What are possible solutions to ethnic conflicts?

Answer 1

There are a number of possible solutions to ethnic conflicts and they are divided by external solution and internal solutions where an external solution leads to separation of the ethnicities and an internal solution leads to intermingling of the ethnicities.

External Solutions

1) Separate States for Separate Peoples: This is the avenue that is currently championed by the Palestinian Authority and Israeli Government for the resolution of their ethnic conflict. This is also the solution that has worked for India and Pakistan, Turkey and Greece, and former Yugoslavia. (Note: tensions in these regions are still high, but the internal ethnic conflict has dissipated. Any tensions would be reclassified as national conflicts as opposed to ethnic conflicts.)

2) Population Swaps: If two ethnic groups already have countries which represent their ethnicity, it may be more prudent to move the people than to move the borders. Turkey and Greece exchanged populations and this lead to the end of Turk Harassment in the Peleponnesus and Greek Harassment in Smyrna (Izmir). Similar exchanges occurred in Poland and Germany after World War II.

3) Ethnic Cleansing: This is not a desirable solution, but it does remove the ethnic conflict by exterminating one ethnicity completely. It worked in the era before such things were universally condemned and is the reason why there are no Native American-United States conflicts anymore (at least on the East Coast).

Internal Solutions

1) Autonomy: A different ethnic group will be given more internal power to govern its affairs that is greater than the jurisdictions given to the majority ethnicity. They may have a different style of government than the majority within this autonomous region. The Aboriginal Reservations in Australia are an example of such autonomous regions.

2) Ethnic Voting: In this system, each ethnicity registers for voting and gets a different allocation than they would naturally by population. This makes minority religions receive more of a voice than they would if they were only counted by heads. This system attempts to assuage conflict in Iran.

3) Ethnic Powers: In some countries, different ethnicities are de jure granted offices of government. In Iraq, the President must always be a Kurd for example.