by Erkki S.

Created on: September 11, 2009   Last Updated: September 12, 2009

NATIONAL IDENTITY - ETHNICITY

There are four important criteria determining national identity:

1. Common language
2. Common culture (past legacy, traditions, customs, lifestyle)
3. Sufficient population (to ensure progeny for cultural/economic continuity and provide military resource)
4. Own independent country and government

These are the natural unifying features of any ethnicity. The more criteria are active at the same time, the more secured the ethnic identity is.

The less of these criteria are fulfilled, the less natural ethnic uniformity can be found. In case of linguistic or cultural diversity, the national cohesion within the boundaries of the country is often ensured or enforced by other means. If not, people are spontaneously in search of identity and means of cohesion.

The first and second criteria provide cohesion from grassroots up. The third criterion provides a bulwark against foreign assimilation. The fourth criterion provides cohesion from top to bottom.

In geopolitical terms, ethnic conflict is of two kinds:

1. Within a country
2. Across international borders

These definitions are crucial to distinguish conflicts between governments from those between peoples. Only those between peoples are ethnic conflicts.

Among the ethnic criteria presented, the fourth is that the people (the ethnicity) should have a government, but it is irrelevant what form the government is. Since democracy is a form of government and not an inherent feature of ethnicity, the relationship between democracy and ethnic conflict is not direct. Either of them can be used to solidify or destroy the other. History provides examples of it all.

DEMOCRACY

However, I am personally a great believer in extensive direct democracy. In a direct democracy, ethnic conflicts could be solved easily by dissolving the country or granting the dissenting ethnicity a considerable autonomy. Every true believer in democracy should also be a believer in autonomy.

WAR

War means acquiring resources (territory, population, or some basic exchange or consumption goodies) by military force. This kind of policy of acquisition could always be conducted without war, were the parties involved selflessly sharing, but instead, they are in the business of optimising their borders, resources, cohesion of population, and other assets and characteristics.

DIPLOMACY

It's utterly cynical to equate diplomacy with war, so diplomacy should define and describe different set of features in international relations than war. Let's

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