003 Causes of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

CAUSES OF ETHNIC CONFLICT
What converts ethnic differences into ethnic violence?
The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)
AMEER ABDULLAH KHAN

DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
FACULTY OF CONTEMPORARY STUDIES
NATIONAL DEFENCE UNIVERSITY PAKISTAN
WHAT CAUSES ETHNIC CONFLICTS?
Point to Ponder
• The combination of creed, greed, and grievances.
• Exacerbated by poor leadership, particularistic interests, and spill-overs from conflicts in neighbouring
countries.
• Discrimination, the persistent violation of human rights, and deliberate economic and social neglect.
• The ability of leaders of the affected communities to capitalize on their resulting grievances, forge and appeal
to their ethnic distinctiveness, and compensate some or many with actual and promised material rewards, on
the other, are essential in understanding the causes of ethnic conflicts.
Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

WHAT CAUSES ETHNIC CONFLICTS?
Point to Ponder
• Struggle for control over wealth, natural resources.
• Identity and struggle for right to self determination .
• Battle of symbols i.e. Ester Lilly and Poppy.
• Legitimate civil rights movement leading to extreme polarization and radicalization.
• Systematic deprivation of their status and denial of access to public goods—jobs, education, healthcare—by a
majority/minority to minority/majority.
• At another level, ethnic conflicts also involve very rational choices made by individuals.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE CAUSES
Causes of Ethnic Conflicts
Underlying Causes Proximate Causes
The factors that increase the

The underlaying cause is likelihood of conflict in a
necessary but not sufficient situation in which all or some
condition for the outbreak of of the underlying ‘ingredients’
ethnic violence. are present. ‘Enable’ the
outbreak of violent ethnic
conflicts.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE CAUSES
Underlying Causes Proximate Causes
Structural Internal Elite (Bad leaders)
Political External Elite (Bad neighbours)
Internal Mass (Bad domestic

Economic & Social
conditions)
External Mass (Bad
Cultural & Perceptual
neighbourhood)

UNDERLYING CAUSES
Structural
Weak States
(for example, states that do not exercise control on the entire
territory within their boundaries)
Intra-state Security Concerns

(such as about potential secessionist movements, possibly with
external support from neighbouring states)
Ethnic Geography
(including territorially concentrated groups in border areas and
ethnic groups that straddle international boundaries

UNDERLYING CAUSES
Political
Discriminatory political institutions
(which pursue policies that deliberately disadvantage members of
particular ethnic groups)
Exclusionary nationalist ideologies

(that question, for example, the equality of all citizens, deny
citizenship to members of particular ethnic groups, or advocate
forced cultural assimilation of minorities)
Contentious inter-group and intra-group politics at mass and

elite levels
(A political sphere that is mostly carved up between ethnic parties
that compete with each other on ethnic platforms)

UNDERLYING CAUSES
Socio-
Economic
Discriminatory economic systems
(such as a system of cultural division of labour with job
opportunities determined by ethnic background)
Uneven or Preferential economic development and

modernization
Efforts to reorient, redistribution of resources, or the

preservation of a privileging status quo.

UNDERLYING CAUSES
Cultural & Patterns of Cultural Discrimination
Perceptual
(such as the imposition of an official state language, the
systematic destruction of cultural resources and historic
monuments, the outlawing of certain cultural practices and
traditions)
Problematic Group Histories

(which, in their extreme, may include past instances of ethnic
cleansing and attempted genocide)

PROXIMATE CAUSES
Internal Elite
• Bad Leaders
External Elite
• Bad Neighbours
Internal Mass
• Bad domestic conditions
External Mass
• Bad neighbourhood

CLASS ACTIVITY - I
Let’s Brainstorm Together
• Identify different causes behind the following:
- Ethnic Violence in Karachi

- Baloch Uprising
- Pushtoon Tahaffuz Movement

CLASS ACTIVITY-II
Instructions
• Those who are sleeping please wake-up

• Read the assigned passage which discusses cases of ethnic conflict in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea and
Solomon Islands.
Wolff, Stefan. 2006. Ethnic Conflict: A Global Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.58-63
• After reading the text, write down the Underlying and Proximate causes of both the conflicts in the East Asian
region.
• Discuss your findings with the class

THANK YOU

003 Causes of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

003 Causes of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

003 Causes of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CAUSES OF ETHNIC CONFLICT

What converts ethnic differences into ethnic violence?

The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

AMEER ABDULLAH KHAN

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Underlying Causes Proximate Causes

The factors that increase the

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Structural Internal Elite (Bad leaders)

Political External Elite (Bad neighbours)

Internal Mass (Bad domestic

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Intra-state Security Concerns

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Exclusionary nationalist ideologies

Contentious inter-group and intra-group politics at mass and

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Uneven or Preferential economic development and

Efforts to reorient, redistribution of resources, or the

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Problematic Group Histories

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

• Identify different causes behind the following:

- Ethnic Violence in Karachi

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

• Those who are sleeping please wake-up

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

Ameer Abdullah Khan - The Politics of Ethnic Conflict (IR-456)

You might also like