

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Roy Licklider

This work . . . significantly advances the scholarly literature in thefield and, in doing so, opens new prospects for policy analysis as well.
— Roy Licklider, Rutgers University

From the Publisher

"This work . . . significantly advances the scholarly literature in thefield and, in doing so, opens new prospects for policy analysis as well."—Roy Licklider, Rutgers University

Editorial Reviews

"This work . . . significantly advances the scholarly literature in thefield and, in doing so, opens new prospects for policy analysis as well."—Roy Licklider, Rutgers University

From the Publisher