Difficulties of Establishment of Ethnic Federations in Asia and Africa

Abstract

Using the example of some countries of Asia and Africa, we considered the phenomenon of the development of federal states, experiencing the influence of the ethnolinguistic factor, which is of particular relevance in the era of global instability and ideological and political transformations. The goal is to evaluate the degree of stability or instability of state formations burdened by multi-ethnicity and tribalism. We analyzed both more successful (India) and less successful federations (Pakistan) in Asia, which do not formally tie their territorial and administrative division to the ethnic composition of the country. A description of the movement towards ethnic federalism by a number of states that faced ethnic conflicts under the influence of external and internal circumstances at the beginning of the 21st century (Nepal, Iraq) is given. The exceptional difficulties of state building on the African continent in the conditions of ethno-tribal hostility and tribalism are shown. The alternative ways of development of federations are given: with the help of careful disaggregation of the subjects (Nigeria) and on the basis of their declared ethnic organization and self-organization (Ethiopia). In the comparative-state study, a proposal is made to abandon radical experiments with ethnic relations in federations and to limit ourselves to more familiar schemes of territorial-administrative or mixed (territorial and national) organization of subjects, as in Russia.