IanFantom
Validated Poster
Joined: 31 Jan 2007
Posts: 296
Location: Halifax, West Yorkshire
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 Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:00 am Post subject: Ethnic Heterogeneity and State Militarization |
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This is a fascinating study that appears to suggest that it's not ethnic diversity in itself that causes conflict within countries, but something else.
I don't have access to the complete text, but my first thoughts are that if conflict is usually brought about by external intervention by subversively exploiting ethnic and linguistic differences, then diversity would flourish where there was traditionally less control and militarisation.
I'm thinking primarily of the Middle East at the moment.
http://jpr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/45/4/497
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Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 45, No. 4, 497-518 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0022343308091358
© 2008 International Peace Research Institute, Oslo
Disarming Fears of Diversity: Ethnic Heterogeneity and State Militarization, 1988—2002
Indra De Soysa
Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), indra.de.soysa@svt.ntnu.no, Centre for the Study of Civil War, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO)
Eric Neumayer
Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, Centre for the Study of Civil War, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO)
This study investigates whether ethnic and other forms of social diversity affect militarization of society. Recent scholarship in economics finds that high diversity leads to lower provision of public goods. At the same time, many conflict studies find that highly diverse societies face a lower risk of civil war, as opposed to relatively more homogenous populations. The authors explore whether diversity prompts governments to militarize heavily in order to prevent armed conflict, which would then crowd out spending on other public goods in a `guns versus butter' trade-off. Thus, `preventive militarization' would explain both outcomes. Yet the authors find the opposite: higher levels of ethnic diversity predict lower levels of militarization. If high diversity lowers the hazard of civil war, as many find, then it does not happen via preventive militarization. If diverse societies spend less on public goods, then this is not because they are crowded out by security spending. The results support those who suggest that diversity may, in fact, pose a lower security threat to states, since it is highly likely that states facing potential social strife would prioritize state militarization. |
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