Is ethnicity a cause of war?

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, the vocabulary of politics has changed. The violent decay of Yugoslavia, the separatist movements in Ethiopia, and the small wars in the Philippines indicate that an era of ethnic conflicts has replaced the former East‐West rivalry. Since the outbreak of violent conflicts in the former Soviet Union, the phrase “ethnic conflict” has ruled the titles of newspapers and magazines and has even found its way into the discourse of political science. “Ethnic nationalism,” mere “nationalism,” even such linguistic monsters as “ethno‐nationalism” have recently become central concerns. The emergence of so many violent clashes between ethnic groups in the last few years has perplexed the public, and even social scientists have had difficulty explaining nationalism and ethnic conflict. In trying to explain these conflicts, some authors point to cultural differences. In 1993, Samuel P. Huntington proclaimed the beginning of an era of clashes between cultural entities. But explaining these conflicts in terms of cultural differences is not quite satisfactory. Or, as the Austrian political scientist Alber F. Reiterer asks: “What is a cultural difference? Is it that the Slovenians sing ‘Gori, gori na planina’ while the Carinthia‐Germans sing a slightly different melody ‘In die Berg bin i gern'?” And, more important, are such differences sufficient causes for violence? Obviously they are not. The phrase “ethnic conflict” does not shed much light on the origins and causes of these wars. It cannot explain the case of Somalia; in the most ethnically homogeneous country on the African continent, a war broke out and could not even be ended by international intervention. As I shall argue, “cultural” differences, although often seen as the underlying structural causes of social conflicts, are not the root causes of contemporary wars. An analysis of three examples elucidates this claim: the ongoing war in Liberia, the conflict in the Casamance, and the so‐called Tuareg conflict.