Minority Issues from a Non-traditional Security Perspective: Crossfertilizationamong Research Fields

Abstract

Although security concerns have long been embedded in the field of ethnic politics and scholarship on mechanisms of ethnic conflict resolution and management of diversity in divided societies, a combination of real-world events and increasing cross-fertilization among research fields have accelerated the field of inquiry in the past fifteen years. On the one hand, security has become a relevant sphere of governmental action with repercussions in several policy areas, including accommodation of diversity. On the other hand, following the broadening and deepening of the Security Studies agenda, many scholars have applied security concepts to investigate minority issues and ethnic conflicts, from Roe’s “societal security dilemma” to research on securitization/desecuritization of minorities. A variety of approaches and theories have developed, not always in relation with each other. The goal of this paper is to provide a state-of-the-art comprehensive overview of the attempts at cross-fertilization between Non- Traditional Security Studies and work on minority accommodation/conflict regulation in European countries, discussing theoretical underpinnings as well as methodological issues. Applying a Security Studies lens to the politics surrounding the governance of cultural diversity deepens and advances our understanding of minority issues and policy debates, in particular, around institutional designs in divided societies.