Ethnic Politics, Political Elite, and Regime Change in Nigeria

By Henry Ani Kifordu

Volume 11, Issue 3, pages 427-450

Abstract

Since the 1960s, intermittent social conflicts in Nigeria appear mostly linked to ethnic groups’ differences. Considering the importance of regime change in social and political stability, this article critically analyses the historic and dynamic role of the core political executive elite in the political system’s stability. The article argues that ethnic politics persist in Nigeria based on the nature of interactions between political institutions, institution‐builders, and society. It asserts a contradictory link between deep‐rooted elite interests and popular preferences in ways that undermine orientations towards democracy. The empirical focus is on the composite nature of the core political executive elite analysed through their ethnic and educational backgrounds. It is observed that, although ethnic shocks are variously motivated, the atypical shape and inequity in power and role distribution at the highest levels of executive office‐holding stand out as a salient source and target of antagonism by ethnic groups. This finding has a paradoxical implication: deep‐seated economic and political interests of the elite play a diversionary role from the real causes of ethnic conflicts in Nigeria.

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The Shifting Landscapes of ‘Nationalism’

By Anthony D. Smith

Volume 8, Issue 2, pages 317-330

Abstract

The field of study that comprises nations and nationalism is often seen as riven by a conflict between ‘modernists’ and their opponents. In fact, the field is far more fragmented than such a characterisation suggests. From the very first normative critical essays 150 years ago, it has been composed of shifting landscapes in which different approaches and perspectives overlap and cross‐cut each other like intersecting monologues. While there was a short period of engagement in the 1980s, a ‘classic debate’ between modernists, perennialists and ethno‐symbolists who embraced a macro‐analytic framework and a causal‐historical methodology, the familiar landscape has radically shifted to reveal a series of deconstructionist strategies and techniques; and while rational choice theories, among others, continue to embrace causal‐historical analysis, there has been a rejection in many quarters of both macro‐analytic narratives and causal‐historical analysis. The new anti‐essentialist strategies include feminist critiques, the study of everyday nationhood, the hybridisation of national identities, and debates about the ‘ethics of nationalism’ which echo earlier critiques. Above all, there is a new concern with the application of globalising trends to nations and nationalism, and especially with the role of nations without states, and the impact of supranationalism, large‐scale migration and ‘religious nationalisms’.

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Competing Nationalisms, Euromaidan, and the Russian‐Ukrainian Conflict

By Taras Kuzio

Volume 15, Issue 1, pages 157-169

Abstract

Although Ukraine is a regionally diverse country, it had succeeded in peacefully managing inter‐ethnic and linguistic tension between competing nationalisms and identities. However, the rise of the openly pro‐Russian Party of Regions political machine after the Orange Revolution, whose leader came to power in 2010, and the evolution of Vladimir Putin’s regime from proponent of statist to ethnic nationalism, heightened Ukrainian inter‐regional and inter‐state conflict. Viktor Yanukovych’s policies provoked popular protests that became the Euromaidan. His unwillingness to compromise and his fear of leaving office led to violence and the breakdown of state structures, opening the way for Russia’s interventions in the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. This article investigates the sources for the violence during and after the Euromaidan and Russia’s interventions. It argues that domestic and foreign factors served to change the dynamics of Russian speakers in Ukraine from one of passivity in the late 1980s through to the 2004 Orange Revolution; low‐level mobilization from 2005 to 2013; and high‐level mobilization, crystallization of pro‐ and anti‐Ukrainian camps, and violent conflict from 2014.

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On the Matter (and Materiality) of the Nation: Interpreting Casamance’s Unresolved Separatist Struggle

By Vincent Foucher

Volume 11, Issue 1, pages 82-103

Abstract

To understand both the persistence and the very low intensity of the ongoing Casamançais separatist conflict in southern Senegal, one has to take into account the longer history of the encounter between the Senegalese state and the community that the separatists claim to represent. This is not the history of an estrangement, but quite to the contrary, a history of a strong connection, one where ‘pilgrimages’ of education and state employment have played a key role. It is the intensity of the connection that explains both the vivacity of the sentiment that feeds separatism and the reluctance of many Casamançais to break these links entirely. The state’s success in maintaining and even revamping this connection, and the fact that many Casamançais enjoy a working relationship with Senegal and its capital city, Dakar, have been key factors. This case confirms that the materiality of experiences of nationhood matters. It also confirms the importance of education in the formation (and contestation) of nationhood.

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On the Problem of the Victim/Perpetrator Dichotomy: The Massacre of Kurds (Iran, 1979)

By Mehran M. Mazinani

Volume 14, Issue 2, pages 289-301

Abstract

This article recontextualizes the massacre that took place in the Kurdistan region of Iran in 1979. Through examining interviews with and articles by some of the leading actors involved in the massacre and analysing various alignments between Tehran and Kurdistan, the article concludes that the massacre was not an ethnic conflict. Rather, it was a political issue exacerbated by matters such as the turbulent transition from the Pahlavi dynasty to the Islamic Republic and idiosyncrasies of the involved actors. Framing the massacre in a primordially black and white fashion – Sunni Kurds versus Shiite Persians – is not only historically inaccurate but also empirically problematic.

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