Policy Paper 20: Ethnic Fears and Global Engagement: The International Spread and Management of Ethnic Conflict

Abstract

There are three broad approaches to the study of ethnicity and ethnic conflict. While we have not tried to impose a single approach upon the project, and the authors of the commissioned papers do disagree among themselves, a perspective on the three approaches is necessary not only to provide a foundation for some of the later issues we address but also to probe the limits of our ability to generalize the findings of this study to other types of conflicts—especially those that are less selfevidently ethnic in nature or do not possess an ethnic component at all. The three approaches are presented here as ideal types. We recognize that individual analysts may not fit well into any single category.