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.
“Nevers”25 pages
C00123268 Concluding Comments: Implications for the map reflects constant dynamism in name changes- United States and the International Community: border adjustments, political realignments, as well as Problems and Prospects flashpoints and conflict. There are a wide variety of states with varying degrees of stability and instability. It is important to keep in mind that world order and Stanley D. Arunn disorder can be viewed in a variety of contexts. While Professor of Geography the term new political order may be in vogue this year, University of Kentucky there is not just one order, but many. At various times and places on the world map, order or disorder can be During the past two days we lave heard a number of observed at local, regional, and macroregional levels. formal presentations about ethnic conflict and national- ism in various world regions. These examinations of We Live in Shared/Divided Spaces ethnic and cultural compositio'n and conflict, as well as All humans live to some degree in "bounded spaces. the panel discussions, illustrate the ways geographers Some of those may be spaces defined by majority pop- look at the world and how they envision contemporary ulations, others defined by outside powers. Within and future worlds. In summarizing the conference, I those bounded spaces, we often find people of varying would like to make the following observations: ethnic, religious, linguistic, racial, or other heritages. The distribution of various groups often overlap. - We live in two different worlds. First, I would like to Those groups may live in harmony-sharing the same thank those individuals for organizing a conference work, play, worship, and family spaces or they may be devoted specifically to ethnic conflict, nationalism, divided. and changing world order and for inviting academic geographers to share with members of the Intelli- We Live in Local and Global Worlds gence Community what they know-and do not The world political map is much more complicated know-about the current political world. I see this than the standard reference maps that depict close to conference as serving many useful purposes, one 200 political states. There are many scales at which being that while "we live in two different houses," groups and communities interact. Some interactions we share much in common, especially our interests are local, others are global. It is important that those of in being able to understand what is happening around us who analyze political development acknowledge the world-whether in regard to ethnic conflict, these complexities. nationalism, or emerging democracies. It is impor- tant that the avenues of communication and informa- Are We "Prisoners" of Our Maps? tion sharing between those in the university and In listening to the presenters the past several days and government intelligence communities remain open. in the discussions among panel members and the audi- ence, it seems that we may, in fact, be "prisoners" of e How do we look at the world? How we look at the our maps, especially the familiar political map of the world reflects our backgrounds as well as our day- world-which simplifies political space and rein- by-day work experiences and assignments. These forces the status quo. Do we still use time-honored experiences are of utmost importance in helping us Mercator projections, which distort the spaces in the and others see how we look at our culture vis-a-vis high latitudes? Are the maps we use Europe centered, others. as if subtly conveying the notion that Europe is the most important region of the world? How do we look at polar areas, with maps that have such areas at the The Dynamic Political World "top" and "bottom"? How do we look at the Pacific Rim countries, with maps splitting the Pacific Ocean What Is the State of the World Political Map? At any time it is useful to remember the state of the world, or, better stated, the world political map. That 187
Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 205 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.