Ethnic Conflict Why Is Nationalism

Ethnic Conflict Why is nationalism relevant to the experience of ethnic conflict? What are the main points Perlmutter highlights about nationalism and ethnic conflict? Which emotions does Moisi identify with specific regions of the world in his clash of emotions analysis? There are mainly two forms of nationalism that states throughout the world have adopted. The first is civic nationalism that refers to viewing all citizens of a state as members of one nation. The United States is a prime example of a country that exhibits civic nationalism.

The second is ethnic nationalism that is based on ethnicity. An example of a country exhibiting ethnic nationalism would be Turkey where the state has identified ethnic Kurds as Turks for the last eighty years, and this state policy has caused internal problems in Turkey. Ethnic nationalism may exist within a country, and therefore ethnic conflicts may emerge within the designated territories of a nation or be directed against members of a different ethnicity in a different country.

More often, ethnic conflicts take place in countries exhibiting ethnic nationalism than civic nationalism. Since ethnicity is directly tied to official nationalism of the state, nationalism of different kinds become the main source of ethnic conflicts. As Perlmutter (2000) argues, ethnic conflicts often come out of the interplay of myths and realities. In the modern world, ethnic identity politics has contributed to ethnic conflicts in various parts of the world.

While identity politics can become a source of being and belonging to a particular group and may be a unifying force, it may "also provoke a destructive sense of 'otherness' and hostility towards other groups that have similar needs, but which originated and developed in a different context." Even a universally acknowledged right of self-termination may lead to ethnic conflicts, since "a group that struggled for its self-determination, its separation from a larger and/or stronger entity, in most cases can become itself an oppressor of smaller, weaker groups" that have either lived in the same territory or in an adjacent one with claims to the disputed territory (Perlmutter).

In some other cases, ethnic identity politics may lead to ethnic conflicts because of the fear of "cultural bastardization" between ethnicities living in the same or neighboring nations. Ethnic conflicts that are the result of ethnic identity politics or the ideology of nationalism are often manipulated or played out of historical myths that have no tangible bases.

For example, the conflict in former Yugoslavia is often studied as a case of ethnic conflict, and the Serbian atrocities against Bosnians is usually described as "ethnic cleansing." But Serbs, Croatians, and Bosnians "are all South Slavs, sharing a common ethnic origin and speaking basically the same language: Serbocroatian" (Perlmutter). Serbs and Croatians share the same religion as well (with different denominations), while Bosnians, with the exception of their Muslim identity, have experienced a shared history with the other two. And all three are former Communists.

Nevertheless, all three groups have identified themselves as different ethnicities during the conflict in the 1990s. Dominique Moisi (2007) argues that, in addition to the problem of clash of civilizations, the world today faces a clash of emotions. There is a culture of fear, displayed by the West, of foreign nationals, of losing the identity in a complex world, of losing their economic power, and of being ruled by foreigners (the latter, in the case of Europe).

"What unites all these fears," Moisi argues, "is a sense of loss of control over one's territory, security, and identity -- in short, one's destiny." While Europeans try to deal with their fear through escapism and appeasement, Americans take the offensive to the source of the problems (as they see it) abroad. The.