IAFF 1005 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Definitions Of Politicide, Ethnic Group, Economic Inequality
13 Jun 2018
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Tuesday Lecture: Intra-State Conflict Part 1
I. South Sudan crisis
A. Who is fighting and for what?
B. What are the underlying factors and the proximate causes or triggers
C. Types of conflict
1. Ethnic
a) Often misused
b) Political conflict is inherent in multi-ethnic societies and regions
c) Doesn’t have to be violent
d) What causes problems to cross the violence threshold?
e) Tribe: family and clan based identity and connections
f) Ethnic group: social-cultural identity and connections
(1) Belief in common rights
(2) Shared historical memories
(3) Shared communal ties: language, religion, culture
(4) Attachment to specific territory
(5) Group solidarity
(6) A name
g) Ethnic origins: the primordial vs. constructivist (something that is learned over
time and ethnic identities come and go over time) debate
h) Ethnic census: 3,000-9,000 ethnic groups
2. Intra-state or internal
a) Locus is primarily within the borders of the state
(1) Key actors, origins, goals
b) Types
(1) Ethnic/secessionist struggles (Pakistan, Bangladesh)
(2) Ideological/revolutionary struggles (Cambodia, Nepal)
(3) Criminal assaults on state sovereignty (Drug cartels in Mexico)
(4) Power struggles - civilian, military, civil-military
(a) Often disguised as ethnic conflicts
(b) Often develop into ethnic conflicts
3. Civil war
a) Level of violence: 1000 or more killed
b) Organized violence: not anarchic rioting
c) Sustained violence: months, years, decades
d) Maybe consider adding organized and sustained
4. Genocide and politicide
a) One group trying to slaughter another
b) Genocide convention definition: acts committed “with intent to destroy in whole
or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group
c) Obligation: is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent
and to punish
d) Difference between the two
(1) Genocide is against those with a specific ethnic or religious identity
(2) Politicides slaughter political opponents
5. Regionalized conflict
6. It’s essential to differentiate between different types of conflicts, caused by different kinds
of problems and actors
II. Causes of intra-state conflicts
A. One common explanation: “ancient hatreds”
1. Analytically problematic: doesn’t explain variation
2. Politically convenient: an excuse for inaction
3. An example of “no-fault history”
B. Structural factors
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