Managing and Settling Ethnic Conflicts: Perspectives on Successes and Failures in Europe, Africa and Asia

300 Pages·2004·200.53 MB·English

by  Ulrich Schneckener

MANAGING AND SETTLING ETHNIC CONFLICTS
UL~CHSCHNECKENER
STEFAN WOLFF
editors
Managing and Settling
Ethnic Conflicts
Perspectives on Successes and Failures
in Europe, Africa andAsia
*
Copyright © Ulrich Schneckener and Stefan Wolff, 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2004 by
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of
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ISBN 978-1-4039-6623-0 ISBN 978-1-137-07814-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-07814-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Managing and settling ethnic conflicts: perspectives on successes and
failures in Europe, Africa, and Asia/ Ulrich Schneckener, Stefan Wolff,
editors.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
I. Ethnic conflict. 2. Conflict management. I. Schneckener, Ulrich,
1968 II. Wolff, Stefan, l969-
HM1121.M33 2004
305.8---dc22
2003068934
First edition: March 2004
10 9 8 7 6 54 3 2 1
Transferred to Digital Printing 2013
CONTENTS
TheContributors VlI
Preface Vlll
Part I. CONCEPTUALIZING CONFLICTMANAGEMENT
AND SETTLEMENT
Chapters
1. Managingand SettlingEthnic Conflicts Stefan Wolff
2. Models ofEthnic ConflictRegulation:thePolitics of
Recognition UlrichSchneckener 18
3. Relating Human Rights,MinorityRights and Self-
DeterminationtoMinorityProtection KristinHenrard 40
Part II. POWER-SHARING SYSTEMS
4. SettlinganEthnicConflictthroughPower-sharing:SouthTyrol
Stefan Wolff 57
5. The FailureofPower-sharing inCyprus:Causes and
Consequences SusanneBaier-Allen 77
6. Between Consociationalismand Control: SriLanka
Maya Chadda 94
PartIII. TERRITORIALAPPROACHES
7. InsularAutonomy: aFramework forConflictResolution?
Corsica and theAland Islands FarimahDaflary 115
8. Between AutonomyandFederalism: Spain M. K.Flynn 139
9. Between Federalism and Separatism:India and Pakistan
Katharine Adeney 161
10. Secessionand itsAftermath: Eritrea SandraF.Joireman 176
v
VI Contents
PartIV. BILATERAL AND MULTILATERAL
APPROACHES
11. Bilateral Agreementsandtheir Role inSettling Ethnic
Conflicts:aCase StudyofGerman Minorities
Hans-JoachimHeintze 189
12. InternationalInterventionand itsAftermath:Kosovoand
EastTimor RichardCaplan 206
Part V. LESSONS LEARNED
13. Conditions forPeacemaking:Negotiatingthe Non-negotiable
inSouthAfrica andthe Middle East
HeribertAdam,KanyaAdam andKogilaMoodley 220
14. Peacemaking inCivilWars:Obstacles,Optionsand
Opportunities TimothyD.Sisk 248
15. Managing and Settling EthnicConflicts: The Context-Design
Nexus UlrichSchneckener 271
Index 287
THE CONTRIBUTORS
Heribert Adam is Professor of Sociology at Simon Fraser University,
Vancouver.
Kanya Adam is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of British
Columbia, Vancouver.
Katharine Adeney is a Research Fellow in Politics at Balliol College,
Oxford.
Susanne Baier-Allen is a Research Fellow at the Centre for European
Integration Studies, Bonn.
Richard Caplan is a Fellow at the Centre for International Studies,
Oxford University.
Maya Chadda is Professor of Political Science at William Paterson
University,Wayne,NewJersey.
Farimah Daftary is a Programme Officer at the EU Accession Moni
toring ProgrammeoftheOpen Society Institute, Budapest.
M.K. Flynn teaches in the School of Arts, Monash South Africa,
Johannesburg.
Hans-Joachim Heintze isaSeniorFellowattheInstitute forInternational
LawofPeaceandArmed Conflict atRuhrUniversity,Bochum.
Kristin Henrard isa Senior Lecturer inConstitutional and International
Lawatthe University ofGroningen.
Sandra FJoireman isanAssociate Professor inthe DepartmentofPoli
ticsand International Relations, Wheaton College, Wheaton, II1inois.
KogilaMoodley isProfessor ofEducational Studies atthe University of
British Columbia.
Ulrich Schneckener is a Researcher at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und
Politik-GermanInstituteforInternational PoliticsandSecurity,Berlin.
Timothy D. Sisk is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of
International Studies, University ofDenver,Colorado.
Stefan Wo!ffis Lecturer inthe DepartmentofEuropean Studies, Univer
sity ofBath.
VII
PREFACE
At the turn of the century, it seems, ethnic conflicts have spread and
intensifiedlikenootherphenomenon. Thishasbeenparticularlythecase
inCentral andEastern Europe, where, after aneraofrelativecalm after
theSecondWorldWar,oldconflictshavere-emergedandnewonesesca
lated inthe Balkans (from Croatia to Macedonia) and invirtually all of
thesuccessor statesoftheformer SovietUnion.Duringthesameperiod,
Africa has experienced genocide in Rwanda and several civil wars,
including Liberia, Sierra Leone and Congo. InAsia,India and Pakistan
haverepeatedlycometothebrinkofwaroverKashmir,inothercountries
(such as Sri Lanka, the Philippines or Indonesia) violent secessionist
conflicts haveescalated.Moreover,atthetimeofwriting,thesituation in
the Middle Eastseems further removed from anysettlement than itever
was.Numerous otherexamplescouldbeaddedtothislist.Yet,thebleak
picturethatemergesfromthisperspective doesnotaccurately reflectthe
fact that, over the same period oftime, our knowledge, skills and re
sources inmanaging andsettling suchconflicts havealsogrownsignifi
cantly.Whilethishas notalwaysmanifested itselfinsuccessful conflict
management and settlement, and while conflict prevention may still
prove illusive in many cases, the track record ofindividual states and
international organisations in successfully responding to the challenges
ethnic conflicts posehasimproved.Toprovideamorebalanced account
ofsuccesses and failures is one of the tasks that this volume seeks to
accomplish.
However,todrawupabalance sheetalonewouldberatherunsatisfac
toryasitwouldleaveessential questions unanswered.Whycanviolence
be prevented in some cases, but not in others? How was it possible to
adopt one approach successfully in one case while the same approach
failedinanapparentlysimilarconflictelsewhere?Arethereanytransfer
able lessons about conflict management and settlement applicable to
cyclesoffailureinoneandthesameconflictaswellastootherconflicts?
Questions like these are crucial if we want to enhance the capabilities
ofacademics, activistsinthevoluntary sectorandpolicy-makers toana
lyse and respond to ethnic conflicts properly. Webelieve that detailed,
viii
Preface IX
qualitative casestudies,bothsingleandcomparativeinnature, canmake
a contribution towards this goal. Therefore we have invited recognised
specialists to provide their analysis of the benefits and shortcomings of
particular approaches to conflict management and settlement and to
assessthereasonsofthesuccessorfailureoftheseapproaches inparticu
larcases.
The structure of the volume is straightforward: following Stefan
Wolff'sconceptual clarificationofwhatconflictmanagement andsettle
ment entail, Ulrich Schneckenerprovides adetailed and comprehensive
typology of the different policies that can be adopted in the broader
process ofconflict regulation.Thisintroductorypartofthebookiscom
pleted byKristin Henrard's analysisofthe relationshipbetween individ
ual human rights, minority rights and the right to self-determination,
which usefully complements the preceding twochapters by introducing
the reader to the core legal concepts in the debate on conflict manage
mentandsettlement thatarereflected inonewayoranother inallsubse
quent casestudies.
Schneckener's typology foreshadows the organisation of individual
chapters intothreebroader sections:power-sharing, territorial,aswellas
bilateral andmultilateral approaches toconflict managementand settle
ment. Inthesection onpower-sharing, Wolffexamines thecaseofSouth
Tyrolasoneoffewlastingsuccessstoriesintheapplication ofthispartic
ular approach, looking at the dynamics of conflict development over
morethanhalfacentury andanalysingthecontentandcontextofeachof
the three autonomy statutes proposed and implemented since 1948.
Although less successful from the perspective ofsettling an ethnic con
flict by adopting a power-sharing system, the case of Cyprus provides
interesting lessons as to the causes and consequences ofpower-sharing
failures,whichisthefocusofSusanneBaler-Allen'scontribution.Finally,
in this section, Maya Chadda looks at Sri Lanka and the policies of
conflict management and settlement adopted there over the decades.
Comparing and contrasting power-sharing with control regimes, she
highlights thelimitsthatcontextual factors canimposeonthesuccessof
either.
Territorial approaches toconflict managementand settlementcovera
widerangeofpossible strategies, fromautonomyatoneendofthespec
trum tosecession andpartition attheother.Thisrange isreflected inthe
contributionstothissection:FarimahDaftary'schapter oninsularauton
omy and its application to the Aland Islands and Corsica opens the
debate.M.K. FlynnandKatharineAdeneyintheirchaptersonSpainand
on India and Pakistan, respectively, examine the range ofinstitutional
designsbetweenautonomyandfederalism andtheirusefulness incoping
x Preface
with the challenges posed in attempts to design fair and stable autono
mous and federated institutional structures.Sandra Joiremanthen looks
atacaseofnegotiatedsecession. When Eritrea gained independentstate
hood from Ethiopia afterareferendumheld in 1993,theprospectsofthis
settlementprovidingalong-termsolutiontoaprotractedethnic civilwar
seemed quite high. Yet over the following years relations between the
two now independentstates deteriorated,and by 1998had turned into a
state ofwar which lasted for almost two years.Joireman'scontribution
also emphasises the theoretical importance ofthe Eritrean case in the
light ofthe debate onwhethersecessionand partitionaresuitable settle
ments forethnic conflictsatall.
As ethnic conflicts are often not merely issues ofone state's internal
affairs,butinmany cases alsoconcernneighbours,ethnic kin, aswellas
regional and international powers for a variety ofreasons, the role of
external actors inconflict managementandsettlementhasincreasedsig
nificantly. Wenote this state ofaffairs with two separate case studies:
Hans-JoachimHeintze'schapteronbilateralminorityrights regimes and
treaties,focusing on German minorities in Central and Eastern Europe,
and RichardCaplan'scontributionon internationalinterventionininter
nal conflict and its aftermath, exemplified in the cases ofKosovo and
East Timor. While Heintze focuses on the benefits and opportunities
offered by bilateral co-operation in addressing historically complex
minority problems, Caplan's contribution highlights the importance of
the sustainedinvolvement ofexternal actors (i.e.the United Nations) in
the process of post-conflict reconstruction with the aim of enabling
domesticactors tobuild uptheinstitutionalcapacitythatwillallowthem
overtime toregain fullsovereigntyovertheir ownaffairs andadminister
these inawaythat will prevent future violentconflict.
Ontheonehand,thevalue ofavolumelikethis isinthequality ofthe
individual case studies. Yetto provide a mere selection ofcase studies
looselyheldtogetherbyacommontheme didnotsatisfy either usorour
contributors.Thereforewedecidedto drawatleastsome conclusionson
the disparate experiences with ethnic conflict management and settle
ment over the past several decades.The final three chapters ofthe vol
umearededicatedtothischallengingtask.HeribertAdam,KanyaAdam
andKogilaMoodley examine thedifferent paths thatthepeace processes
inSouth Africaand Israel havetaken since the late 1980sand assess the
causes andconsequencesofthese different developmentsbefore offering
someconclusionsastohowtheimpasse intheMiddle East,andbyexten
sion in other similarly protracted conflicts, can be overcome. Timothy
Sisk then offers abroad accountoftheobstacles,options andopportuni
tiesofpeacemakinginthecivilwarsofthe 1990s.Finally,drawing onthe