Escalation of Ethnic Conflict: A Survey and Assessment Introduction Domestic Attributes of Instability Interactions between Groups International Interactions Conclusion Notes Escalation of Ethnic Conflict: A Survey and Assessment David Carment NPSIA

Increasing concern in the early 1990s over the negative impact of the end of the Cold War strengthened fears that the break-up of the Soviet Union would unleash a barrage of lethal ethnic wars and state failures. The resulting instability, it was argued, would displace millions of people and create a wake of social upheaval unparalleled in this century. The idea of an impending global crisis became firmly rooted in both the belief that ethnic conflicts were becoming a major source of global insecurity and in the assumption that the international community was ill-equipped to deal with this new source of insecurity.