Affect, Interest, and Political Entrepreneurs in Ethnic and Religious Conflicts. Edited by Arthur A. Stein & Ayelet Harel-Shalev. New York: Routledge, 2018.

Reprint of Special issue: Ethnic and Racial Studies 40, 12 (October 2017).


In the current environment, most political violence occurs between internal communities, such as ethnic and religious groups, rather than between states. Such inter-communal conflict threatens both internal political stability and interstate relations. In this edited volume, a multidisciplinary and multinational group of scholars analyze the bases of inter-communal conflict and its domestic and international consequences.

The authors focus on inter-communal conflict through the lenses of political struggles in the Middle East and Asia, which provide fertile grounds for assessing the viability of new social constructions and the continuing impact of ancestral ties. Containing theoretical, regional, and country studies, the chapters tackle such issues as: the implications of changes in the institutional rules for political competition; how explanatory narratives for conflict are selected when multiple attributions are possible; the bases of ideological conflict that have arisen within Islam; the problems of ethnic competition that remain unresolved in powersharing arrangements; the consequences for international relations when national boundaries do not circumscribe ethnic and religious communities; and the subordination of women’s interests to religious conflict and its resolution. Since identities are shaped by multiple qualities, the contributions examine the role of ideologies, institutions, and politicians in shaping political cleavages, communities, and conflicts.

Introduction

      Ancestral and Instrumental in the Politics of Ethnic and Religious Conflict
           Arthur A. Stein and Ayelet Harel-Shalev


Part I: Domestic and International Sources of Political Competition and Conflict

      When and Why Do Some Social Cleavages Become Politically Salient
      Rather Than Others?
           Daniel N. Posner

      Ethnicity, Extraterritoriality, and International Conflict
           Arthur A. Stein


Part II: Ethnic and Religious Conflict in the Middle East

      Representation, Minorities and Electoral Reform: The Case of the
      Palestinian Minority in Israel
           Rebecca Kook

      The Paradox of Power-sharing: Stability and Fragility in Postwar Lebanon
           Amanda Rizkallah

      Changing Islam, Changing the World: Contrasting Visions Within
      Political Islam
           Nimrod Hurvitz and Eli Alshech


Part III: Ethnic and Religious Conflict in Asia

      The “Ethnic” in Indonesia’s Communal Conflicts: Violence in Ambon,
      Poso and Sambas
           Kirsten E. Schulze

      Gendering Ethnic Conflicts: Minority Women in Divided Societies -- the
      Case of Muslim Women in India
           Ayelet Harel-Shalev