Artificial Borders and Mass Violence: How Colonial Legacies Fuel Ethnic and Religious Strife
[Thesis]
[Thesis]
[Thesis]
[Thesis]
Nathan Gonzalez
Spiegel, Steven L.
University of California, Los Angeles
2014
204
Committee members: Dekmejian, Richard H.; Larson, Deborah; Rapoport, David C.
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-42506-2
Ph.D.
Political Science
University of California, Los Angeles
2014
For some time scholars and policy observers alike have suggested that 'artificial,' or foreign-drawn borders, are in fact to blame for ethnic conflicts in postcolonial states. So far, however, there has been no empirical evidence to support this assertion. This dissertation's contributions are twofold. First, I provide the first empirical evidence linking foreign-drawn borders with ethnic civil war outbreak, one-sided government violence against civilians, and foreign military intervention. Second, the dissertation provides a refined theory of forced cohabitation as a framework for understanding the relationships between these seemingly unconnected correlations.
Middle Eastern Studies; North African Studies; Peace Studies; Political science; Criminology
Social sciences;Arab springs;Colonial legacy;Demonstrations;Mass violence;Religion