Global Security Concerns - Project Gutenberg Consortia Center

expansion from the 1500s until the mid-1950s. Because the government hopes to fully
integrate new ethnic groups into its sovereignty, it will openly attempt to change the
traditions, language, and other characteristics which have defined ethnic groups. The
Soviets exercised this tactic extensively. If it cannot achieve this goal forcibly, the
stronger nation will use more subtle means, including education and training, to
indoctrinate and to convert the outlier and bring it into the fold. As acts of open
aggression against another sovereignty are met with worldwide reproof, their occurrences
will continue to decline. Yet, it is the second case—preventing internal secession—that is
becoming more prominent today. Separatism by way of secession presents another
problem altogether: because societies are beginning to recognize the strength of their
ethnic identities, they are attempting to break away from their mother countries and
define their own systems of government. Known historically as self-determination, these
attempts at nationhood are making quite a wave in what once was a sea of domestic
tranquillity (and relative international stability).
Separatism
Separatism is not new to the international stage. It is found worldwide, and Europe
has witnessed a historical ethnic renaissance over the past 50 years. In Nationalism,
Anthony D. Smith argues that Britain, France, Spain, Holland, and Italy and North
America (Canada, specifically) have all faced separatist challenges. 7 Ethnic groups have
attempted to define their own boundaries and government institutions for centuries, but
the movement has never been stronger than at present. These movements may have
different bases, but Smith illuminates their commonalities: “These autonomous
movements have arisen this century in their political form, in well-established, often
ancient states, with clear and recognized national boundaries, and with a relatively
prosperous economy…. All these states are fairly industrialized, and much of the
population is literate and even quite well educated.” 8 In Nationalism, Smith concentrates
on the more modernized societies when he scripted his thoughts in 1979. A follow-on
work published in 1983, State and Nation in the Third World, outlined his thoughts on
the five phases of African nationalism: “primary resistance movements to European
incursion; so-called millennial protest movements against colonial rule; the period of
gestation, and ‘adaptation,’ of new local strata; the phase of nationalist agitation for selfrule;
and the adoption of social programmes for the masses by nationalism.” 9 While
analysts may base the context of separatist feelings upon a conglomerate of motives, this
analysis concentrates on the economic and sociocultural reasons, since they broadly
characterize the two extremes of peaceful and conflictive separatist movements.
Peaceful, separatist movements are becoming prominent within democracies where
ethnic groups exhibit a strong desire to separate themselves from a confederation of
states. One of the strongest movements in this regard is Quebec’s attempted breakaway
from 127 years of centralized, national government control. Ongoing for decades, only in
1994 did separatists see their first real chance of seceding. While many in Quebec
insisted they did not want to be a separate nation from Canada, voters elected hard-line
separatist Jacques Parizeau as premier. 10 Based upon economic as well as cultural issues,
they voiced their concern about remaining under the control of a national government
who did not fully recognize or act on their desires as an ethnic people. Undoubtedly an
important issue for the US and international trade markets, the premier made clear his
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