Documents / FOIA release

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

Central Intelligence Agency · 205 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 9 …how various groups have reacted to rising terri- tion as well as numerous territorial processes that…
  • p. 18 …thus closely linked to the second core terri- territorial status quo for granted. torial issue: the…
  • p. 19 …ment initially focused on individual language rights The latter encompasses laws that set aside some terri…
  • p. 28 …have valid links between their identity and their terri- tory and have the expectation of rights…
  • p. 32 …and socioeconomic status as they relate to terri- toriality. Dr. Murphy referred to the ability of…
  • p. 33 …Although a statistical correla- suggest giving the old provinces more political-terri- tion existed between region…
  • p. 50 …want Krajina as a piece of geographical terri- assigning identities to local populations who often did…
  • p. 52 …Sovereignty over European terri- taposition of two ethnic groups, a common feature of tory was initially…
  • p. 66 …That may mean some of the kinds of terri- quasiautonomous nature. Despite this devolution, a torial…
  • p. 76 …National identity and terri- perceived as their homeland, and this has frequently torial identity have been…
  • p. 79 …Russia today in terms of its internal terri- nomically seceding. Is the center giving power to…
  • p. 153 …The real crux of the terri- The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is primarily between torial…
C00123268
movement and border vigilance have not been lost, further 310,000 de facto refugees should be taken into
merely shifted further east. Geographers, who have a account as constituting the non-German sector of the
long-established interest in migration, displacement, population.
and territorial adjustment, are contributing to our
understanding of the changing patterns. Since unification and its attendant economic and fiscal
difficulties, this liberal attitude has been openly chal-
James Walsh (1992) has provided an overview that lenged. Anti-immigrant violence has made many Ger-
suggests that in France the threat of increasing migra- man citizens wary of an extension of their open-door
tion of Muslims animates racial passions. Fully policy, especially when the media are quick to point
3.5 million foreigners make up 6.2 percent of the total out that 93 percent of asylum seekers do not have a
population. The migrants are accused of such things as valid case. Thus, one inescapable conclusion is that
depressing average economic wage levels, refusing to many places within Germany are going to witness
integrate, clustering in Islamic neighborhoods, and sporadic and deep-seated violence. When this general
undermining French culture.and customs. Such trend is applied to the borders with Poland, the Czech
charges serve the cause of the National Front under Republic, and Austria, it is evident that one major
Le Pen, who won 38 percent of the November 1991 cause of future conflict will be the manner in which
election vote and, in the regional elections of 1992, cross-border movement is handled.
gave the National Front a larger percentage of the vote
than the Socialist Party under Francois Mitterrand. The German state's response is to attempt to quench
the migration flow at the source through a massive
Bruno Megret, a leading theoretician of the National investment in the emergent capitalist economies of the
Front, has announced a package of migration-curbing east and increased immigration control at external EU
proposals: 1) posting of $180,000 bond by all non- borders. To some extent this will be welcomed by
European visitors, 2) mandatory AIDS testing, dependent economies that will replace the ruble with
3) review of the status of all aliens in France, 4) the mark, but it is also likely to create deep-seated.
stricter border control, 5) no family unity doctrine, resentment and accusations of internal colonialism,
6) repeal of the agreement on freedom of movement 'reminiscent of the first waves of German expansion in
for EC-member migrants, 7) no social benefits to previous centuries. Such border controls will facilitate
migrant children, 8) priority for French citizens in the removal of internal EU border checks but only to
housing and social benefits, and 9) immediate deporta- the extent that each constituent country is as efficient
tion for migrants with improper or no official docu- and determined as Germany, France, and the United
ments, (Walsh, 1992, p. 21). Clearly such blatant state Kingdom in employing external controls, a doubtful
nationalism will not be adopted in policy terms by any assumption.
responsible French Government, but more subtle vari-
ants of these elements have entered the agenda of The most recent migrants are incorrectly viewed as
respectable political parties and interest groups and economically dependent and relatively unskilled-a
will be set in sharper focus as the key policy alterna- drain on EU resources. Miles (1992, p.41) is especially
tives each time urban racial violence occurs. sensitive to this assumption. He argues that "this
homogenization of migration flows is factually mis-
The former German Federal Republic was a logical taken and analytically problematic" and that "...large
destination for many displaced Europeans and others numbers of recent migrants originate from Eastern
because of its historically sympathetic reception of Europe, the migration of aussiedler into Germany
refugees that is enshrined in Article 16 of the German being of special significance; that the most important
Basic Law. It is estimated that some 400,000 asylum category of internal labor migration within the EU is
seekers were processed into Germany in 1992. Walsh that of skilled professional and managerial labour; and
suggests that 80 percent came from the Third World
and that the vast majority were Muslim; he argues that
an additional 4 million Turks and their families and a
51

Not linked to a story yet.

About this file

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.