Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency conference report, dated October 1995, contains the proceedings of a conference on ethnic conflict held 30 September to 1 October 1993. The CIA's Geographic Resources Division sponsored it. Academic geographers, anthropologists and US Government officials presented papers on ethnic and territorial conflict in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and South Asia. They also discussed what these conflicts mean for US policy. The document contains no UFO material.
“Terry”12 pages
C00123268 Ethnic Conflict: A Comparative coextensive with state boundaries. The term nation is Examination a useful generalizing concept that can be applied to a variety of human groupings. At the simplest level, nations may be viewed as collective, subjective states Thomas M. Poulsen of mind in which individuals habitually segregate Professor of Geography other persons into "our folks" and "foreigners." Many Portland State University of the world's ills are the result of conflicting national identities. However, nations can also be appreciated The conventional political map of the world displays for some positive effects, including providing legiti- 170 political geographic features that properly are macy to governmental actions and facilitating eco- termed sovereign states. They constitute the habitual nomic interdependence through a climate of trust. framework for contemplating international affairs. Unfortunately, the conventional map can be a most The concept of nation is questioned by some because misleading instrument in presenting the political of the great diversity of circumstances the notion geography of the world. The map depicts relative sizes embraces, with resulting difficulties in definition and and shapes of countries and the locations of their capi- measurement. Unfortunately, although most national tal cities, but these are among their least significant groups share a number of elements in common, each qualities. Indeed, it should be noted that traditional nation, like each state (and virtually every other phe- political maps of the world typically distort the size of nomenon studied by geography), ultimately is a states because their customary Mercator projection unique entity. Questionnaires and other techniques creates great area disparities between tropical and that may effectively identify members of a nation in polar regions. Although Greenland is about one-sev- one region may prove inappropriate or erroneous enth the size of South America, it actually appears when applied to groups in another area. The great larger on most political maps. diversity among nations does not make the concept any the less useful, however. Although some individu- Among features of a state critical to governmental als may have a problem with the subjective quality of functioning that are ignored on political maps are: the abstraction, this does not mean that idea is errone- ous or that nations do not exist because they cannot be - The territory really under effective control of the measured. state's goyernment. The advantage of thinking in terms of nations rather - The area of the state actually settled and productive. than the more diffuse "ethnic groups" is the political dimension inherent in the concept. The most impor- - The degree of centralization of governmental deci- tant common denominators distinguishing nations sionmaking and authority within the state. from tribes, castes, and other human groupings are collective self-awareness and a consensual political " The dependence of the given state upon another agenda. Members of a nation are conscious of that state. identity, and most believe that their interests are. best served by having a state of their own. " Whether the state is a nation-state or a multination state. The last-named is the most pivotal. Numerous ethnic groups throughout the world do not satisfy these two criteria. Although anthropologists and other social scientists may identify common ele- Nations ments that stamp a given population group as distinc- tive from its neighbors, a lack of group awareness of A key element in understanding the modern world is individuals beyond extended kinship patterns or to appreciate the fact that occupying space concur- rently with states are more than 250 mutually exclu- sive nations, and these have few outer limits that are 166
Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 205 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.