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.
“Terry”12 pages
C00123268 reveals. We have to recognize that. It is not a reflec- To draw on the Belgium case again, one could take a tion of underlying patterns of territorial ideology, nor look at that country in the late 19th century and gener- of functional patterns of interaction before the 1989 alize about the north. One could say that northern Bel- civil war. It is, in fact, not even really in any conceiv- gium was then less well off than southern Belgium, so able way possible to create monoethnic territories in that must be a reason why the Flemish movement that region. This implies the need for a different kind mobilized at that time. That is a tempting interpreta- of strategy to conflict resolution. tion if you think in simplistic regional terms-but the modern ethnolinguistic regions of Belgium had no One would have to use different kinds of strategies in meaning at that time. There were socioeconomic dif- dealing with other problems. In the case of Belgium, if ferences between the north and the south, but they I were advising the Belgian Government on how to were understood to be a rural-urban rather than a keep its ethnoregional situation under control, I would regional phenomenon. Although a statistical correla- suggest giving the old provinces more political-terri- tion existed between region and socioeconomic differ- torial significance within the state. Then their citizens ences in the late 19th century, this did not really could vote on a fiscal issue and have it not always be explain ethnic mobilization at that time. The mobiliza- an ethnoregional issue. So the answer, of course, has tion had much more to do with the inability of Flemish to be tied to the particularities of each case. It seems speakers to use their language in public life. That that the issues of territory, scale, and location are part issue, in turn, began to take on regional significance as of what has to be in the mix in order to make sensible efforts to achieve greater language rights were frus- and intelligent decisions. trated. QUESTION: Is there a correlation between socioeco- Socioeconomic differences can be significant; the key nomic status and ethnic conflicts? Would it be valid to is to understand how these are perceived and used. say that a commonality in socioeconomic status would Would a commonality of-socioeconomic status mean ameliorate ethnic conflict? Is socioeconomic status a that conflicts would not be as intense in many cases? factor we should examine in attempting to determine Yes. Would it mean ethnic conflict would cease whether there is a potential for ethnic conflict? entirely? Probably not, because there are lots of other issues that correlate as well. I think we made a mis- How important is marginalization of the deprived take about 15 years ago when we wanted to reduce population a factor in ethnic conflict as opposed to ethnicity to economics. Ultimately, it just does not merely a difference in socioeconomic status? work. DR. MURPHY: Is there a correlation? Yes. Is it reduc- ible to socioeconomic differences? The short answer is no. The key question-and this plays off of some of Dr. Knight's comments-is one of perception. How are socioeconomic differences understood and perceived? 24
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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.