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Postscript Since this book was written in the late 1980s, sea changes have occurred in the international political environment. The "Cold War" has ended, and the Soviet Union has disintegrated. The United Nations has launched an unprecedented number of "peacekeeping" operations around the world, many of which have sought to contain or resolve conflicts based, at least in part, on ethnicity. Indeed , the phenomenon of "ethnic conflict," largely ignored a decade ago, has become the darling of think tanks, conference organizers, and foreign policy journals. Changes have occurred in the international legal environment as well, with new (although generally non-binding) norms in the process of creation for minorities and indigenous peoples. As civil strife has torn apart countries such as Yugoslavia and Somalia, the international community is seeking new criteria for humanitarian and peacekeeping intervention, albeit thus far unsuccessfully. While media attention to "ethnic conflict" has increased dramatically, reporters have shed little light on most of the underlying issues discussed in Part I of this book. Self-determination and territorial integrity continue to be invoked by opposing sides in the former Yugoslavia, much of the former Soviet Union, and elsewhere. Genocidal massacres in Rwanda and Burundi and clan-based warfare in Somalia reflect struggles for political power as much as "primordial" hatreds; control over the national government seems to be the real issue, despite half-hearted appeals for power-sharing or separation. Czechoslovakia and Ethiopia have divided along ethnic lines, and each of the remaining states is facing its own "minority" or "ethnic" problems. This short chapter highlights the most salient developments and analyzes them in light of the continuing need to "accommodate" conflicting rights. It begins with a review of the themes addressed in Part I. Postscript Since this book was written in the late 1980s, sea changes have occurred in the international political environment. The "Cold War" has ended, and the Soviet Union has disintegrated. The United Nations has launched an unprecedented number of "peacekeeping" operations around the world, many of which have sought to contain or resolve conflicts based, at least in part, on ethnicity. Indeed , the phenomenon of "ethnic conflict," largely ignored a decade ago, has become the darling of think tanks, conference organizers, and foreign policy journals. Changes have occurred in the international legal environment as well, with new (although generally non-binding) norms in the process of creation for minorities and indigenous peoples. As civil strife has torn apart countries such as Yugoslavia and Somalia, the international community is seeking new criteria for humanitarian and peacekeeping intervention, albeit thus far unsuccessfully. While media attention to "ethnic conflict" has increased dramatically, reporters have shed little light on most of the underlying issues discussed in Part I of this book. Self-determination and territorial integrity continue to be invoked by opposing sides in the former Yugoslavia, much of the former Soviet Union, and elsewhere. Genocidal massacres in Rwanda and Burundi and clan-based warfare in Somalia reflect struggles for political power as much as "primordial" hatreds; control over the national government seems to be the real issue, despite half-hearted appeals for power-sharing or separation. Czechoslovakia and Ethiopia have divided along ethnic lines, and each of the remaining states is facing its own "minority" or "ethnic" problems. This short chapter highlights the most salient developments and analyzes them in light of the continuing need to "accommodate" conflicting rights. It begins with a review of the themes addressed in Part 1. 496 Postscript SOVEREIGNTY, STATEHOOD,AND NATIONALISM In his Agenda for Peace, UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali noted, "The time of absolute and exclusive sovereignty. ..has passed; its theory was never matched by reality." 12" While many observers have suggested that one of the most distinctive features of the post- 1989period has been the increasingly elastic definition of "international peace and security" adopted by the Security Council in order to confront what are primarily civil conflicts, a more accurate interpretation might simply note that the Security Council is more willing and able to act, now that a veto from one of the five permanent members is much less likely. It is worth recalling that the first (and for four decades, the only) situations in which the Security Council imposed mandatory sanctions under Chapter VII of the UN Charter were those in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. Although there were international aspects in both cases, these early sanctions were clearly a response to the domestic problem of state-sponsored racial discrimination rather than to any readily...

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