Describe Global Issues of Ethnic Conflict and Change

Global Issues of Ethnic Conflict and Change
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Global Issues of Ethnic Conflict and Change
Ethnic conflicts were the primary forms of political instability in the multi-ethnic societies. One of the prominent war threats to the international peace and security is the ethnic conflict. Cases in point include the conflicts that took place in Iraq, Rwanda. Sri Lanka, Israel/Palestine, Indonesia. These are the most known examples of ethnic conflicts to date. This conflicts sometimes goes a long way to causing extreme human rights violations like genocide and crimes against humanity, environmental issues, a state's economy deterioration, refugee overflow and general human suffering. Between 1945 and 1990, about 100 ethnic groups took part in violent conflicts. During this period, a majority of the battles were disputes between politically organized ethnic groups and governments. Therefore, it is a clear indication that ethnic turmoil remains to be a vital source of warfare and instability in the main parts of the world. Having seen the areas widely covered, the question we are trying to answer here is: what is causing ethnic conflict and change in evolving countries?" Thus, it is not to say that the conflict is out of the ethnic differences as this conflicts are usually propagated by the political, social, religion territorial matters, cultural and economic factors.
Conflicts of ethnicity occur along the fault lines of cultural separations. This is an indication that ethnic conflicts are chiefly triggered by globalization, hence bringing multiple cultures in contact with each other and ultimately activating a clash of civilizations (Fedorak, 2013). When subjected to empirical analysis, there is a significant criticism of this argument. It is found that a small minority of all ethnic groups is constituted by civilizational conflicts and that there is no statistically significant proof that civilization clashes are increasing the likelihood of ethnic conflicts (Marger, 2014 ). In such circumstances, the conflicts arise when the neighboring differ in cultural beliefs. Some conflicts are even as result of revived past wounds and past differences among and between communities.
Structural factors are major contributors to the ethnic conflict worldwide. Most states lack legitimate political policies to govern their structure. This may be as a result of influence from former colonies, ethnically sensible borders or legal institutions (Marger, 2014 ). Violent conflicts are likely to emerge if changes in the economic situation are not rectified, For instance, the cuts in foreign aid, administrative incompetence, corruption and the inability to promote economic stability (Marger, 2014 ). In developing countries, ethnic groups get into conflicts in the grounds of inequality on the distribution of natural resources. This is triggered when leaders in the structural system prefer to favor their ethnic group at the expense of the others (Marger, 2014 ).
Another major cause of ethnic conflicts is political upheavals and differences. When some of the ethnic groups are not well represented in various government posts like the parliamentary, the courts, the military, political parties or lack of equ...