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

Zrínyi u. 14, Budapest, Hungary 1051
Tel.: (36 1) 327 3069, 327 3811
Fax: (36 1) 327 3124
E-mail: summeru@ceu.hu
Website: http://www.ceu.hu/sun