Ethnicity and Religion in International Politics: The Middle East, the Balkans, and India-Pakistan

The article begins with Susan Woodward, Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, discussing the lessons that the US has learned from the Balkans, the Middle East, and India-Pakistan. When reviewed, the main conflicts were due to an ethnic and religious conflict. These conflicts are results in old hatreds held against each other that were repressed during the Cold War. It was a struggle between more liberal identities on one side, and ethnic, religious, national, and racial identities on the other. Susan Woodward quotes, “the more ethnically heterogeneous and pluralistic a society, the more likely it is to be peaceful and democratic,” meaning the more diverse a society is and the more accepting of other cultures, the less violent humanity will be.

I completely agree with Susan Woodward’s statements. The ethnic and religious conflicts with other countries will occur due to different cultures, and disagreements will happen, however, if a society is purely diverse, people will soon become more accepting with other cultures and learn to compromise with these differences. War is not always the answer to all cultural disputes. Positive growth can only occur, as my thesis clearly states, when invested parties agree with their differences.

http://www.cossa.org/seminarseries/ethnicity.htm