world at arms - wage war for your nation!

5 Other well known examples include the Nazis in Germany, the Hutus in Rwanda (fig (fig2), 2), and, today, the emphasis on Muslim consciousness by the Taliban and others.įour economic hypotheses have been put forward to explain intra-state wars, based on factors related to group motivation, private motivation, failure of the social contract, and environmental degradation. For example, in the conflict in Matebeland in post-independence Zimbabwe, Ndebele identity was used to advance political objectives. In wars political leaders may deliberately “rework historical memories” to engender or strengthen this identity in the competition for power and resources. 3 Their boundaries are generally fluid, and they have rightly been described as “fuzzy sets.” 4 2 Many of the ethnic identities in Africa that today seem to be so strong were “invented” by the colonial powers for administrative purposes and have only weak origins in precolonial Africa. This view is not correct, however, and diverts attention from important underlying economic and political factors.Īlthough a person's culture is partly inherited it is also constructed and chosen, and many people have multiple identities.

For this reason, there is a tendency to attribute wars to “primordial” ethnic passions, which makes them seem intractable.

Many groups of people who fight together perceive themselves as belonging to a common culture (ethnic or religious), and part of the reason that they are fighting may be to maintain their cultural autonomy.

World at arms - wage war for your nation!