Ethnic and National Conflicts in the Age of Globalisation: Withering Away, Persisting, or Domesticated?

Abstract

This article challenges rather widespread claims that in the twenty‐first century the role of nation states as the main actors on the global political scene is diminishing; that, at present, nation statehood is universal; and that nationalism and ethno‐national conflicts will subside in the foreseeable future. Since the continuing salience of ethnic and national identities and of ethno‐national strife and conflicts seem to be inevitable at the current stage of globalisation, the best that can be hoped for is not to eliminate their underlying reasons, but to prevent their most extreme forms. At present, even this is sometimes impossible. Thus, these conflicts should be somehow regulated and diffused, and the ways of their possible alleviation are discussed in this article.