GO131:
International Relations
Professor Walter Hatch
Colby College
Ethnic and Religious Conflict
Grave Threat to Peace
Why so much local conflict now?
How to Characterize?
Revival of “Ancient Hatreds?”
Natural Divisions (tribal, ethnic)
Revenge of “Bad Borders?”
Unnatural Divisions (a legacy of colonialism)
Or the Exploitation of Divisions?
Babri Masjid (1992)
Case #1: Arabs and Jews
Returning to Palestine
Palestine
Arabs in the Ottoman Empire
Zionist dreams
Escaping pograms in Russia and Poland
Balfour Declaration (1917)
The 1930s
Jewish refuge
Arab alarm
British blockade
The Palestine War (1948)
End of the British Mandate
UN Partition
land grab
Deir Yassin massacre
great power politics
UN Partition Plan (1947)
Israel Holds its Own
The Birth of Israel (May 14, 1948)
Arab attacks from north, south, and east
Repelled and reversed
The Suez Crisis (1956)
Gamal Abdel Nasser
President of Egypt
(1952)
Champion of Arab
nationalism
Nationalizes the Suez
Canal (1955)
Blockades the Gulf of
Aqaba (1955)
Strategic Waterways
Israel, the UK, and France
The secret plan
Israel attacks Egypt (10/29/1956)
UK and France intervene (10/30/56)
US calls for restraint
USSR supports US
Israel relinquishes its spoils
UNEF patrols
Six-day War (1967)
Syria
El Fatah raids
Egypt
expels UNEF from Sinai
blockades Gulf of Aqaba (again)
Israel
Responds with lighting attacks
Occupies key territories
Preempts the UN
Expanded Israel
The October War (1973)
Syria and Egypt attack on Yom Kippur
Risk of Soviet-US proxy war
Geneva Peace Accords (12/73)
UN observers in Sinai and on Golan Heights
Camp David Accord (1979)
Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter and Menachem Begin
From Tourist Trap to Failed State
Carving up Lebanon
Civil War (1975)
Muslims vs. Christians
Syria occupies central Lebanon
Israel invades (1982)
US intervenes
Intifadeh
First Palestinian uprising (1988)
Rock throwing
Economic boycott
Strikes
Oslo Peace Accord (1993)
Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, Yasir Arafat
Great Expectations
Jordan-Israel peace agreement (1995)
Syria-Israel negotiations (1999)
Barak plan (2000)
“Land for Peace”
Torpedoed by Arafat
Ariel Sharon
The Second Intifadeh
Palestinians revolt
Suicide bombers
Israeli reprisals
Leveling villages
New Peace Efforts
Bush’s “Road Map” (2001)
Abu Mazen as PA PM (2003)
Trying to tame Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Aqsa
Martyr’s Brigade, Hezbollah
And failing….
Terror Continues
Reem Raiyshi with her son Obida, 3, before she set off a bomb
in Gaza on 1/26/04, killing herself and four Israelis.
The Fence
The Occupation Continues
Case #2: Hindus vs Moslems
Two Battles for Independence
British rule (from early 17th century)
East India Company
“divide and conquer”
Fighting for sovereignty
Hindus under Mahatma Gandhi
Moslems under Mohammed Ali Jinnah
Partition (1947)
Kashmir
British had installed a Hindu prince in
predominantly Moslem region (1846)
During partition, Moslems revolted
New Pakistan state supported
New Indian state opposed
War (1948-49)
A Region Divided
Pakistan’s Allies
Military regime (General Ayub Khan)
Unlike India under Congress Party (Nehru)
Bandwagoning with the U.S.
Friendship with China
Kashmir War of 1965
Bloody Birth of Bangladesh
Resentment of East Pakistan
1970 cyclone
1971: Calls for independence
West Pakistan cracks down
Bengali refugees spill into India
India intervenes
Aligns with USSR
Indira Gandhi orders a strike
Nuclear confrontation
Battle of nuclear tests (1998)
Terrorist attacks inside India
Playing nuclear chicken (2003)
Case #3: Sudan
Background
Independence from UK in 1956
Civil War for all but ten years (72-82)
Muslim Arabs in the north
Christian/animist Africans in the south
Northerners control Khartoum regime
Military junta seized power in 1989
Allied with National Congress Party (NCP), formerly
the National Islamic Front (NIF)
Islamic Law (Sharia) and Arabization
Racial Chauvinism
Ibrahim Omar, head of NCP
Child soldier in south
“Leave Only the Birds”
Depopulation Strategy
Emptying villages in the south
Trains and horsemen
Slavery
“Buy-back” program ($50 per person)
Slavery in Sudan
Darfur
Marginalization
A region ignored
Arab militia versus the African SLA
Khartoum backs the Arabs
Tens of thousands killed
1.5 million displaced
Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur
Case #4: Ivory Coast
Civil Strife
North versus South
Citizenship and bloodlines
Defined by southern elites
Abidgan regime (Laurent Gbagbo)
The South
Rebels in the North
France viewed as partisan
Blowback of Colonialism
Case #5: Bosnia (1994-5)
What does Posen say?
It’s another security dilemma