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.
“National Academy of Sciences”1 page
C00123268 failed to protect ethnic minorities, the collapse of the Autonomy can lead to anarchy, however, unless it is nation-state has not offered an appealing alternative. accompanied by rules of the road to guide the devel- opment of a civil society in the East. Without an active Can Europe's ethnic problems be solved by redrawing partnership with the West, it is doubtful whether this state frontiers? National and ethnic identities existed model can flourish in nations unaccustomed to unre- for centuries before state borders were drawn and strained democracy. Thus, the process of devolution redrawn, usually by outside interests. What year of power, particularly in the East, could exacerbate would we use to define the nation-state structure in ethnic tensions and ultimately threaten democracy Europe? 1993? 1989? 1945? 1917? Clearly, there is no unless it is guided by institutions based on shared val- magic formula. While we should not encourage that ues. The only appropriate Western response is to inte- ethnic conflict be solved by changing national bound- grate the countries east of the Oder-Niesse line to the aries, we should not exclude that these boundaries can family of democratic nations. This must be done in the be changed by peaceful means. As in the case of a. political sphere by supporting Eastern reform and reunified Germany, border changes can be counte- reformers, in the economic sphere by opening Western nanced by the international community if they are markets to Eastern goods and in the strategic sphere accepted by all interested parties and accompanied by by opening Eastern Europe and eventually nations of guarantees protecting individual rights and minority the former Soviet Union into Western security struc- communities. tures. A Kinder and Gentler Europe NATO: A New Mission Is there an ideal-or even preferable-state structure The security of Europe is indivisible. Ethnic conflict, for Europe today? Perhaps this is the wrong question, ultranationalism, or massive flows of refugees any- We should rather ask how Europe can best accommo- where threaten stability everywhere, including the date individual rights, as well as national and ethnic most advanced West European democracies. What pluralism? Clearly, there are no simple answers. How- happens in Central and Eastern Europe also has a ever, we might begin by contemplating a Europe that direct bearing on the fate of the Newly Independent is both more united and less centralized. While the States (NIS)-and vice versa. Without the successful nation-state remains the most:significant unit in expansion of the democratic community of nations to Europe today, its political role is increasingly being the East, the stability of Europe cannot be guaranteed. supplemented by both supernational and subnational A stable security framework, in the view of many units. This development is fraught not only with dan- Eastern democrats, is a precondition for building gers but also with opportunities for a kinder and gen- democracies and strong economies in their part of the tier Continent. world. While this argument can easily be turned around-building viable economies is the best way to A Europe, which respects individual and ethnic rights, ensure security-there is no doubt that this perception can only be achieved on a demtocratic basis if there is is widely shared. grass roots involvement in the process. Logically, decisions are best made at the lowest possible level. Three times in this century the United States has been Europeans have dubbed this concept-in the best drawn into European wars (two hot, one cold). We Brussels bureaucratese-"subsidiarity'; Americans have learned through painful history that the United might call it "federalism." This very American States cannot remain indifferent to threats to European approach can lead to practical, not ideological, solu- stability. The ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia tions to local problems from garbage collection to should serve as a poignant reminder that Europe is minority rights, from electing Tegional governments to establishing native-language schools. 181
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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.