"Us" versus "Them"
Israelis and Palestinians, India and Pakistan, governments and insurgents, Protestants and Catholics, whites and blacks, labor and management...these are all examples of identities that have at some times and some places resulted in intractable conflicts.
For an inter-group (e.g., racial, ethnic, or religious) conflict to occur, the opponents must have a sense of collective identity about themselves and about their adversary, each side believing the fight is between "us" and "them." Some of those conflicts become intractable, persisting destructively for a very long time, despite efforts to resolve them. In some such conflicts the antagonists seem to be fighting each other about the identities that they hold about themselves and those they attribute to the other side. Such conflicts are sometimes called identity-based conflicts and regarded as particularly prone to becoming intractable.
This essay examines: (1) the characteristics of various kinds of identities, (2) how particular qualities of collective identities contribute to a conflict becoming intractable, (3) what shapes collective identities, and (4) how such identities can be modified to help transform and resolve intractable conflicts.
The Nature of Identity
Developing a sense of self is an essential part of every individual becoming a mature person. Each person's self-conception is a unique combination of many identifications, identifications as broad as woman or man, Catholic or Muslim, or as narrow as being a member of one particular family. Although self-identity may seem to coincide with a particular human being, identities are actually much wider than that. They are also collective -- identities extend to countries and ethnic communities, so that people feel injured when other persons sharing their identity are injured or killed. Sometimes people are even willing to sacrifice their individual lives to preserve their identity group(s). Palestinian suicide bombers are a well-publicized example.
For the large, inter-group struggles discussed in this essay and much of this Web site, collective identities are necessary.[1] People who share the same collective identity think of themselves as having a common interest and a common fate.
Some of the many identities people have are nested within each other, usually compatibly, as is the case for geographic identities within a country. For example, I can identity both with New York (my state) and the United States (my country). However, some identities may compete with each other, as occurs in wars of secession. For example, in the 1950s and 1960s many people living in what was then Yugoslavia felt pride in having stood up to the Soviet Union in 1948 and in creating a new economic system. Yet in the 1990s, most people in Yugoslavia felt that their identities as Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Muslims, or Bosnians were more salient than their identity as Yugoslavs.
Sources of Identity
Identities are constructed on the basis of various traits and experiences. Many of those characteristics are open to different interpretations. Race is a good example. Skin color is an important marker of identity in many societies, but in others it is of minimal importance. Many people in the United States assign relatively great importance to skin color; furthermore, they tend to dichotomize color into black and white, claiming that having any African ancestry, even over several generations, may make a person identify with being black. But in other countries race is partly defined by traits that may be acquired later in life. For example, in Mexico, "Indians" can become "Mestizos" by wearing Western clothing and speaking Spanish.
Similarly, some analysts speak of ethnicity as a primordial phenomenon, relatively ancient and unchanging. Other analysts stress that ethnicity is socially constructed, with people choosing a history and common ancestry and creating, as much as discovering, differences from others.[2] In this essay, I consider ethnicity to be largely socially constructed, while I recognize that some traits of ethnicity are not easily modified by social processes.
For instance, some traits are fixed at birth, such as parental ethnicity and religion, place of birth, and skin color. Other traits may be acquired or modified later, such as language spoken, religion practiced, clothing worn, or food eaten. Insofar as the traits chosen to define membership in an ethnicity are determined at birth, ethnic status is ascribed; and insofar as they are modified or acquired in later life, ethnic status is achieved.
Many identities, then, are not based on ascribed traits but on shared values, beliefs, or concerns, which are varyingly open to acquisition by choice. This includes shared religious adherence -- indeed, members of many religious communities proselytize to win converts to their faith. This is also true for political ideologies, attachment to particular pieces of land, or practicing a particular way of life.
Identities vary in many other ways. They are self-designations and also attributions made about other persons. They can endure for generations or change with shifting situations. They can exclude or include. And since everyone has multiple identities, their relative importance and compatibility differs in various times and circumstances.
Identity Effects on Intractability
Additional insights into identity issues are offered by Beyond Intractability project participants.
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Collective identities are inherent in social life, whether part of a conflict or not. When and how identities contribute to intractable conflicts depends greatly on the content of the identities held. Certain qualities of identities contribute significantly to the intractability of conflicts, and whether those conflicts are constructive or destructive.
Persistent Identities: Protracted conflicts are made possible by enduring identities, often based on ascribed characteristics. Thus, the protracted nature of many ethnic conflicts depends on the persistence of the ethnic groups, deriving from socialization within the group and from suffering resulting from discrimination and exclusion by other ethnic groups. For example, the survival of Jews as an ethnic group, even without a single territorial base, has derived from socialization within the community about Jewish religious and cultural qualities and from external anti-Semitism.
Primary Identities: The primacy or importance of an identity is another quality that affects its contribution to the persistence of a conflict. Persons and groups have multiple identities, but the identities are not all equally significant to them. Conflicts related to highly significant identities have a tendency to persist, since threats to those identities are not easily put aside.[3] For instance, particular pieces of land can be key elements of identity, whether they are the village, region, or country of birth and ancestral attachment. When land is a key focus of identity, struggles over that land can become protracted. This is often the case for aboriginal peoples in territories controlled by later settlers.
Non-Compromising Identities: The nature of the collective identities also affects the difficulty in reaching an accommodation between conflicting groups. Members of groups with identities that place a high priority on being honored and being treated with deference may have difficulty making compromises for or respecting other groups. Furthermore, some self-conceptions relating to ideas of sovereignty, authority, and legitimacy constitute barriers to successful settlement of a conflict.
Views of the "Other:" Many other attributes of identities affect the way conflicts are conducted. Certainly, the character attributed to the adversary is often related to the destructiveness of a conflict. If people in the enemy collectivity are viewed as subhuman, even denigrated as vermin, they are more easily subjected to gross human rights violations and even extermination attempts. If enemy people are regarded as evil, then extreme methods are justified to destroy them. Obviously, the targets of such characterizations will reject them and may subsequently reciprocate them.
Even less extreme characterizations of the other group can contribute to a conflict's intractability. This may occur when one group's identity is fashioned in opposition to another. For example, during the Cold War, an important aspect of American identity for many people in the United States was to be anti-Communist.
Inclusivity: In addition, identities vary in their exclusiveness or inclusiveness, the degree to which people who do not yet share the identity may be welcomed to do so or be excluded. Inclusive identities are less prone to foster intractable conflict.
Nationalism: Considerable attention for many years has been given to nationalism as a source of intractable conflicts. Nationalism as an ideology asserts that nations or groups of people who share a common history and destiny have the right to have a territory or state of their own. Given the movement and intermingling of people on earth and the changing political systems of the world, such a right for everyone is not realizable. Furthermore, nationalist sentiments often are a variant of ethnocentrism, the tendency to see one's own group as superior and more deserving of respect than all others.[4] This is particularly evident when nationalist sentiments are shaped by ethnic identities. They are less evident in civic nationalism, which affirms citizenship in a country as obtainable by all who choose to live there.[5] Furthermore, it is indeed possible for people to be patriotic, celebrating their own people or country, without denigrating or dominating other peoples or countries.
Victimhood: Another important characteristic of identities is the degree to which people hold identities that incorporate their sense that they have generally been victims of oppression and domination by others. Such conceptions tend to make people feel threatened and mistrustful. Fearing attacks, they may act to prevent them, but in ways that the other side likewise experiences as threats. The result can be self-perpetuating destructive struggles.
Adversarial Identities: Finally, a conflict's intractability depends upon the identities of the adversary. Identities can mesh with each other in ways that are more or less destructive. Two groups with ethno-nationalist identities and with attachment to some of the same land are prone to engage in an intractable conflict. However, a group with an ethno-nationalist identity and even a high sense of superiority may avoid an intractable conflict with a group that has identities emphasizing other-worldly religious concerns.
Shapers of Identity
Three settings shape collective identities: (1) internal factors within each group, (2) relations with adversary groups, and (3) the social context of the groups' interaction. Each setting is discussed in turn.
(1) Internal Factors and Processes
Certain characteristics of group members affect their identities and their views of the groups with which they are in opposition.
Universal Human Needs: Some conflict resolution analysts and practitioners argue that all people and groups are driven to attain certain basic and universal human needs. Among these, they say, are recognition, security, and identity.[6] Human needs theorists and practitioners believe that the frustration of these needs underlies many social conflicts. Since such needs are non-negotiable, they argue, an inability to attain these needs often leads to intractable conflict. Other theorists and practitioners, however, stress the cultural variability in the way needs are understood and certainly in the ways in which they are satisfied.[7] This is the approach taken in this essay.
Past Experience: Past experience, for example, is an important influence on a conflict's intractability. Groups may pass on the heritage of suffering and of enmities arising from historical traumatic events.[8] Of course, if those events are to shape contemporary identities, they must be kept alive in families, schools, and religious institutions, and sometimes aroused and amplified by political leaders, intellectuals, or other influential persons. If that occurs, identities tend to form that foster intractable conflicts.
Adversarial Attitudes: Various cultural patterns prevalent within a society, group, or organization contribute to a conflict's intractability.[9] These patterns include a predilection, for example, not to trust members of other groups, to denigrate them, or to act with hostility toward them. Specific ideologies and ways of thinking also contribute to conflict intractability. Thus, people in a group with a collective identity significantly based on racism would tend to denigrate others they regard as inherently inferior and feel free to act in destructive ways against the inferior beings. This is likely to result in determined resistance and protracted destructive struggle.
Leadership: Finally, it should be recognized that political and religious leaders play important roles in shaping identities. Leaders put forward identities that include some people while excluding others. They may expect to benefit from the construction and strengthening of exclusive identities, privileging their own language or religion and gaining power by arousing emotions against other groups and peoples. For example, Hitler and the Nazis helped create an extreme racist German identity that contributed greatly to the destructiveness of the wars Germany undertook.
(2) Relations with Adversaries
Identities are profoundly shaped by interactions molded in conflict, and in turn influence the course of a conflict.[10]
Violence and Coercion: Antagonistic interactions with large components of violence and other forms of coercion tend to produce identities incorporating toughness in resisting coercion and in imposing it on others. Members of the group who act tough are then celebrated by other members of their group and held up as models to be emulated as exemplars to people in their camp. At the same time, members of the opposing side are likely to be seen as cruel and vicious and bearing hatred. Such views hamper transformation of an intractable conflict, since people in the other camp will tend to reciprocate the hostile behavior and ways of characterizing people.
Negative Characterizations: Such interactions are never wholly symmetrical. If a group is relatively powerful, it will try to impose its definitions on other groups. The Nazis' violent imposition of their characterization of who and what Jews were stands as a grotesque example of that tendency. In most instances, the imposition of a definition and characterization is less organized and violent; but some degree of imposition is discernable in many relationships.
Positive Relationships: Not all interactions between adversaries, however, are adversarial; usually some members of the opposing sides engage in particular interactions that are mutually desired and even cooperative. Some people may be engaged in profitable economic transactions with the other side or they may collaborate in cultural or research activities. Having a large proportion of mutually gratifying interactions tends to mitigate and counter the destructive consequences of contentious interactions.
(3) Social Context
The social setting within which conflict groups contend with each other also greatly affects the adversaries' identities.
Ways of thinking: The prevailing ways of thinking in every period of history profoundly influences how people characterize themselves and each other. Identifications in terms of religious beliefs, class relations, ethnicity, or lifestyles are more or less striking in different times and places. For example, racist ways of thinking have been more pervasive in some eras than in others and class-consciousness has been more prevalent in European societies than in the United States.
Self Determination: Thus too, in an age sympathetic to nationalism, ethnic group members tend to claim the right of collective self-determination, and they find support for such claims from nonmembers. The collapse of the Soviet Union undermined the appeal of the secular and universalistic communist ideology, while the rapid changes of the modern world created new sources of discontents. Fundamentalist interpretations of the world in Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism are in part responses to the resulting unsatisfied needs for meaning, community, and hope.
Modeling: The social context provides a repertoire of possible identities to assume. Identities that others have constructed and used to advance their interests serve as models, and similar identities then become attractive. Thus, in the United States, African Americans in the 1960s' civil rights struggle stressed their identity as blacks and served as models for other disadvantaged peoples.
External Influences: Moreover, some external actors (that is, people outside the identity group) actively promote particular interpretations of history, economic relations, or God. They promulgate their views and transform social relations, as has happened with secular and religious revolutions and social movements. They also influence everyone's sense of identity, if only in opposition to the spreading of new world-views.
Changing Identities and Transforming Intractable Conflicts
Although many aspects of identity contribute to a conflict's intractability, there are also ways to modify identities so as to reduce the intractability of a conflict. In parallel with the preceding section, policies in three settings are discussed: (1) within each group, (2) in the relations between the groups, and (3) in their social context.
Policies vary in their appropriateness at different phases of conflict intractability. Six phases are particularly significant:
- conflict emergence,
- conflict escalation,
- failed peacemaking efforts,
- institutionalization of destructive conflict,
- de-escalation leading to transformation, and
- termination of the intractable character of the conflict.
These six phases are only loosely sequential, since some occur simultaneously and conflicts often return to an earlier phase. For each setting, one can identify policies that
- help prevent conflicts from becoming intractable;
- help stop the prolongation and escalation of intractable conflicts, and
- help transform and resolve intractable conflicts.
Internal policies: Policies that may help modify identities so as to reduce conflict intractability may be conducted by a great variety of persons within each adversary camp, differing in rank and in arena of activity.
Preventive Policies: All may be engaged in preventive policies, which help to prevent conflicts from becoming intractable. Within all communities and countries, being peaceful and loving is part of people's identities. Parents, schoolteachers, religious leaders, artists, entertainers, and many others can foster those qualities in their children, students, congregants, and audiences. Furthermore, school texts, films, and news reports can convey the humanity and perspectives of groups with whom conflicts have occurred.
Interruptive Policies: The modified conceptions of themselves and of other groups and peoples can support additional actions that reduce the likelihood of destructive conflicts arising. These actions may be initiatives to reduce grievances felt by adversaries or reciprocations of peaceful gestures by the other side. The growth of organized dissent from the uncompromising policies of the dominant leadership is also helpful in interrupting intractable conflicts. Rival leadership factions, middle-level leaders (e.g. community or organizational leaders), or grass roots organizations may undertake dissent, as sometimes occurs in peace movement mobilizations. The dissenters may appeal to aspects of the prevailing identity that pertain to relations within the group rather than antagonisms with outsiders.
Transformational Policies: Many other internal policies are relevant for the fundamental transformation of an intractable conflict. One approach is acting to change the ideologies and belief systems that sustain the conflict. For example, in 1986, the general synod of the Dutch Reformed Church, the major church of the Afrikaners of South Africa, resolved that the forced separation of peoples could not be considered a biblical imperative. The removal of religious support for apartheid contributed greatly to the negotiated end of the entire apartheid system in South Africa.
Much public and scholarly attention is now given to revealing the truth about past injustices and human rights violations in order to build a secure peace. Knowledge of past and ongoing oppression by people within the oppressor community or country can alter their self-identity. They may come to see themselves as being complicit in wrongly harming others. -- Once they accept that responsibility, they would be more likely to apologize and to offer some degree of compensation for past injuries. This has been the case for Germans after World War II, for example.
Relations Between Adversaries
How adversaries interact with each other is particularly important in transforming collective identities and conceptions each adversary has about itself and about the other. Neither side in a conflict is hapless. Policies may be undertaken by either side to foster joint actions that prevent, interrupt, and transform intractable conflicts.
Preventive Policies: Many policies can help prevent intractable conflicts from emerging and becoming entrenched. For example, if one side is forthcoming about providing compensatory benefits for past injustices or providing assurances that past injustices will end, the other side tends to pursue limited and non-vindictive goals. There is a risk, however, that the compensations and assurances will be seen as signs of weakness, and the goals raised higher. Attribution theory suggests another possibility.[11] It holds that people tend to believe that members of their own group are good by nature, while members of another group act well only due to their circumstances. It follows that if those others have done some good deed, it is only because they were forced to do so and more coercion will yield even greater benefits. Negotiating shared understandings about conciliatory moves can help reduce such misunderstandings.
The way each adversary resists oppression and injustice in turn affects that group's self-identity and conception of the other. For example, in the case of African-Americans and European-Americans in the 1950s and early 1960s, the nonviolent way the civil rights struggle was waged and the way the country as a whole responded affected both parties: it helped change the collective identities of both African and European Americans, increasing the civic character of American identity rather than its ethnic character. Furthermore, American identity went from being characterized as a melting pot within which "foreign" elements assimilated to an enduring multi-cultural society.
Interruptive Policies: Many other policies help interrupt or stop destructive escalation. These are policies that regulate strife and/or provide assurances that the vital interests of the other side will not be attacked. In many ways, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union became managed to limit the threat each posed the other. The arms control agreements helped channel and manage the arms race. The Helsinki Accords, signed in 1975, assured the Soviet Union that the borders established in Europe after World War II were inviolable, including the shift of Soviet borders westward and the division of Germany. Thus assured, the Soviet Union eased the barriers to Western influence.
Tranformative Policies: Adversaries can act in ways that help transform the intractable conflict between them, by contributing to a fundamental transformation of one or both opponents. For example, during the Cold War, cultural, educational, and other social exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union were conducted at official and non-official levels. They contributed to changes in the way many members of the Soviet elites saw themselves and viewed Americans, and people on each side developed new perceptions of the other side. The changes in both identities and conceptions contributed to a transformation in the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.[12]
Other confidence-building measures between adversaries include agreements to inform each other of military maneuvers and establish mechanisms to be more transparent about actions that otherwise might seem threatening. Confidence-building measures tend to reduce denigrating views of the other side and reduce the inclination to characterize oneself in terms of opposition to the other side.
Reconciliatory actions are increasingly common in order to achieve peace. They may not only promote regard for the other side, but also transform the identity of those undertaking the actions. Taking such actions reduces the likelihood of holding onto sentiments that people sharing one's collective identity are superior to other peoples and more wholly human. Certainly, such reconciliatory actions reduce the grievances of those who previously suffered the indignities of low regard, increasing the likelihood of ending an intractable conflict.
Finally, the adversaries can pursue polices that support shared overarching identities. Thus, new institutional arrangements can better highlight broad identities, such as being European. In addition, an old identity may be modified to be more inclusive, as occurred in South Africa with its political transformation and as is occurring in the United States as its multicultural character is increasingly stressed.
Social Context
Actors who are not members of the adversarial camps can carry out policies that help to prevent, interrupt, and end intractable conflicts; only a few strategies are briefly noted here.
Preventive Policies: Official and nonofficial agencies may help alleviate deteriorating living conditions that otherwise might exacerbate ethnic antagonisms and ignite fights that become intractable. This may include alerting people inside and outside the areas affected about the risks of pursuing conflicts destructively, further imperiling lives.
Outside actors can also foster norms and institutions that help develop nondestructive ways of handling the inevitable disputes of social life. A wide variety of organizations engage in training and consultations to support such methods. Indeed, the world climate may be more or less supportive of various methods of struggle, whether it be armed struggle, democratic elections, terrorism, or nonviolent resistance. Groups resorting to one of these methods may get assistance from particular allies or face external opposition for doing so.
Interruptive Policies: Once a conflict has already become protracted and destructive, intermediaries are particularly needed to stop further deterioration. Domestically, this is often recognized as a primary obligation of the central government, which tries to manage internal conflicts rather than exacerbate them as a party in the fight. Internationally, the U.N. and regional intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) increasingly undertake intermediary interventions. Outside intervention sometimes may even use force to stop violence, as done by U.N. peacekeeping or other multilateral forces.
External actors may also halt further deterioration by constraining one or both sides in a conflict. One such constraint is economic sanctions, directed to stop gross violations of human rights. Sanctions can affect the self-conceptions of some parties to an intractable conflict. The widespread condemnation of South African white minority's treatment of non-whites under apartheid contributed to changes in the way white South Africans saw themselves and their opponents.
Transformative Policies: Outside actors may also undertake a variety of mediating roles to help stop and even transform an intractable conflict. Mediation generally entails according some legitimacy to the antagonistic sides in a conflict and treating the representatives with human regard, even when the parties themselves do not. In such circumstances, participating in the mediation may prompt each side to modify its conception of the other and also of itself.
The social context also affects the long-term transformation of intractable conflicts and the establishment of enduring peaceful accommodations. External actors can be important agents in ensuring compliance to agreements, which helps build trust between former adversaries. Experiences providing grounds for mutual trust affect self-identities and also conceptions of the other side that help transform intractable conflicts.
External actors may also contribute resources that help fulfill the terms of agreements and overcome threats to the conflict's transformation and enduring resolution. The resources may include emergency food, assistance in rebuilding infrastructure, aid in training and education, and protection against violent acts by opponents of stability.[13]
Conclusions
Identities can greatly contribute to conflict intractability. How adversaries think about who they are and who and what their enemies are profoundly influences the course of any conflict between them. Their sense of identity and conceptions of each other contribute to their conflict's destructive quality as well as to its long duration. Whether and how identities contribute to intractable conflicts depends on their particular qualities. Of course, identities alone do not determine a conflict's intractability; many other factors are discussed in many other essays in this web site. Identities can and do change in ways that help prevent, limit, and end intractable conflicts. These changes are brought about by groups within each adversary camp, by the way the adversaries interact, and by the conduct of persons and groups who intervene or otherwise affect the primary adversaries. In addition, adversaries are not unchanging, unitary groups; each has many kinds of members with their own interactions with each other and with persons and groups in and outside the adversary camps. All this complicates but also offers opportunities to avert, interrupt, and end intractable conflicts.
[1] Louis Kriesberg, Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution. 2nd ed. (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003)
[2] Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. (London: Verso, 1991)
[3] Terrell A Northrup, "The Dynamic of Identity in Personal and Social Conflict," in Intractable Conflicts and Their Transformation, eds. L. Kriesberg, T.A. Northrup, and S.J. Thorson (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1989), 55-82.
[4] Robert A. Levine and Donald T. Campbell, Ethnocentrism: Theories of Conflict, Ethnic Attitudes, and Group Behavior (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1972)
[5] Anthony Smith, National Identity (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1991)
[6] John Burton, Conflict: Resolution and Prevention (New York: St. Martin's, 1990)
[7] Kevin Avurch, Culture and Conflict Resolution (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 1998)
[8] Vamik Volkan, The Need to Have Enemies and Allies: From Clinical Practice to International Relationships. (New York: Jason Aronson, 1988).
[9] Marc Howard Ross, The Culture of Conflict (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993)
[10] Patrick G. Coy and Lynne M. Woehrle, Social Conflicts and Collective Identities (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000)
[11] Harold H. Kelley, "The Process of Causal Attribution," American Psychologist 28, no. 2 (1973), 107-128.
[12] Louis Kriesberg, International Conflict Resolution: The U.S.-USSR and Middle East Cases (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992)
[13] Arie M. Kacowicz and others, eds., Stable Peace Among Nations (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000)
Use the following to cite this article:
Kriesberg, Louis. "Identity Issues." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: July 2003 <http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/identity_issues/>.
Sources of Additional, In-depth Information on this Topic
Additional Explanations of the Underlying Concepts:
Online (Web) Sources
Little, David. Belief, Ethnicity, and Nationalism. United States Institute of Peace .
Available at: http://www.usip.org/religionpeace/rehr/belethnat.html.
This paper explores the relationship of ethnic conflict to intolerance and discrimination, as defined by human rights standards. It is based on the continuing work sponsored by the United States Insitute of Peace on the role of religous and related forms of belief in the formation and mobilization of ethnic identity and nationalism. Drawing upon the work of Max Weber, and giving examples from case studies of Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Tibet, the essay proposes a partial explanation of the sources of intolerance.
McGuire, Patrick A. Experts Offer Theories on the Roots of Ethnic Conflicts.
Available at: http://www.apa.org/monitor/aug98/root.html.
This article discusses the phenomena of group identity and how it often contributes to ethnopolitical conflict, as groups tend to identify themselves in opposition to other groups.
Galenkamp, Marlies. "Group Identity and Individual Autonomy within Liberal Democracies: In Search of Guidelines." , December 1998
Available at: http://www.gmu.edu/academic/pcs/galenkam.htm.
This essay addresses the question of the extent to which societies should allow minority groups to perform practices that are viewed as divergent or unacceptable by the majority of the society. Should the identity of minority groups be preserved in entirety, even when part of that identity is harmful or offensive? If not, where should the line be drawn between what is acceptable and what is unacceptable?
Social Psychological Aspects of Peacebuilding.
Available at: Click here for more info.
This page presents a general discussion of the importance of examining social psychological impacts of conflict on individuals and society. It is argued that if psychology drives the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and their collectivities, then emphasis must be placed on understanding the psychology of conflict and its consequences. This page includes discussions of identity, perceptions, and trauma and healing.
Offline (Print) Sources
Rubenstein, Richard E. "Analyzing and Resolving Class Conflict ." In Conflict Resolution Theory and Practice. Edited by van der Merwe, Hugo and Dennis J.D. Sandole, eds. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1993.
The author observes that scholars have shifted their focus from settling interest-based disputes in traditional venues to addressing profoundly alienated social relationships between people who do not have access to legitimated institutions for conflict resolution. Click here for more info.
Conversi, Daniele. Ethnonationalism in the Contemporary World: Walker Connor and the Study of Nationalism. London: Routledge, July 1, 2002.
"Contributors represent a broad array of disciplines: anthropology, comparative politics, geography, history, linguistics, political science, sociology, social psychology, and international relations. The authors are world-renowned authorities both within their respective disciplines and the field of national identity. The contributors address the core issues of identity, including race and identity, race and nation, ethnicity and nation, language and nation, religion and nation, homelands and homeland psychology, dating the creation of nations, the primordial debate, managing ethnic conflict, and the relationship of nationalism to patriotism."
Isaacs, Harold Robert. Idols of the Tribe: Group Identity and Political Change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, December 1, 1989.
Isaacs sorts out some fundamentals in forming group identity: the body, names, language, history of origins, relgion, and nationality. These are dynamic elements that are melded together but have the possibility of creating new pluralisms. (back cover)
Stein, Janice Gross. "Image, Identity and Conflict Resolution." In Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses to International Conflict. Edited by Crocker, Chester A., Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall, eds. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1996.
Stein discusses the need for group identity and the tendency to distinguish between "insiders" and "outsiders". Stereotyped enemy images form in this context and tend to perpetuate and intensify conflict. Has extensive discussion of Egypt's Anwar Sadat and the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev to illustrate the role of psychological factors. Similar chapter appears in Turbulent Peace. Click here for more info.
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso Books, July 1, 1991.
Anderson's book is one of the preeminent studies of the social construction of national identity. His chief argument is that nationalism is largely built on mythical historical foundations and lacks any substance other than the utility to the society in question at that present moment.
Gurr, Ted Robert. "Minorities, Nationalists, and Ethnopolitical Conflict." In Managing Global Chaos: Sources or and Responses to International Conflict. Edited by Crocker, Chester A.; Hampson, ed. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1996.
This chapter summarizes current theories on ethnopolitical conflict. It examines the serious challenge these conflicts pose to global security and the role modernization has played in the development of these conflicts. It also addresses the salience of group identity, group cohesion and mobilization, repressive control by dominant groups, political action, and the international diffusion and contagion of ethnopolitical conflict.
Smith, Anthony D. National Identity. University of Nevada Press, May 1993.
This book looks at national and other identities, the ethnic basis of national identities, the rise of nations, nationalism and cultural identity, as well as discussing separatism and multi-nationalism.
Gurr, Ted Robert. Peoples Versus States: Minorities at Risk in the New Century. Herndon, VA: USIP Press, July 1, 2000.
Following the book Minorities at Risk, Peoples Versus States addresses the risk that ethnic and nationalist conflict will place on minorities in the twenty-first century.
Dovidio, John F. "Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Differences in Responding to Distinctiveness and Discrimination on Campus: Stigma and Common Group Identity." Journal of Social Issues 57:1, 2001.
"The present article examines how the salience of group membership can moderate or diffuse feelings of stigmatization for members of racial and ethnic minorities. A series of studies is presented that demonstrate that the development of a common group identity can diffuse the effects of stigmatization, improve intergroup attitudes, and enhance institutional satisfaction and commitment among colleges students and faculty." -abstract
Rothman, Jay. Resolving Identity-Based Conflict in Nations, Organizations, and Communities. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, June 1997.
This book discusses identity-based conflict in terms of theory and practice, with Rothman outlining a four-phase model of conflict; antagonism, resonance, invention, and action. The work offers possible avenues for transforming a wide array of conflict situations. Click here for more info.
Scarry, Elaine. "The Difficulty of Imagining Other Persons ." In The Handbook of Interethnic Coexistence. Edited by Weiner, Eugene, ed. New York: Continuum Publishing, 1998.
The author addresses the problem of violence and cruelty toward foreigners. She argues that the way we act toward others depends on how we see them. Click here for more info.
Northrup, Terrell A. "The Dynamic of Identity in Personal and Social Conflict." Intractable Conflicts and Their Transformation , October 1989.
In this essay Northrup argues that identity is always an important factor in conflictual relationships, as threats to identity can cause conflict or contribute to its intractability. The essay gives a definition and a thorough analysis of the concept of identity. Click here for more info.
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Examples Illustrating this Topic:
Online (Web) Sources
Baird, Anthony. "An Atmosphere of Reconciliation: A Theory of Resolving Ethnic Conflicts Based on the Transcaucasian Conflicts." Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution, Vol. 2, No. 3 , August 1999
Available at: http://trinstitute.org/ojpcr/2_4baird.htm.
This theory-building paper concentrates on two of the
lesser-recognized ethnic conflicts of the past decade. These conflicts occurred between Azerbaijan and its Armenian enclave Nagorno-Karabakh, and between Georgia and secessionist Abkhaz, in the former Soviet Union region of Transcaucasia. These conflicts were some of the bloodiest, yet most ignored of the past decade, and were chosen for theoretical development based on the author's notion that they provide insights into a phenomenon that cannot be discovered by solely focusing on Bosnia and Kosovo.
Byrne, Sean. "Conflict and Group Identity: Lessons from Northern Ireland." , January 2000
Available at: http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/crcii/ni-1.pdf.
This essay examines the conflict in Northern Ireland. The author argues that conflict causes each group to identify themselves more clearly, making the prospect of peace seem like a threat to group identity.
Safioleas, Penelope D. "Identity Shift and Europe's Changing Perception of Others:Europe, Turkey, and the Issue of Self-Identification." Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution, Vol. 2, No. 1 , March 1999
Available at: http://www.trinstitute.org/ojpcr/2_1identity.htm.
This essay examines Europe's hesitation to admit Turkey to the European Union. It describes identity-based prejudices in Europe's perception of Turkey, and examines the negative consequences of Europe's "identity shift."
Schwedler, Jillian. "Islamic Identity: Myth, Menace, or Mobilizer?." SAIS Review, Vol. 21, No. 2 , 2001
Available at: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sais_review/v021/21.2schwedler.html.
This article looks at the notions of identity in general and what the formation of an Islamic identity in particular might entail. Then the author examines a few cases in which an Islamic identity may have some explanatory power for understanding political mobilization. Finally, the author discusses whether a common Islamic identity--as part of the undeniable spread of the Islamic faith globally--is really behind Islamic political mobilization on both regional and global scales.
Mediation Theory and Identity Disputes: Lessons From Regional Ethnic Conflicts.
Available at: http://www.mtds.wayne.edu/identity/index.htm.
This site summarizes the conference sponsored by the Wayne State University Program on Mediating Theory and Democratic Systems held on February 2, 1998. The conference related mediation and negotiation theory to identity disputes in order to improve conflict resolution in global and regional contexts. The emphasis was on comparative case study of different violent conflict situations throughout the world in which group identity was a key motivating factor.
van Beurden, Jos. "Somalia: From Permanent Conflict to More Peacefulness?." , 2000
Available at: Click here for more info.
This article profiles the dynamics of the conflict in Somalia, which is rooted in socio-cultural and economic status differences between people living a traditional pastoral lifestyle and the authority of the modern state. The article discusses peacemaking efforts that have been carried out in Somalia as well.
Offline (Print) Sources
Rudolph, Joseph R. Encyclopedia of Modern Ethnic Conflicts. Westport: Greenwood Press (GP), 2003.
This broad work presents detailed looks at 38 different ethnic conflicts around the world. Each conflict is discussed with a timeline and an extensive essay covering the conflict's details, historical background, conflict management, and the significance of the conflict.
Minorities and Nationalists: Managing Ethnopolitical Conflict in the New Century. This article presents a survey of the current evidence and analyses of ethnopolitical conflicts around the world. These conflicts are engaged in by groups who define themselves using ethnic or national criteria and make claims against the state or other political actors, regarding their collective interests (ie. Mayans of Chiapas, Bosnian Serbs).
Social Conflicts and Collective Identities. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, August 1, 2000.
Patrick Coy is an Associate Professor at the Center for Applied Conflict Management and Political Science Department. Dr. Coy has published ethnographic research on the human rights work of a Peace Brigades International team in Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict, where he also served as an international observer. He has also published research on the Catholic Worker movement, on the community
mediation movement, and on the peace movement during the Persian Gulf War.
Starr, Harvey, ed. Understanding and Management of Global Violence: New Approaches to Theory and Research on Protracted Conflict. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, September 1999.
The essays in this edited volume approach social conflict through the study of "protracted conflict", or conflicts that are long-term and permeate all aspects of society. The work attempts to understand contemporary global politics and conflict by looking across levels of analysis, from international, to transnational to domestic behavior. The approach is grounded in two-level analysis, focusing on the analysis of crisis and the nature of identity groups and enduring rivalries. Included are examinations of Israel, the Palestinians, and Lebanon; the Philippines, Nicaragua; Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan; and Northern Ireland.
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Audiovisual Materials on this Topic:
Offline (Print) Sources
Prelude to Kosovo: War and Peace in Bosnia and Croatia. Directed and/or Produced by: Michalczyk, John. 1999.
This film uses interviews from religious and political leaders in Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia, to document how important the issues of identity and nationalism were to the people living in the Balkan region. Click here for more info.
Scared Again: Jews in Berlin, 1993 . Directed and/or Produced by: Hoepker, Thomas. First Run Icarus Films. 1993.
This film examines how German Jews are dealing with issues of identity as neo-nazism is resurfacing in their country. Click here for more info.
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Teaching Materials on this Topic:
Online (Web) Sources
"They Are Not Like Us!": Teaching About Biases Against Immigration.
Available at: http://education.indiana.edu/cas/tt/v2i2/they.html.
This exercise helps students understand the general fear of "outsiders" or immigrants, that has existed in the United States throughout its history. It also explains that the culture of the US has survived and been enriched by each new wave of immigrants, despite hesitation by each generation of Americans.
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