Inherent in much of the violence around the world is an unresolved conflict that lies at the foundation of the modern state system: the tension between ethnic and national identity on the one hand, and majority rule on the other. In the closed thread about Ossetia and Georgia, Andy made a disparaging comment about Woodrow Wilson, and rightly so, since Wilson's principle of "national self-determination" utterly glossed over this unresolved conflict.
In the current system of conflicting values, when an ethnic minority is at or above a certain size -- a size that varies depending on the cultures and polities involved -- the kind of conflict you see all around the borders of the Slavic world, for instance, happen. Because of the unresolved value conflict between "national self-determination" and "majority rule," each side in these conflicts can point to a fundamental value to justify violence.
I know I'm pointing out the obvious here, but it seems like no real dialogue is possible until this basic value conflict is identified. And no real solutions are possible unless a value even more fundamental than these two conflicting values is identified and observed by the parties concerned. Otherwise, all that ends up happening is bloodshed and finger-pointing.
In the current system of conflicting values, when an ethnic minority is at or above a certain size -- a size that varies depending on the cultures and polities involved -- the kind of conflict you see all around the borders of the Slavic world, for instance, happen. Because of the unresolved value conflict between "national self-determination" and "majority rule," each side in these conflicts can point to a fundamental value to justify violence.
I know I'm pointing out the obvious here, but it seems like no real dialogue is possible until this basic value conflict is identified. And no real solutions are possible unless a value even more fundamental than these two conflicting values is identified and observed by the parties concerned. Otherwise, all that ends up happening is bloodshed and finger-pointing.