Summary

As hot spots from Bosnia to the Caucasus to the Horn of Africa clearly signal, the end of the Cold War does not mean an end to regional conflict but rather the early phase of a new era in world history. This book is an introduction to this new era of ethnic challenges to world order and security.From Africa's postcolonial rebellions in the 1960s and 1970s to the anti-immigrant violence in the 1990s, Ethnic Conflict in World Politics surveys the historical, geographic, and cultural diversity of ethnopolitical conflict. Using an analytical model to elucidate four well-chosen case studies--the Kurds, the Miskitos, the Chinese in Malaysia, and the Turks in Germany--the authors give students tools for analyzing emerging conflicts based on the demands of nationalists, indigenous peoples, and immigrant minorities throughout the world. The international community is challenged to respond more constructively to these conflicts than it has in divided Yugoslavia, by using the emerging doctrines of peacekeeping and peacemaking that are detailed in this book.The text is liberally illustrated with maps, tables, and figures to enhance students' understanding of the quest of unfamiliar peoples for autonomy and rights, putting all into the context of international politics. An appendix surveying over fifty of the most serious ethnopolitical conflicts in the world today--keyed to a global map and identifying the groups and issues as well as counting the number of lives affected--shows the enormous geopolitical and cultural reach of this issue.