Ethno-national Conflict Research Articles

Fear and Chameleon Politics in Papua, Indonesia

In this response we critique Cahyo Pamungkas and Yogi Setya Permana's proposal to see military repression in West Papua as a result of two equal factors: fear of Papuan independence and Papuan fear of military repression. They argue this in the article titled "The Role of Fear and Memory in West Papua's Ethnonationalist Conflict," published in this journal in volume 97 (1) in March 2024. While we applaud their effort at investigating the emotional aspects of the West Papua conflict, juxtaposing these two forms of fear to explain the cycle of violence in Indonesia's easternmost region fails to reflect the reality of the situation. In this article we suggest several other paths to develop a deeper comprehension of fear in Papua. Such investigations will also show the need for a shift in the general perspective on the resolution of the Papua conflict.

The paradox of permission: Why governments allow foreign actors to promote solar energy projects in disputed cities

This article examines why foreign actors promote rooftop photovoltaic (PV) projects in cities characterized by ongoing ethno-national conflicts, and why the host government accepts these projects despite viewing them as undermining its sovereignty. It finds that foreign aid providers increasingly view off-grid PV technology as a low-cost solution for helping the embattled minorities of the city strengthen their autonomy and self-sufficiency by disconnecting them from the state-controlled national electricity grid. Local authorities accept these projects because they view them as benign initiatives that can help them address ‘infrastructure vacuums’ in neglected spaces of the city. This allows foreign actors to shape the status quo of the disputed city while avoiding political pushback by the host government. This dynamic is examined in the case of East Jerusalem, where EU and UN bodies invested in rooftop PV projects over the past decade with the stated goal of strengthening the energy autonomy of the city's Palestinian neighborhoods and preserving the option of dividing the city's infrastructure in a future peace agreement. Through government protocols and interviews with foreign aid representatives who promoted the projects, Jerusalem municipal officials who approved them, and Palestinian users who installed them, this article finds that Israeli authorities viewed these projects as a necessary buffer to address ungoverned areas of the city where Palestinians viewed municipal integration projects as an act of occupation. Foreign actors introduced PV solutions to these areas but struggled to overcome technical, bureaucratic, and social hurdles that limited their progress.

“This Is Our Revolution Too”: LGBTQ Rights Activism and the National Question in Northern Ireland

Existing research frames ethnonationalism as homophobic, in which the queer is positioned outside of the boundaries of the ethnic nation. Less well understood is how LGBTQ activism engages with ethnonationalism, particularly in relation to questions of national self-determination. The limited research on this issue frames LGBTQ activist movements as groups that reject divisive ethnonationalisms by forging alternative cosmopolitan and transnational expressions of sexual identity. By exploring a single case-study, Northern Ireland, this article draws attention to how LGBTQ movements can be sites of conflict over questions of national self-determination, particularly when sexual liberation is wedded to anti-imperialist struggles. The paper concludes by reaffirming Horowitz’s model of ethnic seepage, in which the dominant ethnonational cleavages infuse all issues in divided societies. The article uses a wide range of primary data, including interviews and archival documents, to analyze LGBTQ activism in Northern Ireland during the period of ethnonationalist conflict in the 1970s and 1980s.

Cultural Peace Work in ‘Post-Conflict’ Northern Ireland

While regarded as an exemplar of a successfully resolved conflict since the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided place. The discord between Republican and Loyalist nationalisms persist as a legacy of the structural and spatial segregation of the Partition of Ireland (1922) and the ethno-national conflict known as the Troubles (1968–1998). So how are people who live in the region encountering and performing peace and trust? Outside of state-sponsored approaches to peacebuilding, in what other ways are peaceful relations fostered? Guided by the concept of ‘people’s peace praxis’, which calls for the study of how ordinary humans, not the state or politicians, generate peace, this paper explores the role of cultural peace work in contemporary Northern Ireland. Cultural peace work refers to the active role of creative cultural production in peacebuilding, examples of which will be examined in the city of Derry/Londonderry.

The Role of Fear and Memory in West Papua's Ethnonationalist Conflict

In the West Papua conflict, fear fuels both Papuan ethnonationalist and Indonesian nationalist sentiment. We argue that this reciprocal fear and memoria passionis plays a significant role in fuelling political violence. On the one hand, it provokes Papuan activists to respond violently to Indonesian military operations. Fear of losing future generations of indigenous Papuans has strengthened their identity as Papuans and encouraged them to join armed movements against Indonesia. On the other hand, fear of West Papuan independence leads the Indonesian military and police to conduct operations against members of the Free Papua Movement and affiliated groups and other activists not in the independence movement. This results in a "reciprocal fear-fuelled nationalism," whereby Indonesian security forces and Papuan separatist activists are drawn into increasing conflict. In this context, fear becomes institutionalized and socially constructed. By understanding the unending violent conflict in Tanah Papua as related to the transfer of emotions across generations, it becomes clear a military operations approach will not be effective in the long term. Non-violent approaches, especially dialogue with separatist groups, will be more effective in breaking the chain of violent memories, resulting in more positive outcomes for conflict resolution in Papua. Learning from negotiations between the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement in 2005, we support the proposition that dialogue is the best entry point by which to end this prolonged separatist armed conflict.

Restricted Access to Remembrance: Problematic Usages of Industrial Memories in Belfast's Titanic Quarter

AbstractThe paper addresses the contemporary usages of collective memory in the Titanic Quarter's project in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In the wake of the Good Friday Agreement, elected officials proposed urban revitalisation policies that aimed to mitigate the effects of deindustrialisation and the ethnonational conflict. On the old shipyard wastelands, public authorities were relying on the redevelopment of the built environment to suggest a shared urbanity but also a shared past, a connection with a common space, mobilising the myths and memories of the Titanic to achieve this. Yet, in a globalised world where memory increasingly surpasses national borders, it bears into question who is the targeted audience of this revitalised urban memory? Through careful observations in the neighbourhood and its flagship museum, the paper aims to criticise the use and manipulation of a conflictual working‐class memory to sidestep Northern Ireland's sectarian divide.

Spontaneous contact and intergroup attitudes in asymmetric protracted ethno-national conflict: East Jerusalem Palestinian students in an Israeli academic setting.

Spontaneous contact and intergroup attitudes in asymmetric protracted ethno-national conflict: East Jerusalem Palestinian students in an Israeli academic setting.

The Key Role of Political Prisoners in Transcending Protracted Conflicts

Abstract Resolving protracted, asymmetric, and ethno-national conflicts is a notoriously problematic process, and only a handful of such attempts have ended in success. This paper is the first comparative study examining the relevance of “politically motivated violent offenders” (PMVOs) in propelling the shift from a long and bloody armed struggle to a negotiated agreement; indeed, they play an indispensable role in the ratification and the eventual implementation of any such agreement. We compare the role of PMVOs in three cases of protracted conflict resolution processes in the 1990s—Northern Ireland, South Africa, and the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords. We argue that PMVOs constitute a distinguished socio-political actor characterized by high symbolic capital as the embodiment of the national struggle. This renders them a major source of political legitimacy, a necessary condition for attaining peace with hitherto sworn enemies and securing its implementation and stabilization. The paper analyzes the provisions within the respective agreements pertaining to prisoners’ release as an incentive, or lack thereof, especially for organizations outside the peace process to cease violence. Whereas the British and South African governments fully recognized the PMVO issue, Israel’s failure to recognize its importance was a major factor leading to the breakdown of the Oslo process.

Book Review: Collective Equality: Human Rights and Democracy in Ethno-National Conflicts by Y. Limor

Book Review: <i>Collective Equality: Human Rights and Democracy in Ethno-National Conflicts</i> by Y. Limor

Seeing peace like a city: local visions and diplomatic proposals for future solutions

ABSTRACT Violently contested cities are at the heart of ethnonational conflicts, and their final status is often a central issue for peace negotiations. These negotiations, typically led by national politicians and diplomats, include little, if any, representation of local voices, which are often fundamentally different from those of state-centric actors. This article integrates the seeing like a city theoretical approach with the literature on urban peacebuilding and asks: How is seeing peace like a city different from seeing peace like a state? and whether the visions of local grassroots leaders are complementary or contradictory to the models that national decision-makers propose for cities. We analyse the case study of Jerusalem using historical analysis, public opinion surveys, and in-depth interviews. Our findings show the distinction between the focus of state-centric processes on ‘rigid’ issues (e.g., security and sovereignty) and the focus of city-centric processes on ‘soft’ issues (e.g., tolerance and daily life).

Genocide: Philosophical, Theoretical, and Ukrainian Studies Dimensions

The article examines the main philosophical and theoretical problems of genocide in their dimensions as Ukrainian studies. In the era of global information and hybrid wars, the true meaning of many classic terms and ethnological concepts can be to a large extent distorted. Information about certain phenomena may be unavailable or misinterpreted by the world community, so there is an urgent need for their clarification and normalisation. The war crimes of the russian federation in Ukraine were recognised as genocide by seven countries, which is a very small number, and it is necessary to convey to the international community the importance of condemning these crimes on a global scale. The concept of genocide was introduced into legal practise and is most widely used in this field. However, we have certain "white spots" with ethnological, philosophical -theoretical, and Ukrainian studies definitions of concepts related to genocide, such as "ethnocide", "linguicide", especially "deicide", which is explained in this article for the first time. The destruction of national memory has been necessary for invaders at all times. The attention of Ukrainian scholars has already been focused on the fact that during the first pogrom (massacre) of Kyiv in 1169 by the Suzdal prince Andrey Bogolyubsky, the aggressors showed terrible signs of sadism against the people of Kyiv. For the first time, this showed the ethnic difference of the “Zalissia” Suzdalians from the Kyivan-Ruthenians, their antagonistic nature, which becomes clear in the context of the existential struggle of two separate nations. Further events of forced coexistence in one state of two nations, one of which did not lose its identity despite all the genocides, ruins, and calamities, were caused by imperial terror. They showed that Ukrainians have not learned the lessons of history, no conclusions have been drawn, and no state strategy for overcoming the Russian-imperial legacy has been developed. Attention was drawn to the fact that all phenomena of ethno-national conflict are important and should be targeted at overcoming the consequences of genocide in all its forms in the future.

Settlement policy in an Israeli mixed city: A typology of displacement and its resistance

Urban Studies from the Global North highlight the physical displacement of lower-income residents as urban development policies’ central transgression. However, looking only at the class-physical angle of displacement narrows our understanding of other aspects of power relations in space. This research focuses on Israel’s policy encouraging the settlement of middle-class Zionist associations in the city of Lydda. The study argues that in a state of ethnonational conflict, displacement has various manifestations: physical, political, religious, cultural and especially ethnonational. This policy causes long-term residents both hardships and benefits depending on their religious, ethnonational and class affiliations. Therefore, residents express different intensities and patterns of support, ambivalence, or resistance towards the policy. This study suggests a typology of displacement and its implications for different patterns of resistance. Moreover, it calls for scholarly recognition of displacement beyond physical and class aspects.

Climate, Communities, and Capitalism: Critically Imagining and Co-Creating Pathways for a Sustainable Ireland

Climate, Communities, and Capitalism: Critically Imagining and Co-Creating Pathways for a Sustainable Ireland Amanda Slevin (bio) Wildfires, droughts, floods, beloved species facing extinction – a selection of stark indicators of the accelerating climate and ecological emergency. Underpinned by human patterns of production, consumption, and associated environmental degradation, the ‘triple planetary crises’1 of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution pose an existential threat to human and non-human species. Consequently, socio-ecological and scientific imperatives for urgent, transformative action have become firmly established, yet with only a few years to 2030 (a landmark year for climate commitments) our shared island, encompassing people on both sides of Ireland’s politically constructed border, is woefully unprepared to tackle the massive difficulties we collectively face. To move towards a genuinely sustainable future profound socioeconomic, ideological, political, and environmental transformations across all levels of every society are essential. Unsurprisingly, major challenges abound, not least the deeply embedded structures, ideologies, and practices fundamental to capitalism, which lie at the core of destructive society– environment interactions. Against this backdrop, it is useful to reflect upon conditions that influence why, how, and when a populace embarks on pathways for transformative change. Prospects for socio-ecological change encompass myriad dimensions and reinvigorate age-old debates around ‘agency’ and ‘structure’, prompting questions of who and/or what shapes human behaviour, as a central feature of transformative, multi-level action. Such deliberations are particularly apt in an era when many people across our island feel disempowered and are struggling, following wave after wave of turmoil, such as the costs of living, energy, and housing crises; consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic; war in Ukraine; ongoing legacies of Northern Ireland’s ethno-nationalist conflict; and Brexit. [End Page 61] Therefore, in this article, I contemplate how we might better respond to socio-ecological threats to enable our collective transition move towards a healthier and fairer future for all that share our island. As a critical interface between structure and agency, I posit ‘community’ as a vital element of societal transformations towards a more sustainable Ireland by 2030, and I explore how diverse communities affect bottom-up and top-down change. To set the scene, I examine mandates for climate action by enunciating pressing socioecological crises in the Anthropocene, the current geological epoch in which humans have become the primary drivers of changes to our planet. While I identify evolving top-down legal and policy frameworks that currently shape climate action, I argue that bottom-up grassroots approaches by communities are core for a sustainable world. Alongside empirical examples of community climate action, I explore diverse understandings of ‘community’, spanning psychological, philosophical, and physical dimensions of human interactions, and recognise the multiplicity of interpretations and forms of community that exist, not all of which are conducive to positive social change, as evident in Northern Ireland. Key questions arise within this inquiry: in the midst of a planetary emergency can ‘community’ act as an impetus to reimagine our shared future? Furthermore, can ‘community’ serve as a locus to regain human agency while acting as a driver for collective climate action across all levels of society? Offering a hopeful perspective, I articulate mechanisms to aid development of a ‘community of communities’ for climate action, including socio-eco-logical imagination, transformative teaching and learning, and sustainability praxis, all of which can be fostered within communities, universities, and wider society. These, in turn, can inform socio-eco-logical awareness, agency, and activism within and beyond diverse communities, enabling critical collective imagining and co-creation of pathways for a sustainable Ireland. I. Socio-ecological emergencies: ‘Code Red’ for Planet Earth Irrefutable scientific evidence by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), among others, makes clear the ways in which our planet is experiencing an unprecedented climate catastrophe, driven by human activities.2 Anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change is defined as ‘a large-scale, long-term shift in the planet’s weather patterns and average temperatures’3 and is caused by burning fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal; land-use change [End Page 62] such as cutting down forests; and farming livestock.4 Climate breakdown is part of the escalating planetary...

Editors' Note

Editors' Note Daria Farman-Farmaian and Mikael Pir-Budagyan Dear Reader, Whereas identities may previously have been independent of one another because of geographic isolationism, our increasingly globalized world challenges these norms of homogeneity. Today, people all over the world are forced to contend with changing personal, national, state, ethnic, economic, and political affiliations. For better or for worse, identity is inherently disordered but exists at every level of our world. It merges, erases, changes, and coexists in distinct forms and environments. It does not disappear in international relations; instead, often, it is brought to the fore, making the global order infinitely more complex and challenging to predict. And though some identities are blatant, most remain unobservable, disrupting the clarity of our everyday world. As a source of both conflict and unity, identity is no less important in international relations than issues such as international law, economic development, armed conflict, global health, or sustainability policy. In fact, we believe identity is at the core of all these topics. The field of international affairs faces an unprecedented and diverse set of challenges and opportunities. Across the climate crisis, a globalizing world, democratic advancement and backsliding, or the war in Ukraine, identity remains a central part of the debate. Whether forged on the battlefield or transformed by technological innovation, identities transgress the linear perception of global developments and deserve the utmost attention from academics and practitioners. The question is not if we address identity in international relations but when and how. The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs Edition 24, Volume I is a bold attempt to bring identity center stage and explore its implications globally. In pursuing this goal, we lead with a few questions: How do global forces bring us together or tear us apart? What are the dangers and opportunities of increased identity polarization or homogeneity? How do identities intersect, conflict, and coexist on a global scale? We are grateful for the insight of this volume's contributing scholars and practitioners who have sought to probe such questions. Because of their expertise, we have had the opportunity to explore issues such as digital identity and inclusion, ethnonationalist conflicts in Ethiopia, and Armenian identity in the face of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Editing the works of these authors has made clear to us that a conversation about identity on a global scale is long overdue. This volume of the 24th edition would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of each graduate and undergraduate student member of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. The Journal's high publication and professional standards are safeguarded by the hard work and dedication of our organization's Editorial Assistants, Section Editors, Development Team, and the rest of our Board. It has been an enriching experience for both of us, and we look forward to you, Reader, discovering the insights this volume presents. Daria Farman-Farmaian, SFS '23 Mikael Pir-Budagyan, MAERES'24 GJIA Print Editor's in Chief [End Page 1] Copyright © 2023 Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University

Reflecting on a Difficult Past Does Not Influence Pro-Environmental Attitudes or Behaviours

Successfully addressing the environmental crisis requires current generations to change behaviours for the benefit of future generations. Perceptions of responsibility towards future generations have been found to increase pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. Therefore, methods which enhance feelings of responsibility, or intergenerational reciprocity, are central to tackling the environmental crisis. Research shows intergenerational reciprocity can be increased through the process of reflecting on the heroic actions and sacrifices of past generations. However, the impact of reflecting on a negatively framed ‘difficult’ past remains unknown. Via an online, quasi-experimental questionnaire, this study utilised the context of the ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland, known as ‘The Troubles’, to explore how reflecting on a difficult past influences pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. The results suggest that reflecting on The Troubles has no effect on pro-environmental attitudes or behaviour. The salience of negative feelings about The Troubles may have supressed the generation of intergenerational reciprocity and environmental concern

Retheorizing state-led gentrification and minority displacement in the Global South-East

Studies on gentrification emphasize the roles of the state and local authorities in promoting a process leading to displacement of lower-income populations, mostly ethnic and racial minorities. Such studies, mostly from the global North, present displacement as an unintentional outcome of class, racial, and ethnic intersection. Thus, the ethno-national and racial mechanisms underlying state-led gentrification are left unarticulated. The current research, studying from the southeastern perspective, challenges this narrative. I argue that in a state of ethnonational conflict, gentrification in contested cities may serve as an institutional tool for achieving territorial control and strengthening demographic dominancy of the majority. Based on in-depth interviews and documentary analysis, this study analyzes the institutional mechanisms that shape gentrification in contested cities, leading to displacement of minorities on an ethnonational and class basis. In doing so, this research outlines the policy drivers, their implications, and the resistance of the minority residents.

Beyond ethnicity: historical states and modern conflict

Historical states, be they sprawling empires or nominal vassal states, can make lasting impressions on the territories they once governed. We argue that more historical states located within the borders of modern states increase the chance of civil conflict because they (1) created networks useful for insurgency, (2) were symbols of past sovereignty, (3) generated modern ethnic groups that activated dynamics of ethnic inclusion and exclusion, and (4) resisted western colonialism. Using new global data on historical statehood, we find a robust positive association between more historical states inside a modern state and the rate of civil conflict onset between 1946 and 2019. This relationship is not driven by common explanations of state formation that also drive conflict such as the number of ethnic groups, population density, colonialism, levels of historical warfare, or other region-specific factors. We also find that historical states are more likely to be conflict inducing when they are located far from the capital and in poorer countries. Our study points to unexplored channels linking past statehood to modern-day conflict that are independent of ethno-nationalist conflict and open possibilities for a new research agenda linking past statehood to modern-day conflict outcomes.

NATIONAL AND ETHNIC CONFLICTS OF XXI CENTURY

Conflicts related to the contradiction between ethnonational interests play an "extremely important" role in our time. The nature of ethnonational conflicts follows from the nature of ethnic groups and nations as state-political, socio-economic and socio-cultural communities of people, complex, multilateral relations between them. This article is devoted to the study of ethnonational conflicts of our time. The article analyzes the types of multinational states, religious, socio-economic and geopolitical factors in ethnic conflicts.

Defending Society, Building the Nation: Rebel Governance as Competing Biopolitics

AbstractRebel groups govern significant parts of territory worldwide. They often deliver crucial public goods and services to populations under their control. Scholarship on rebel governance commonly explains this with the need for armed groups to generate local and international legitimacy. We argue that this understanding of rebel governance as an instrumental means to power is insufficient. Instead, we propose a novel conceptualization of rebel governance as competing biopolitics. Tracing biopolitical technologies of rebel rule reveals the productive functions of war-time social orders for molding populations into imagined communities in direct opposition to the existing nation state. We develop this perspective by mobilizing Foucault's work in conjunction with Chatterjee's postcolonial understanding of governmentality in contexts of postcolonial state- and nation-formation, and empirical research on the Pat Jasan in northern Myanmar. Linked to the Kachin rebellion, this movement has fought against a devastating narcotics crisis with biopolitical interventions that form the Kachin nation body amidst protracted ethnonational conflict. Beyond shedding light on one of the world's longest running but least-researched civil wars, this offers three distinct contributions to international studies: exploring non-state armed groups as actors of public health, theorizing the sociological underpinnings of rebel governance, and developing the concept of biopolitics beyond the nation state.

Правовые последствия Брекзита для регионов Великобритании и теоретические основы правовых механизмов предотвращения сецессии

Introduction. The article shows that as the number of ethno-national conflicts increases in almost all parts of the world, secession processes are becoming more and more popular. At the same time, the legal and political mechanisms for preventing secession may differ radically depending on national characteristics. But even those mechanisms that have shown their effectiveness for a long period under certain (crisis) conditions stop working, forcing states to look for new tools to prevent secession of their regions. The purpose and objectives of the study. The purpose of the study is to study the experience of preventing secession of the national regions of the UK in the process of leaving the EU. It is argued that the strict instruments of limiting the autonomy of the re-gions were not only ineffective, but increased the risk of the collapse of the country. The task of analyzing changes in the regional policy of the United Kingdom in the Brexit process is set. Methodology. The methodo-logical model of A. Liphart, the classical approach of A.V. Daisi to the definition of parliamentary sovereignty is used. General scientific methods of generalization and system analysis are also used. The results of the study. It is proved that tough tools to prevent secession in the crisis conditions of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU proved ineffective and, on the contrary, stimulated separatist sentiments in the national regions of the country. Conclusion. It is concluded that only the use of flexible forms of interaction and the formation of new partner-ship instruments allowed to avoid secession of regions. This required the development of new legal and political instruments of interaction and cooperation between the central government and local elites.