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Introduction
Why do some ethnic conflicts attract third-party intervention from states, even on multiple
occasions, while others do not?
The issues of internal ethnic war and state intervention are
becoming increasingly salient as we move from a system of inviolable state boundaries and
multilateral involvement to one of failed states and regional interventions. Analysis of third-party
state intervention as related to conflict can be divided broadly into two categories: studies that
focus either on (1) the characteristics of the intervener; or (2) the attributes of host state and
minority.
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In the first group of studies, the main focus is on the motivations and attributes of the
intervening state. Collectively speaking, this literature implies that, before intervening, a
government will weigh all possible considerations – emotional attachments, benefits, costs and
risks. In this process, affective and instrumental features both are present. With regard to affect,
ethnic ties and affinities play an important role, along with instrumental motives that include
strategic, economic and political calculations.
The second group of studies focuses on the characteristics of the minorities and state
behavior towards these minorities. Our study follows this tradition. We try to understand the role
of fear and insecurity triggered by state discrimination in eliciting third-party intervention. States
set limits on what groups can obtain, with responses from the disadvantaged depending upon the
openness of the political system (Gurr 2001: 81). Gurr (2001: 105), for example, asserts that
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See Suhrke and Noble (1977), Rothschild (1981), Heraclides (1990), Carment (1993), Carment
and James (1995, 2001), Regan (1996, 1998), Gurr (2000), Regan and Stam (2000), Saideman
(2001), Brown (2001) and Carment, James and Rowlands (2001).
The role of international
organizations in ethnic conflict, such as the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (Gurr 2000), is
an important subject as well, but it lies beyond the scope of this investigation.
Convention