(Estimated Pub Date) the Challenge of Ethnic Conflict to National and International Order in the 1990S: Geographic Perspectives- October 1995

Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
Geographic Perspectives on Ethnic Conflict
Alexander Murphy
Associate Professor of Geography
University of Oregon
Introduction
The topic of ethnic conflict has long interested geogra-
phers, and in recent years the geographical literature
on the subject has attracted considerable attention.
Although some of the issues raised in this literature
are similar to those examined by political scientists
and sociologists, the emphasis in geography on spa-
tial, territorial, and environmental issues has trans-
lated into a distinctly different analytical approach to
ethnic conflict. The purpose of this paper is to summa-
rize the most important aspects of this approach and to
discuss how a geographical perspective can help us
understand ethnic tensions, identify potentially desta-
bilizing ethnic conflicts, and develop effective policy
responses to those conflicts. ,
The ensuing discussion centers around three core geo-
graphical concepts: location, territory, and environ-
ment. In the United States, the discipline of geography
is sometimes equated with efforts simply to locate and
describe the physical and human attributes of the
earth’s surface. Geography is, however, much more
than this; it is concerned with analyzing and explain-
ing the nature and significance of the spatial and envi-
ronmental contexts within which events and processes
unfold. Geographers seek to understand and explain
the patterns that make up the eat-th’s surface, the rela-
tionship among phenomena in particular places, the
situation of places and peoples in relation to one
another, and peoples’ understandings of the places
where they live.
Core Concepts
The three core concepts around which this paper is
structured are at the heart of these geographical con-
cerns. The concept of location_ deals not only with the
spatial distribution of ethnic groups but also with the
relationship between ethnic patterns and other human
and physical pattems. Territory is a rich concept that
encompasses the nature and function of formal ethnic
territories and group sense of place. The environmen-
tal concept is concerned with the relationship between
ethnic groups and their tangible physical setting,
including the ways in which environmental percep-
tions affect group definition and intergroup raations.
There are obvious overlaps among these concepts, and
they do not encompass all relevant aspects of geo-
graphical inquiry. Nonetheless, they provide a useful
organizing framework around which a discussion of
the most important geographical insights on ethnic
conflict can be built.
Location: A Key To Understanding Relationships
Between Ethnic Groups
In any attempt to understand ethnic conflict, the loca-
tion of the groups in question must be taken into con-
sideration. On its surface this seems obvious, but many
general analyses of ethnic conflict pay remarkably lit-
tle attention to locational issues. Instead, it is simply
assumed that groups live in the political units or histor-
ical homelands with which they are most readily iden-
tified. Too often studies note that the Bretons live in
Brittany, the French speakers of Canada in Quebec,
and the Tamils in Tamil Eelam without any consider-
ation of the distributional complexities that lie behind
these generalizations.
Approaching ethnic conflict from a geographical per-
spective implies a much greater concem with the
details of location and distribution. This means focus-
ing on the precise character of ethnic patterns and
their relationship to other political, social, and envi-
ronmental pattems. A critical entry-level problem in
such an endeavor is to decide who does and does not
belong to a given ethnic group (see Smith 1986). I-low
an ethnic group is delimited depends on circumstances
and purpose, of course, but the process is not always
straightforward or obvious. There are more people
that Welsh autonomists would like to include in their
ethnic group than there are people who identify them-
selves primarily as Welsh. The Tamils of Sri Lanka
encompass two different groups from a historical and
religious standpoint. On a larger scale, the Russians in
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Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268