ZEF Bonn

Another popular thesis is Samuel Huntington's (1993) clash of civilisations replacing
competition between communism and capitalism during the cold war. The thesis has
received much attention despite its rather poor empirical performance. Ted Gurr
(1994) has shown that the dividing lines in most of the conflicts since 1989 have
not run parallel to the civilisational fault-lines that Huntington identified (see also
Russet, Oneal and Cox 2000). It is not orthodox versus non-orthodox Christians,
Confucians versus Christians, Muslims versus the rest, but rather Protestant versus
Catholic in Northern Ireland, Muslim against Muslim in Iraq and Turkey, etc.
The approach developed in ZEF over the last few years (cf. Wimmer, 2002; Wimmer
and Schetter, 2002) explains the current wave of conflicts with the creation of new
nation-states after the dissolution of the communist, multinational empires and the
corresponding changes in the principles of political legitimacy. In empires, ethno-cultural
distinctions may have played a certain role in defining the hierarchical strata
that made up society, distinguishing between nobles and commoners, conquerors and
conquered, etc. The balancing-out of relationships between these estates may therefore
have entailed some political mobilisation along ethnic lines. However, ethnic
relations take on completely new dynamics within the sphere of a nation-state - i.e.
of a state aspiring to represent one nation. It is the institution of the nation-state
that raises the question as to who may belong to its nation, because that state
embodies the idea and political practice of national sovereignty. The state should, so
to speak, be dyed by a nation's colour and designate the 'people' in whose name it
rules over its territory. In many cases, the new elites are not capable of marshalling
enough support for their project of nation-building. A fight erupts over which 'people'
the state should belong to, and political mobilisation proceeds along ethnic lines.
Surviving in times
of war. Kabul,
Summer 2002
3 Morrison and Stevenson, as well as Barrows, looked at the relations between cultural pluralism and
political instability in a sample of 33 African countries. The two studies yielded diametrically opposed
results. Both are cited in Nelson Kasfir (1979). McRae (1983) combined measures of civil strife with
indexes of the relative religious, racial and linguistic heterogeneity of 90 countries. He found no clear
pattern of correlation. The debate has been recently revived with Vanhanen's (1999) book in which he
tries to establish a linear positive relations between ethnic heterogeneity and violent political conflict
on the basis of new data. Robert Bates (1999), however, arrives at a curvilinear relationship for a
sample of African countries.
Essay
The current wave of conflicts is
strongly linked to the creation
of new nation-states after the
dissolution of the communist
bloc. Ethnic relations take on
completely new dynamics within
a nation-state, i.e. a state
aspiring to represent one
nation.
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