1995-10-01a- CIA Conference Report: THE CHALLENGE OF ETHNIC CONFLICT TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN THE 1990S GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES 01-Oct-95

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involve geographical considerations, with resulting Territorial Processes
actions and processes having sometimes profound,
sometimes subtle geographical impact. For any State to exist there must be numerous "cen-
tripetal forces" operating that link people, places, and
For those who belong to and control a territory, there socioeconomic and political processes (Whebell 1983;
will undoubtedly be powerful symbolic links to table 1). A key process is centralization,whereby the
"their" territory, no matter how little the territory is people and their territory are "welded" together via
actually known or how weakly it is perceived; it is socioeconomic and political integration. Centraliza-
enough that it is theirs! But what if the territory in tion processes vary, and the degrees of success in
question does not coincide with the bounds of a partic- achieving unification, if-such is the goal, also vary. It
ular State, either in terms of its internal or inter-State has been almost an article of faith that by the modern-
structures? Where there is a distributional disparity, ization of all within the State's bounds a unified devel-
there is the potential for conflict. oped State can be achieved, with the center-be it
political or economic-providing supposed solutions
to the development needs of periphery. The efforts of
The Inherent Contradictions of Territory the 1950s and 1960s, in many States, did not achieve
such a goal. Still, even when unity eluded States,
The attachments people have to their territory can modernization processes generally linked people and
have spiritual and psychological bases that go deeper regions together. Core-periphery relations have inter-
than anything generated simply by economic factors. nal and international dimensions for all States (Gott-
These attachments and linkages help to bond people mann, ed., 1980). They operate in colonial situations
both to their territory and to others who also "belong" too, as when the center establishes and then strength-
to it and accept it as theirs. ens its links to the colonial periphery center.
Territory, according to the French geographer Jean States also constantly have to deal with various decen-
Gottmann (1973), when delimited with a system of tralizingprocesses. Whereas various centripetal forces
government that has effective control over it, provides strengthen and unify the State, countervailing, centrif-
both security and opportunity for those who live ugal forces reduce its cohesion. A weak central gov-
within its bounds. On the one hand, there is security to ernment; poor communications; or significant ethnic,
be gained from being an isolated community, whereas, cultural, religious, or other divisions among people
on the other hand, there is opportunity to be derived within the State serve as examples of centrifugal
from being a part of a larger whole. Inwardness and forces. If the divide is too great between a regionally
security, outwardness and opportunity-stress is based group and the central government, self-determi-
caused by these contradictory dimensions of territory, nation and secession may be demanded. To deal with
for elements of both undoubtedly are always present demands from a peripheral portion of the State, the
in any situation. In terms of foreign policy and inter- government may grant devolution whereby legislative
national trade and other linkages, States may be fur- power is devolved from the center to a region-such
ther along the continuum toward one extreme or the as what Scots nationalists want from the English-dom-
other at different times, thus more toward stressing an inated parliamentary center in London or when a new
outward-looking opportunity perspective than an sub-State territory is created as in Jura in Switzerland
inward-looking security perspective at one time, and (Jenkins, 1986). If centrifugal forces prove to be too
vice versa at another. That there is an interplay destructive within a State, a people may demand inter-
between the two contrasting, fundamental dimensions nal self-determination by throwing out a government
of territory is vital to any understanding of the politi- and reforming the State, as happended early in the
cal geography of specific States, the international sys- 1990s in Poland and Hungary when Communist gov-
tem of States, and the various group politico-territorial ernments and their apparatuses were overthrown and
identities around the globe that are challenging the
status quo.
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