The wars within: peoples and state in conflict

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Introduction. World System and Global Disorder? -- PART I. THE COLLECTIVE ACTORS -- 1. The Multiple Realities of Ethnicity -- 2. The Reality of States and Nationalism -- 3. Ethnies: Contenders and Rulers -- PART II. SOURCES OF CONFLICT -- 4. The Stakes: Interests and Claims -- 5. Sources and Precipitants of Rivalry and Violent Conflict -- PART III. THE DYNAMICS OF MOBILIZATION AND CONFLICT -- 6. From Grievances to Mobilization -- 7. From Mobilization to Violent Conflict -- 8. From Identity to Genocide: The Problem of Understanding -- PART IV. WHAT CAN BE DONE -- 9. Avoiding the Gathering Storm: The Array of Preventive Actions -- 10. Terminations, Accommodations, and Resolutions -- 11. Peace at Last? Reflections on Paths toward Reconciliation and Reconstruction -- Epilogue -- References -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z

"In The Wars Within, Robin M. Williams Jr. brings together decades of thought about ethnic conflicts in an effort to better understand their dynamics and to lessen their disastrous consequences. Williams presents a worldwide perspective, conscious that many studies of ethnicity focus primarily on the United States. The stakes of struggles can involve both material resources, such as oil, diamonds, and gold, and sociocultural goods, such as group status and cultural distinctiveness. Ethnic conflict, Williams finds, can be portrayed as a set of dynamic processes that may escalate from restrained confrontations over limited issues to devastating ethnic warfare and genocide."--Jacket