Conflict Studies Notes

Introduction to Conflict Studies

• Dr. Line Kuppens, l.kuppens@uva.nl, University of Amsterdam, 2024-2025, semester 2, 24.02.2025
• Topic: Identity-based & intergroup conflict

Program

• Identity-based conflict: Ethnic conflict
• 3 paradigms:
  • Primordialism
  • Instrumentalism
  • Constructivism (bridge: groupism)
• Ethnic fractionalization & polarization
• Identity and belonging
• Social identity theory
• Collective Psychological Ownership: Autochthony & Territorial beliefs
• Case study: Israel-Palestine

Observation: Common Headlines

• Examples:
  • Spreading Anti-Rakhine Propaganda in Mandalay Sparks Fear of Ethnic Conflict
  • Kosovo accused of raising ethnic tensions by banning use of Serbian dinar
  • Sudan war could lead to more ethnic killings in volatile Darfur region
  • India: Renewed Ethnic Violence in Manipur State
  • Karabakh 'completely abandoned': Ethnic Armenians have fled decades-old 'armed conflict, violence'

Identity-Based Conflict: Ethnicity

• Common Perception: Framing of conflict as the struggles ‘of’ ethnic groups, races, and nations.
• Theoretical Lens: Primordialism
  • Ethnic conflicts as the resurgence of ‘primordial’ animosities and ancient hatred.
  • Ethnicity as unchanging and unique.

Quotes on Ethnic Conflict

• Lawrence Eagleburger (US Secretary of State, 1992):
  • “It is difficult to explain, but this war is not rational… It is gut, it is hatred; it's not for any common set of values or purposes; it just goes on.