The literature on "ethnic conflict" tends to focus solely on external sources of such conflict. But this unquestioning focus on ethnic conflict as due to factors in the relationship between "ethnic groups” or their elites may at times be misleading. Drawing on a critique of conflict theory as developed in the field of international relations, I point out the conceptual and methodological proble...

In a recent series of articles, Hislope (1998, 2000) and Harvey (2000a, 2000b) have raised questions about the usefulness of “evolutionary theory” especially for any purpose other than identifying “distal” causes of ethnic phenomena. This article responds to those views and argues that evolutionary psychology shows great promise in contributing to the explanation of contemporary ethnic identiti...

one of the significant issues in ir is that of inter – state conflict and cooperation. various schools such as realism and liberalism have endeavored to theoretically explain it. in so doing, this article seeks to outline the views offered by a constructivist thinker, alexander wendt. he treats ir as a socially constructed discipline. this article argues that although wendt has managed to advan...

The perception of criminal injustice is common among disadvantaged American racial and ethnic minority groups. This perception of injustice is especially common for highly educated and socially and economically successful African-Americans. It is also well established that encounters between citizens and the police play an important part in such perceptions of racial injustice. Yet, there is mu...

This paper examines the impact of ethnic divisions on conflict. The empirical specification is informed by a theoretical model of conflict (Esteban and Ray, 2011) in which equilibrium conflict intensity is related to just three distributional indices of diversity: ethnic polarization, ethnic fractionalization, and a Greenberg-Gini index of “difference” constructed across ethnic groups. Our empi...

Information about the degree of one's genetic overlap with ethnic outgroups has been emphasized in genocides, is frequently learned about through media reporting, and is increasingly being accessed via personal genetic testing services. However, the consequence of learning about whether your own ethnic group is either genetically related to or genetically distinct from a disliked ethnic group r...

This study was based on the theory that adolescents view scenes of violent ethnic conflicts in the mass media through the lens of their own ethnicity, and that the resulting social-cognitive reactions influence their negative stereotypes about similar ethnic groups in their own country. We interviewed 89 Jewish and 180 Arab American high school students about their exposure to the Israeli-Pales...

Information about the degree of one’s genetic overlap with ethnic outgroups has been emphasized in genocides, is frequently learned about through media reporting, and is increasingly being accessed via personal genetic testing services. However, the consequence of learning about whether your own ethnic group is either genetically related to or genetically distinct from a disliked ethnic group r...

Why do ethnic conflicts arise? This question has been a persistent one in the field of political science, and has generated various theories and approaches attempting to explain conflict proliferation from different angles. Consulting current political science literature and Prof James Fearon, an expert on ethnic conflicts, we identify two main approaches to understanding the problem: one has e...

The democratic governance of divided societies can pose particular challenges. This wellrehearsed mantra among students of ethnic conflict and conflict settlement has its origins in John Stuart Mill’s skepticism of even the possibility of democracy “in a country made up of different nationalities” (Mill 1861:230), as well as in empirically observable violent ethnic conflict around the globe. Ye...