ethnic conflict

In recent years, despite the presence of foreign forces, Afghanistan has faced many challenges; The increase in terrorist activities, the spread of poverty and unemployment, and the lack of a strong central government are only part of Afghanistan's problems, which have created suitable grounds for the Taliban's re-establishment of power. In this regard, this article tries to discuss the factors behind the re-emergence of the Taliban with thematic analysis method. The method of data collection is document studies and in-depth interviews with professors and experts in this field. The analysis of the research findings shows that in the field of re-establishing the power of the Taliban, there are two categories of macro and organizing themes of external and internal factors, each of which has its own basic themes. Among the foreign factors or themes, we can mention the contradictory role of America in the nation-state-building process, the rivalry between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan, the border conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan, colonial rivalry and the Cold War. Also, internal factors or themes such as ethnic conflict and conflict, economic challenges, educational and cultural challenges, weakness of the central government and inconsistent security and military forces were identified. At the end, the necessity of dealing with this group from military, political, social, economic and environmental aspects was discussed.

Protracted or intractable ethnic conflicts are a type of clashes that, despite fluctuating levels of violence, seem to have no foreseeable resolution. An example of such a conflict is the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) crisis in Turkey. Despite its four-decade history and significant political and social impacts on the country, there appears to be no clear end in sight. The persistence of these conflicts not only jeopardizes the security of the conflict-ridden nation but also has a ripple effect on neighboring countries, draining their resources and hindering their development and prosperity. This paper aims to comprehend these enduring ethnic conflicts and analyze the factors and causes influencing them, using the PKK as a case study.

When it comes to the causes of ethnic conflicts, there are numerous theories and models, but their universality and comprehensiveness are often questioned. For instance, Ted Robert Gurr proposed four categories: salience for ethnocultural identity, incentives for action, dynamics for protracted conflicts, and capacity for action, each with its own facets and dimensions. Another scholar, Stuart J. Kaufman, believes that the outbidding of ethnic elites and their manipulation of ethnic symbols play a significant role in inciting hostility against the government or other ethnic groups. Shiping Tang, on the other hand, considers the four master drivers: emotion, interest, capability, and opportunity. As for the prolongation of conflicts, James Samuel Coleman identifies four dimensions: the context of the conflict, the issues at stake, the relations among ethnic groups, and the processes, outcomes, and consequences of the conflict.This paper proposes a model based on the philosophical principle that “the persistence of an effect is contingent on the persistence of its cause”. According to this model, the perpetuation of dissatisfaction or the emergence of new dissatisfaction (either through the ongoing framing of contentious issues or their reframing) results in the perpetuation of the cycle of violence and revenge. This situation is further exacerbated by the enduring presence of international supporters or the emergence of new backers. Concurrently, these conditions solidify the geopolitical factors that have played a role in initiating and perpetuating ethnic conflicts.

The PKK emerged during the radical period of the 1970s in Turkey. This group highlighted the need to secure the national and ethnic rights of the Kurds, in addition to addressing the underdevelopment of Kurdish regions. The initiation of armed conflict by this group provoked a strong governmental response, leading to forced displacement, the declaration of a state of emergency, and an escalation in violence. Consequently, a broader segment of Kurdish society was drawn into the conflict.Despite the fulfillment of some Kurdish demands during Erdogan’s tenure, particularly in the early years, the PKK and affiliated groups introduced new demands and a fresh framework of issues and conflicts. This group maintains its financial resources by engaging in smuggling and a variety of illicit activities. It has gained international supporters, in part due to the rise of ISIS and the need for extra-regional powers to leverage the PKK forces in combating it. By establishing a monopoly over Kurdish representation and eliminating potential competitors, the group has managed to maintain its position in the political landscape of Kurdish society and Turkey. Meanwhile, the geopolitics of the Kurdish regions remain relatively unchanged. On the other hand, the limited control exerted by Turkey’s neighbors over the country’s southern borders has not impeded border crossings, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the Turkish forces’ military pursuit of the PKK group.

Ethnic identity, as psychological and mental processes among various ethnic groups, is not a security phenomenon to require careful examination of the security issues. Rather, when it is politicized and is accompanied by a kind of ethnic identity process due to any causes, it turns into an important political issue imposing security implications. This study deals with the context and causes of ethnicity as political process. Then the study identifies the structural and factors leading to the formation of identity among the ethnic groups. It ultimately analyzes the significant consequences of this issue and its relationship with ethnic conflicts and the arousal of security challenges, and designs a model for analyzing ethnic problems.

Variety of ethnic groups, different languages and cultural differences can cause conflicts and ethnic tensions in communities, but the emergence of an ethnic conflict depends on the government's approach in managing these diversity. One of the most important mechanisms for governments to manage ethnic diversity, language and cultural differences, is federalism. Federalism can be defined as decentralization and granting administrative autonomy to a Region in terms of geographic divisions. But federalism function to reduce ethnic conflicts, is not necessarily positive and can lead to deterioration in some cases. Accordingly, this study tries to analyze the impact of federalism on ethnic conflicts in Iraq. The research hypothesis is: through a process of creating bureaucratic structures, development of political parties and the recognition and acceptance of cultural differences, federalism can reduce sectarian violence and ethnic conflicts. The methodology of research is descriptive-explanatory.

Ethnic conflict and its related factors is one of the social sciences’ main research areas, especially in the recent decades. Ethnic conflict revolutions’ parallelism with transition process to democratization, especially after 2th half of 20th century, make political sociology of ethnic conflicts focus on this scientific scope that what requirements and circumstances can be provided by transition of democracy for revolution of ethical conflicts. The main question is, whether democratization transition and its process, inevitably is concomitant with ethnical conflicts or transition process can provide an opportunity that prevents ethnical conflicts through the promotion of political negotiations in innovative democratic governments? Regarding lack of theoretical researches in this scope, using qualitative analysis, we studied the conditions through which, democratization transition provides a background both for ethnical conflicts’ moderation and also exacerbation. Institutional strategies that prevent ethnical conflicts, ethnic conflicts and democratic processes’ flourishing and authoritarian regimes’ typology across ethnic variation are the present study’s other interesting areas that have been investigated.

After the Soviet Union in newly independent Georgia، the location of his gate and called the Caucasus since this position tremendous impact on how relations with Russia and the West had in this country is a way to attack the topic Georgian forces in South Ossetia in 2008. MD، the severe Russian reaction to Georgia''s pro-West thought it had occurred، the incidence of and despite media efforts and practical West، this conflict will actually benefit Russia by. The strategic location of Georgia study the effect of policies towards the Russian Federation Russia competition - West Georgia in the topic and some other strategic issues will tell the Caucasus region.