(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
y.
of the Kurds, a larger sense of group identity devel-
oped out of a territorial struggle that marginalized and
ignored the Kurdish peoples. In the Flemish case, the
implementation of a territorial strategy by a move-
ment initially focused on individual language rights
provided a crucible in which a larger sense of ethnic
identity could develop. In both cases, ethnic demands
and intergroup relations are fundamentally tied to the
development and institutionalization of particular ter-
ritorial arrangements.
The political-territorial history of a region is also
implicated in the development and conduct of inter-
group conflict. This is because particular issues take
on significance astenitorial structures come into
being and because those structures, in turn, provide
the frameworks within which the issues in question
are confronted. This complex point can best be illus-
trated through an example. In early 20th century Bel-
gium, the Flemish movement sought to secure the
rights of Dutch or Flemish speakers to use their lan-
guage in public life. Frustrated by their lack of success
and concerned about the growing use of French in
northern Belgium, they changed strategies and began
to call for the partitioning of the country along lan-
guage lines. This eventually occurred, and the country
is now a federation made up of language regions with
broad competencies over economic, social, and cul-
tural matters. The adoption and implementation of a
territorial approach to the language problem shifted
attention away from individual language rights and
directed it toward territorial issues; disputes over the
use of language in govemmental and commercial
affairs were replaced by conflicts over the regional
affiliations of certain communes along the language
boundary and around Brussels. Moreover, since pow-
ers over a broad array of issues were devolved to the
language regions,bmany economic, social, and politi-
cal matters took on ethnoregional significance. As a
result, the intemal territorial structure of Belgium has
promoted ethnoregionalism. Without a consideration
of the development and institutionalization of territo-
rial arrangements in Belgium, this point could easily
be missed.
A final reason forfocusing on the processes by which
territorial arrangements come into being is that such
an approach provides insight into the purposes behind
the creation of ethnic territories. This, in turn, can tell
us much about the circumstances that lead to ethnic
conflict (see Wixman 1986). General analyses of legal
arrangements in multiethnic states draw a distinction
between “personal” and tenitorial policy approaches.
The latter encompasses laws that set aside some terri-
tory for a given ethnic group. The assumption is often
made that these laws are pluralist in intent and effect;
it is assumed that they are acknowledgments of the
existence of ethnic diversity and that they operate to
sustain that diversity. A closer examination of territo-
rial policies in multiethnic states reveals a much more
complicated picture (Murphy 1989). In some cases,
territorial policies reflect a desire to recognize and
sustain diversity (for instance, Switzerland, India, and
Canada). In other instances such policies have dis-
tinctly different intents and effects. Territorial policies
are adopted to diffuse intemational pressure (for
instance, the recognition ofethnic territories in
Burma), to promote rivalry between groups. (for
instance, Soviet manipulation of borders in the Cauca-
sus and Central Asia), and even deliberately to con-
strain ethnic rights (for instance, the creation of
“homelands” for the indigenous peoples of South
Africa). Understanding the intent and effect of such
policies is clearly important if we are to judge what a
territory means for a given group and the role that the
territorial context plays in intergroup relations.
Environment: Its Context in Ethnic Conflict
Geographers are fundamentally concemed with the
relationship between people and the environment.
This relationship is important in the context of ethnic
group relations because ethnic identity is often tied to
a particular environmental context, because ecological
issues can become focuses of intergroup conflict, and
because the manipulation of the environment is a fre-
quently used tactic to advance particular ethnoterrito-
rial ends. A brief examination of these three factors
provides insight into the importance of the geographi-
cal concern with the environmental foundations of
ethnic relations.
In many parts of the world, ethnic identity is closely
linked to a people’s understanding and use of the envi-
ronment. The strong tie between ethnic identity and
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Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268