How to Resolve Cultural Conflict: Overcoming Cultural Barriers at the Moreover, every strategy need not incorporate every principle in order to be effective. Q&A: Preventing ethnic conflict 25 February 2002 Rolf Ekeus (Ayhan Evrensel/OSCE) Photo details Rolf Ekeus, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, shares his views on how protecting national minorities contributes to peace and prosperity. Dynamics of ethnic conflict. We have already discussed some of them: the situations in Latvia and Estonia and the relations between Hungary and its neighbours. of ethnic conflict, the essential difference between German and American society must be em-phasized. First, when strategies meant to improve intergroup relations do not specifically include lessons about how to act in accordance with new awareness and knowledge, they are likely to be ineffective in changing relationships. I have also been to Kyrgyzstan, where we are looking at legislative matters concerning minorities as well as minority education issues, and Moldova, where the main focus is on linguistic issues. Persons of color and immigrants are often expected to assimilate into the dominant white culture and are resented when they hold on to cultural traditions or language. As a diplomat, I have always been taught not to ruffle feathers. Tishkov points out that the FSU, like Yugoslavia, lacked alternative structures to help people cope, once the soviet state disintegrated and ordinary people were left to deal as best they could with extreme political and economic uncertainty. The conventional wisdom among advocates of strategies to improve intergroup relations is that opportunities to learn should be infused throughout the curriculum or the tasks that make up the work of the organization involved. Traditional studies of violence focus on the details of historical animosities, economic disparities, leadership, or social structures of different regions. Many strategies to improve intergroup relations fail to make an adequate investment in diagnosing the problems that are particular to the setting involved. This is the understanding on which we must build if we ever hope to do anything about them. How does this kind of thing happen? Article copyright Cultural Survival, Inc. Our website houses close to five decades of content and publishing. There isnt violence in the real world, which does have those boundaries. In the critical range for violence, expectations about public spaces are in conflict. Will you continue with the "quiet diplomacy" approach of your predecessor? In a well mixed society, with small patches, no one group has or expects to have a monopoly over behavior in public spaces. Many have sophisticated value and institutional systems that prevent organized violence. The value of this principle depends on the abilities of those implementing the strategy to adapt the approach to fit the situation. This, he suggests, is the best hope for immigrants and the hitherto excluded. The idea of self-determination is already one of the concepts that are widely discussed for inter-group relationships. Migrations of a group of people with a shared history and population displacements can increase this tendency to form patches when a group settles together in a specific area. Anti-Semitism, the most violent manifestation of ethnic conflict in Germany, was the result of effec- Mercator projection, except C which is the Europe Albers projection. As we consider the many places in the world where patchy ethnic areas are the locations of friction, conflict, suffering and refugees the recognition of a way to achieve peaceful coexistence can provide better alternatives. Ethnic violence is a global problem that has claimed many millions of lives. While Switzerland has a reputation as a peaceful country, it has a diverse population of Catholics and Protestants and French, German and Italian speakers. In many organizations, new participants are told of the organizations commitment to positive intergroup relations. It is obvious that the better trained a person is to foster learning that improves intergroup relations, the more effective that person will be. (PDF) The Role of the State in Managing Ethnic Tensions - ResearchGate Our results suggest that in many cases boundaries and local autonomy are a constructive alternative to severe violence. Dozens of peoples never sent out groups of men with the intent to kill others. On the other hand, research findings show. He headed the Swedish delegation to the CSCE from 1988 to 1992 and played a key role in drafting the Charter of Paris for a New Europe (1990). On the other hand, when the patch size is very large, most people dont encounter members of the other groups, so they wouldnt be involved in fights. Canada is trying to find the right framework for a multiethnic federation, but keeps stumbling over its own commitment to the liberal state. The areas predicted as vulnerable to violence and actual incidents of violence have a 90 percent geographical correlation. In fact, individual Tutsi and Hutu are not easily distinguishable from each other, which is why they were issued with identity cards to "fix" their identities. Not surprisingly, some will miss the mark, leading participants to view the strategies as superficial. It was not the High Commissioner's decision to open or close the missions, and their closure has no formal bearing on my work. This suggests that as groups choose to separate the only solution to violence is to separate them even more. FEIN 23-7182593. (A) Map of the area of the former Yugoslavia showing administrative provinces. Conflict Recurrence: Strategies to prevent it - LinkedIn What have been the major issues confronting you over the first six months? Resolving ethnic conflict - Civic nationalism: a theoretical tool for The Federation of Malaysia currently dubbed by its Tourism Authority as "Truly Asia" to showcase its ethnic diversity is in many ways an enviable, relatively successful, multi-ethnic country. Respecting group decisions about public spaces, giving them the local autonomy to do so, is part of this respect. Figure 3:Linguistic groups and topographical boundaries in Switzerland. John Comaroff sounds a similar note of caution about liberal democracy as he shows how the extraordinary South African turnaround became possible. Contact Us:(617) 547-4100programs@necsi.edu, Global pattern formation and ethnic/cultural violence, Good fences: The importance of setting boundaries for peaceful coexistence. Regardless of the history of a society or whether the groups are different ethnicities, religions or languages, there are fundamental principles that describe how they settle in geographic patches. BP Breaking| TWO ethnic groups in a conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has escalated with 20 persons shot dead in a bus in the eastern DRC. People with power and authority send messages more by their deeds than by their words. Countless acts of violence have been fueled by tensions between groups of disparate cultures, religions, and languages. An example can be found in data suggesting that some groups of Latinos are more likely than Anglos to prefer cooperative tasks. Sub-national boundaries aligned with natural communities can reduce ethnic tensions and prevent violence. Efforts to form boundaries and separate conflicting groups are viewed negatively. He analyses the puzzling situation of Quebec, whose francophone population has taken control of its own cultural and political destiny in a province whose economy has made immense strides and is still doing relatively well. Figure 4 shows the predictions for ethnic violence both with and without borders. How will the OSCE's focus on countering terrorism be reflected in your work? As children mature, they become more conscious of racial and ethnic differences, and the many sources of prejudice and discrimination they experience can influence them in negative ways. An ethnic groups sense of autonomy is challenged by members of groups in bordering neighborhoods who may regularly pass through public spaces. The design principles developed by the CODA panel are meant to provide guidelines for action to those selecting or developing strategies to improve intergroup relations. Check the Summary of discussions of the expert group meetings that contributed to the preparation of the joint study. She notes that Indonesia, like other Asian countries, insists that some freedoms have to be postponed in the interests of economic development, and points out that this view appears to be shared by politicians and businessmen in the USA who regularly argue that human rights concerns should not be allowed to interfere with trade. In fact, the expectation of assimilation is a repudiation of the value that can be derived from the nations diversity and is actively resisted by many groups. First, the level of commitment to the goal will vary within the school, program, or organization. Yugoslavia was formed at the end of World War I as a union of smaller states with diverse cultures. | Donor Privacy Policy | EIN: 23-7182593. Complexity science adopts a multiscale perspective on society. But the better we are at creating an environment in which people's rights are protected, in which they feel they have a voice, and in which they do not feel isolated, then the greater the chances that we can ensure peace and prosperity and prevent conflict. I have quickly learned that it is not a desk job. In a well mixed society, with small patches, no one group has or expects to have a monopoly over behavior in public spaces. Such boundaries are not needed if people choose to integrate, which is also present in many places. Main factors of Conflict Resumption Conflict duration, casualty, and type of conflict are the main factors related to a recurrence of conflict. Institutional and contextual forces that might be considered in the development and implementation of a strategy for improving intergroup relations include structures and practicessuch as tracking, assessment practices, or selection processesand beliefs, stereotypes, and stories that have become part of the local lore. Organizations work in diverse environments. Yugoslavia was formed at the end of World War I as a union of smaller states with diverse cultures. The areas predicted as vulnerable to violence and actual incidents of violence have a 90 percent geographical correlation. Often, race relations programs and activities focus on awareness and knowledge about, and behavior toward, persons of color. However, the presence or absence of borders in the rest of the country has little effect on the geography of violence. The new states that issued from the former communist bloc are seen as being simply too heterogeneous in ethnolinguistic or ethnorelig ious terms to function as "normal" nation states. Given the death and suffering caused by ethnic violence, we can identify places where people are in geographic patches of different sizes, and rather than forcing them to become integrated, we can provide for peaceful coexistence. The state broke apart in the 1980s and 90s, including a period of severe ethnic violence. But many evaluation efforts are limited to post-event questionnaires about levels of satisfaction. The Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect has developed a Framework of Analysis to identify some of the main risk factors for atrocity crimes. In part this is because states affected by conflict are often reluctant to accept international intervention. Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo | Global Conflict Tracker This behavior is universal, it does not depend on the specific details of what is happening or where. Muller offers one explanation for why ethnic identities figure so centrally in political conflict. Still, there is one region where violence was predicted and in fact has been historically observed. Maps of Switzerland showing (A) proportion of linguistic groups according to the 2000 census, (B) elevation within Switzerland, (C) overlay of linguistic groups onto a digital elevation model, and (D) topographical features including lakes (blue) and ridges extracted using edge detection (cyan). I have also been introducing myself to the OSCE community and international partners. But early intervention is not enough. The distance scale is approximate. Seeking to change individuals without dealing with these influences, or without engaging the specific issues that shape intergroup relations, is often futile. Such teachers would tend to view intergroup relations strategies as marginal, if not downright distracting. This is a natural size, as 20 kilometers is the longest distance a person might walk in a day a natural measure of the size of a community. However, there is another choice boundaries that allow for more local autonomy so that groups can regulate their public spaces. We performed case studies in Yugoslavia, India, and Switzerland and found indeed that when patches of ethnic groups are above a certain size, ethnic violence does not occur. 26, No. Propensity to violence calculated without (B) and with (C) administrative boundaries, using a characteristic length of 21 km.
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