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Preventing Contemporary Intergroup Violence

NCJ Number
150543
Author(s)
D A Hamburg
Date Published
1993
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This essay urges nations to cooperate in developing effective international systems of nonviolent conflict resolution and in promoting forms of mutual accommodation among contending groups that can prevent violent conflict.
Abstract
Worldwide, there are several thousand ethnic groups within fewer than 200 nation-states. Should each of these groups seek to establish its own nation, there would be no limit to fragmentation that would precipitate violence, immense suffering, and an unprecendented flow of refugees. The solution is the promotion of free civil societies within a democratic framework. Many paths to mutual accommodation are possible, including nonviolent agreed secession; peaceful, negotiated territorial border revision; federation or confederation; regional or functional autonomy; and respected cultural pluralism within each nation and across national boundaries. Policymakers could make better use of new insights and guidelines that are emerging from empirical research on the experience with forms of negotiation, mediation, arbitration, recognition, and power sharing. Whatever mechanism is used, it must satisfy the reasonable claims of most citizens, although not necessarily the intolerant militants or extremists.