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

C00123268
Summary of Discussion A focus on the territorial setting for ethnic conflict can
highlight some issues that Dr. Williams did not touch
on but that are relevant for our thinking about what is
Discussant: Alexander Murphy happening in Europe. First, differences in how States
define citizenship is critically important. One need
I would like to highlight a few things that I think are only think about the different ways in which the Ger-
particularly significant and to raise a couple of related mans, French, or British have defined citizenship his-
questions. At the heart of Professor Williams' presen- torically. Second, several different migrant groups
tation is a dichotomy between two fundamentally dif- exist: older new migrants, newer new migrants, and
ferent kinds of ethnic issues that Western Europe will newer newer new migrants. The most recent come
face in the years ahead. One concerns the longstand- from Eastern Europe and look different from earlier
ing, regionally specific minority groups, and the other migrants not only in terms of external characteristics
concerns the migrants who have come in from North but also in terms of the kinds of skills they bring and
Africa and the Middle East over the last 30 or 40 years their potential level of acceptance within West Euro-
and more recently from Eastern Europe. It is impor- pean societies.
tant to recognize that each of these poses a fundamen-
tally different problem for Europe in the 1990s. Most One of the critical contemporary issues is the effect
obviously, their geography differs. Longstanding that the new immigrants are having on the old immi-
minority groups often operate from a distinct regional grants. The relatively highly skilled immigrants com-
territorial base. The migrant groups, on the other hand, ing in from Poland and the former western republics
are corcentrated overwhelmingly in cities and do not of the former Soviet Union are likely to be more easily
have the same kind of territorial base. The geography integrated within the cultural traditions of the West. If
of social disruption associated with each group also this occurs, Turks and other non-Western migrants
differs. With longstanding minority and regional will be further marginalized.
minority groups, the issues, tensions, and conflicts, in
general, tend to be localized, whereas migrant group Finally, Dr. Williams raises two critical questions. The
issues tend to be focused for political mobilization at first is that the changing political geography of Europe
the national level and are often far reaching in their is affecting ethnicity and ethnic conflict. In my own
impact on society. These differences are evident in the view, centralization as a component of European inte-
public reactions to them. I agree with Dr. Williams gration has currently gone about as far as it can go. A
that we are seeing a greater acceptance of the long- key current issue is the importance of regions and
standing minority groups and that the focus of opposi- regionalization. An example of this is a map produced
tion politics around the recent migrants is one of the by the Commission of the European Communities that
fundamental issues for Europe in the years ahead. illustrates European integration from a geographical
perspective. It identifies development zones within
Having identified those twin issues, I will move on to Europe. These development zones do not conform to
note what I see as the two key geographical perspec- those defined by the European Regional Development
tives that Dr. Williams highlighted: Fund; they are not based on political-administrative
regions within existing nation-states. Rather, the map
. First, ethnic conflicts play out at different scales, and looks at Europe without nation-state boundaries, play-
these scale differences have implications for our ing off of some of the transboundary developments
understanding. Dr. Williams highlighted the impor- currently underway that are beginning to define a new
tance of scale in his discussion of Northern Ireland. kind of European political space.
e Second, of course, is the importance of territorial
setting for ethnic conflict. Some of the comments
about the changing significance of regions were par-
ticularly interesting in this regard.
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