Summary and Conclusions

Abstract

Today, internal conflicts occur much more frequently than those between states. Wars and mass violence of a predominantly ethnic character account for more than half of all violent conflicts. The global trend to ‘ethnic’, ethnicized and ethno-nationalist conflicts has increased over the last decades. But ethnicity cannot serve either as a rationale or as a fig-leaf to be used when other interpretations fail. Ethnic violence is a response to difficult, protracted crises. The question of what drives it leads on to the question of the nature of ethnicity itself and of what constitutes the ethnic basis of nations. Responses to conflict can only be effective if informed by a comprehensive understanding of contemporary mass violence.