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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 …issues in Western Europe, highlighting the most press- United States and the international community. ing and…
  • p. 30 …Oxford University Press, 1993. Gottmann, Jean. The Significance of Territory Charlottesville: The University Press of Parker…
  • p. 35 …the media and education, Introduction native language press, or freedom of religion) that do not threaten…
  • p. 75 …It may also be true that the demographic status of two Most autonomous units of the…
  • p. 77 …University of Durham International Boundaries Drobizheva, Leokadia. "Etnicheskoye samosoz- Research Unit (IBRU) Press (Territory Briefing 2…
  • p. 85 …wake of the World Trade Center bombing, when the United States declared Sudan a "terrorist state…
  • p. 87 …as they are in Nigeria, Africa's United States. Zaire's taking sides in Angola's…
  • p. 95 …Core area Indians may unite with lowland Indians to promote 3These estimates of Indian population fall…
  • p. 106 …The Trinidadian press is quite con- had enough. cerned with the general upswing in violence. Is…
  • p. 118 …to more strongly assert their identities, United States. pressing the government for further recognition, autonomy, and…
  • p. 192 …A Margaret Thatcher to Andrey Sakharov have credited united and prosperous European Community, they the 1975…
C00123268
The second question is: how do we evaluate the poli- DR. MURPHY: The United States has an interest in a
cies of individual states in relation to minority groups, stable and economically vital Europe. This would sug-
in particular, territorial policies? There was an gest that it is in the US interest to promote the kind of
extended discussion in the paper of the Basque situa- policy options that lead to stability from an ethnic
tion, where power has been devolved to regions of a standpoint. That may mean some of the kinds of terri-
quasiautonomous nature. Despite this devolution, a torial policies that I suggested. It also means that the
continuation of fairly strong anti-Madrid bias can still United States should promote the idea of a European
be seen in voting patterns in Spain. At the same time, Community that does not just look like a much more
overt violence has been reduced. This raises questions centralized community but one that actually facilitates
about the impact of state policies that acknowledge the kinds of regional linkages that Dr. Williams has
the existence of ethnic concentrations and use territo- outlined. We should be not be scared of the fact that
rial policies to incorporate ethnic groups in the deci- the nation-state is changing. It is in the US interest to
sionmaking process. It may mean-as has happened promote the kind of regional arrangements that will
to a degree in the Basque case-that bringing a sepa- lead to a more stable and outward-looking Europe.
ratist group into the decisionmaking structure may
marginalize the more violent elements of the group.
General Discussion
QUESTION: With regard to ethnic issues, what poli-
cies are likely to best promote US interests in the
region?
58

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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 205 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.