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.
“Anderson”6 pages
C00123268 50 percent within the next decade as more informa- and regional conflict, and conflict assumes different tion is generated and stored but not necessarily ana- forms in different locations and political settings. lyzed or understood. Sometimes, I think "we don't There is no question that the geographies and politics know what we don't know." Such information gaps of conflict-especially ethnic and racial conflict-will are especially apparent when working with new assume center stage in many regions during the next democracies, new ideologies, and problems related few decades. to human welfare. While we spend time and energy studying the causes - How do we communicate? How we communicate is and geographies of conflict, we also would be wise to always a problem and will remain so far among investigate conflict resolution. That is, what are the those who attempt to understand global political alternatives to keep conflict? What are useful local changes. The introduction of faster and cheaper and regional strategies that governments and other modes of communication-modems, FAX machines institutions-including religious, educational, and and e-mail-literally place more locations on the volunteer ones-might implement to conflict situa- planet within easy reach of others that are con- tions from emerging. Or, once conflict has surfaced, nected. It is important to know from where the infor- what can be done to lessen or resolve the conflict or mation comes and its credibility. prevent it from spreading. Much of the conflict resolu- tion literature focuses on information-who knows e CNN and photographs.CNN, out of Atlanta, is what about another group. Understanding conflict and replacing the standard news organizations and conflict resolution is best not left only to experts in the sources. This "global newspaper of the air" reaches government or universities who study cultural, pol- all parts of the world. What viewers see are CNN's tics, and social change. It also must be an integral part views of the world. Literally, we could say that "We of the educational system in early and middle school are watching CNN and CNN is watching us." The years. Just as one learns to hate and practice discrimi- second part of this instant television of the-world is nation, so one can learn strategies to reduce conflict, the growing importance of images conveyed to glo- hatred, and discrimination and see the benefits of rec- bal audiences by CNN and other television net- onciliation. works. Photos are replacing words and speeches as the important elements in many international policy decisions. Looking Ahead - Surveys and polls. One of the consequences of the In closing, I think it is important to train and retrain information revolution is the increased use of polls professionals for the future geopolitical worlds of the and surveys at local, regional, and global levels. next 25 to 50 years. This entails an understanding and Those groups surveyed may have narrow or broad appreciation of the new global diversities that the support among a state's population; for this reason, planet's leaders and citizens will face. There are not the geographic results of surveys and polls take on one or two best solutions to problems, but potentially added meaning. The use of these surveys, whether a host of alternatives. Somehow it is important to designed and conducted fairly or manipulated, can develop familiarity with various models and method- form an important weapon on the part of the state to ologies ranging from scenario writing to complex conduct specific policies in certain regions and with mathematical computer gaming. Specialists need to be certain groups. constantly investigating creative alternatives to exist- ing or anticipated problems. Being bold, creative, and imaginative are more important than being bound by Learning About Conflict and Cooperation disciplinary strategems, traditional solutions, and regi- mented ideologies and philosophies. Much of the discussion during the past few days has focused on ethnic conflict within states and regions. As we have learned, there are multiple causes of local 190
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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.