Abstract:
The global socio - political scenario in the 1995, is painted with
high intensity conflicts with latent potential to escalate into full blooded
inter-state wars. The onset of the detente has brought the inter - state
conflicts, hitherto contained by the Cold War dynamics, to the fore. The
United Nations is now acti vely invol ved in peace keeping operations than
it had been ever before.
Director, Western Campus University of Colombo.
This is a modified version of an article presented to the Department of Peace and Conflict Research,
Uppsala University, Sweden, in June 1995 as an end of the project programme papers.
Mrs. Regina Mulaty - Parakh (M. A., M. Phil., Ph. D.) is a research scientist attached to the Centre
for International - Politics Organization and Disarmament, School of international Studies.
Jawahalrlal Nehru University, New Delhi. India.
Most conflicts of the third world are ethnic in nature and demand
power sharing with the dominant ethnic group, However the definition
of ethnicity may vary from one continent to another depending on their
past experiences. The following definition of ethnicity is applicable to the
South Asian region which has a common historical and social experience:
the term ethnicity encompasses varied elements like cultural markers' i.e.
language, religion, customs and traditions, historical memories, values
and race. The identification by a group, irrespective of its numerical size,
to some or all of these elements creates an ethnic identity. Ethnic groups
that use ethnicity to make demands in the political arena for shifting their
status, in their economic well being, in their civil rights or educational
opportunities are engaged in a form of 'interest group' politics. The
greater the demands for equity, the greater is the potential of a problem
turning into a crisis and escalating into an armed struggle, the intensity of
which depends on the mobilization of the majority and minority groups
to realize their dominant and suppressed status.
