Ten Thousand Cultures, a Single Civilization
| DOI | 10.1177/0192512100211005 |
| Author | Mircea Malitza |
| Date | 01 January 2000 |
| Published date | 01 January 2000 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Ten Thousand Cultures, A Single Civilization
MIRCEA MALITZA
ABSTRACT. The role of ethnicity and culture in local conflicts is examined
with special reference to the former Yugoslavia. An examination of the
literature on conflict resolution is offered, leading to a discussion of the
probability of numerous regional conflicts in the coming century. The role
of an overarching civilization in preventing their expansion into a general
war is emphasized, and finally, the example of the European Union is
invoked to exemplify the promise of conflict resolution through pursuit of
common programs for the future, with no reference to the quarrels of the
past.
Introduction
International life in the last decade of the twentieth century has undergone several
dramatic changes. More than forty years of preparation by two military blocs
possessing atomic arsenals for a war that would have become a world war suddenly
ended in the early 1990s, with the disappearance of one of the actors, the USSR and
its military alliance, and with its official renunciation of hostilities against former
enemies. At first sight, the threat of a world war being removed and hands being
extended by both parties created the illusion that an era of worldwide peace was
commencing. But there was no time for the illusion to take hold, as it was brutally
contested on the very soil of Europe, which had been considered immune to war,
compared to regions outside the Eastern and Western alliances, where local warfare
had been going on ever since the end of World War II.
The conflict that broke out among the republics of the former Federation of
Yugoslavia, with its violence and resistance to peaceful settlement, was followed by
conflicts between ethnic or religious communities, among which Bosnia-Herzegov-
ina has been the most shocking, and by the events in Kosovo. Similar conflicts have
occurred in the former Soviet republics of the Caucasus. The question then legiti-
mately arises: Is this phenomenon of violence a feature of the end of all empires
or unions, or does it presage the start of a longer, more widespread conflict? If the
International Political Science Review (2000), Vol. 21, No. 1, 75–89
0192-5121 (2000/01) 21:1, 75–89; 011073 © 2000 International Political Science Association
SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
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