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 prematurely. This then precipitated a concern on the DR. MURPHY: Dr. de Blij's last comment, in a sense, part of Serbs who did not want to be a part of an inde- touched on a point I wanted to make. When we think pendent state in which, they felt, their human rights about the issue of potential fragmentation, what are would be threatened. we thinking about in terms of the units we end up with? I think our tendency is to think about conven- Take the case of Georgia. Georgia, which seceded tional units of sovereign states. from Russia, is now trying to stop Abkhazia from seceding. Where does it all end? This trouble comes One of the most remarkable things Dr. Williams with every secession. Unless there is some way in alluded to yesterday was that, in Western Europe, the which that can be codified and stratified, it will be major threats are not seen as the regional secessionist chaos. movements. Why is that the case? It could well have something to do with the changing nature of sover- DR. HONEY: I agree with you. Virtually no state in eignty in Europe. It could also have to do with the fact Africa has an order that was determined by African that it is possible for someone in a region within a peoples. Why should the peoples of Africa not have state to feel multiple layers of identity, some of which the same kind of self-determination that at least some are attached to being a European. non-Africans have enjoyed in'other places? DR. HINKLE: We seem to be, in one sense, moving DR. WIXMAN: But what often happens when the toward an international norm of the rule of law in gov- secessionist movement is denied? Are we going to erning intrastate relations, individual human rights, dictate that people live together in shotgun wedding and collective group rights. It is going to be hard to relationships? Should we say to Croats, Muslims, and reconcile that with the proposition that you cannot Serbs, "You must live together," when we would not allow norms of international behavior to stand in the do that ourselves? I agree that'there are perils of seces- way of a rational adjustment of international bound- sionism, but the peril of not doing it, I think, is equally aries just because it seems to balance out in terms of dangerous. demographics or some other factor. Do we tell Moldova that it cailnot become indepen- DR. DE BLU: But we are trapped in such a boundary dent from the Soviet Union because 12 percent of its in South Africa. In that country, partition, even some population would be unhappy? Do we tell Georgia sort of a temporary confederal arrangement, might that it should not secede because 100,000 out of 6 mil- ease the fears that are presently ripping the place lion people will be unhappy? I think countries need to apart. What is so great about keeping South Africa in be prepared for independence; not leap into it, but the one piece? It has no history of integration. It has lack of preparation is the prob em. always been a divided country. DR. DE BLU: May I make one other point? That DR. HONEY: Dr. Gundersen said we should not ask relates to the issue of boundaries. In 1992 the United for redrawn boundaries because such change would States went to the Baltic stated and talked about solv- have to be agreed upon by all parties. Well, if it is ing problems within existing borders. When this democratic, what does that mean? Democratic can occurred, I cringed; just as pipelines and roads can be mean 50 percent plus one. moved, boundaries, which are here to serve us, can be moved. If it is time to move them, let them be moved. DR. GUNDERSEN: I would just refer to the facts of the last two years. In alluding to the statement by You are never going to have total agreement on mov- former Secretary of State Baker on Yugoslavia and the ing boundaries. In fact, hundreds of thousands of statement by former President Bush on Kiev, I was casualties occurred when Pakistan was separated from saying that the United States was trapped in a certain India. Nevertheless, this actioi probably saved mil- east-west bipolar context. lions of lives. All countries andl all people should be able to argue about moving their boundaries. 193
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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.