CfA: Ethnopolitics in Eurasia and the Middle East,
CEU Summer University, Budapest, 4-15.7.2005
International Relations
Ethnopolitics in Eurasia and the Middle East
July 4 - 15, 2005
As this course is supported by a grant from INTAS, which covers the
participation costs of selected applicants from NIS countries (New
Independent States of the former Soviet Union) applications from
these countries are encouraged.
NIS countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and
Uzbekistan. Grant recipients are expected to be of 35 years of age or less
at the starting date of the course and must be permanently living in one of
the NIS and be NIS citizens. (NIS scientists with a permanent residence
outside the NIS or with a temporary research position lasting longer than 6
months outside the NIS at the time of the summer school are not eligible to
receive INTAS support.)
The INTAS grant includes tuition fee, accommodation, subsistence and travel
costs at the cheapest possible price (APEX, PEX or "excursion" must be
used). Visa and travel insurance expenses may be included in the
travel costs.
Course Director: Erin Jenne, Central European University,
Budapest, Hungary
Resource persons:
Stephen Saideman, McGill University, Canada
Patrick James, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA
Carolyn James, St. Stephen's College, USA
Jonathan Fox, Bar Ilan University, Israel
Florian Bieber, Central European University, Hungary
The study of ethnopolitics is of increasing importance to policy makers,
scholars and analysts for two major reasons. First, much of the organized
violence in today's world is waged along ethnic lines. Beginning in the
1970s, intra-state or civil wars began to outpace inter-state wars in both
duration and intensity. Most of these conflicts have been fought between
ethnic groups who are vying for control over the central government or
state territory+recent and ongoing ethnic struggles have taken place in
Palestine, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Moldova, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia,
Croatia, Georgia, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Burma, Sudan,
Somalia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Afghanistan, Liberia, Algeria, the
Phillipines,
Rwanda, Burundi, and elsewhere. Conflicts over secession in particular
are known for their bloodiness and intractability; such wars often stretch
out over decades and usually terminate only when one side achieves total
victory.
Insofar as these conflicts further weaken failed and failing
states+facilitating the growth of terrorist networks and
organized crime, generating de-stabilizing refugee flows, and spreading
infectious diseases across state borders+wars over national
self-determination are
certain to have an impact not only on those who live in these regions, but
also the world at large.
There is a second reason ethnopolitics is likely to dominate the
agendas of states, IGOs and NGOs for the foreseeable future, and that is
that the world has experienced rising levels of labor and political
migration since the end of Cold War. This has created new ethnic cleavages
in
society, while sometimes intensifying old ones. This phenomenon has been
most evident in Western Europe. The continent's aging populations
serve as a strong "pull" factor in attracting immigrant labor, while recent
wars and political upheavals in the region have acted as a potent "push"
factor in generating refugee flows. These developments have created a
resurgent interest in political tools for managing ethnically-divided
societies+from the consociational systems of Switzerland, Belgium, and
Bosnia,
to the assimilationist models of Germany and France. Meanwhile, the
higher birthrate of migrants, immigrants and low status minorities+in
addition to the growing economic insecurity of ethnic majorities+has led to
the rise of "the new right" in countries throughout Europe. Dealing with
the
political, social and economic consequences of ethnic diversification in
this region and elsewhere will be one of the greatest challenges of the
twenty-first century.
This course brings together leading experts in the field ethnic
politics to shed light on the role that ethnicity has played in the
domestic
politics and foreign policy of countries around the world. In doing so,
the course joins several streams of research on this topic+including
sociology, psychology, political science, international relations, and
history+in order to bring a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of
ethnopolitics.
The course aims to attract junior faculty and talented graduate
and postgraduate researchers who have varied backgrounds and
perspectives toward ethnic politics. This diversity is certain to
contribute
immensely to the richness of the course.
A course on ethnic politics is best taught in the context of
contemporary cases in the real world. To this end, only one-third of the
course will be devoted to exploring general theories of ethnopolitics,
ethnic
conflict, peace-making and post-conflict reconstruction. In the second and
third modules, students will apply these models to current and recent
cases of conflict in Eurasia and the Middle East. We have chosen to focus
on these regions for two important reasons. First, both regions have a
salient history of ethnic conflict. This is partly as the result of
their colonial and imperial legacies; the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires in
particular recognized the political autonomy of certain ethnic groups. This
has contributed to the high level of ethnic consciousness and
nationalism in these areas. Given the long histories of ethnic politics in
the
two regions, a comparison both over time and across space promises
to shed light on the conditions that are conducive to ethnic cooperation
as opposed to ethnic strife. A second reason for this geographical focus
relates to the centrality of the two regions in global geopolitical
stability. Not only do the Eurasian and Middle Eastern regions serve as a
vital
bridge between the East and the West, but they also (particularly the
Middle East) contain the bulk of the world's energy resources. For this
reason, the international community has a vested interest in ensuring the
ethnic stability of the countries in the two regions.
An examination of ethnic politics within these regions will also
shed light on the question as to whether there are general conditions (the
presence of land-based resources, water scarcity, the presence of contraband
routes or the presence of aggressive neighbors) that predispose
transitioning states to ethnic violence rather than ethnic harmony. The
experiences
of new Eurasian states in dealing with recent sectarian violence offer
important lessons for the current conflicts in transitioning Middle
Eastern countries, such as Afghanistan and Iraq (two extremely
ethnically-divided societies). Conversely, the experiences of Middle Eastern
governments in dealing with long-standing ethnic and religious divisions
have
implications for the many "frozen" conflicts in the Eurasian region.
Lessons
may thus be derived from one region and applied to the other,
synergistically. Cases of ethnopolitics in Western Europe will also be
contrasted with
those of the other two regions as an additional regional comparison.
As noted above, this class is composed of three modules. In the first,
students will explore the interaction between ethnopolitics and intra-state
conflict from the perspective of security studies in order to obtain a
general understanding of the causes of and solutions for ethnic
warfare. In doing so, students will investigate the means by which such
conflicts can be resolved with an eye toward rebuilding functioning states.
In
the second and third modules, students will apply these models of ethnic
politics to cases of divided societies in Eurasia and the Middle East.
Conflicts within the two regions will also be examined with respect to the
politics of oil, nuclear weapons, water, terrorism, trafficking, and other
transnational issues that threaten the geopolitical stability of the
regions
themselves and, by extension, the world at large. Besides participating in
small seminar discussions, students will be expected to write a
publishable paper on the topic of conflictology; this will be due at the
end of
the course. This course aims to generate scholarly interest in undertaking
cross-regional projects, which promise to contribute importantly
to the growing field of conflictology. By examining the theoretical
foundations of conflict processes, this course will be valuable to scholars
and
policy-makers alike who work on the issues of conflict
management and minority protection, as well as those who work specifically
on
post-conflict reconstruction in Eurasia or the Middle East. This
course is also relevant to scholars who wish to acquire a broader
theoretical familiarity with the state-of-the-art literature on the dynamics
and management of sectarian conflict.
CEU Summer University
Zrinyi u. 14, Budapest, Hungary 1051
Tel.: (36 1) 327 3069, 327 3811
Fax: (36 1) 327 3124
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.ceu.hu/sun
Location: Hungary
Deadline: Jan 2005(Summer 2005 course)
Website: http://www.ceu.hu/sun
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