Violent and Non-Violent Nationalist Conflicts in Europe

Abstract

Nationalism remains an important political force in Europe today. As an ideology and as a form of behaviour it has a strong impact on political processes, and it is visible on several levels. One can witness nationalism in public debates and in the actions of state governments, discussing ‘national’ policies. There is also a strong element of nationalism on the level below states in the shape of sub-state nationalist parties/ movements in many regions of Europe (e.g. Scotland, Upper Silesia, Corsica), attempting to challenge the nationalist hegemonic discourses of state nationalism. And finally nationalism often comes to the fore on a level above the state, usually in the relationship between state governments. Often these various types of nationalism go unnoticed, and are only recognised if they lead to situations of conflict. There have been very few attempts to analyze in a broad comparative perspective the situations where national groups are in conflict, whether by peaceful means or not. Generally speaking, research on conflicts in Europe can be divided in three main categories: 1) a first which deals mainly with minorities – such as migrants, but also groups like Roma for instance – and which uses overwhelmingly the ‘ethnic’ vocabulary, because the term ethnic has gradually come to be identified with minorities only; 2) the second category of literature deals with so-called “national groups” or “nations without states”, and falls specifically within the studies of nationalism’s category. This literature either covers specific case studies – in which case very few general theoretical conclusions are drawn, if any – or tries to compare several case studies, or addresses this question through a mostly theoretical approach; the aim here is to understand the changes affecting the traditional model of the nation-state, and in this perspective this literature focuses on the effects of globalization; 3) the third category of literature deals with the geographical location of most of these conflicts, and concentrates on ‘regionalism’; in this perspective, regionalism is often seen either as an unambitious, or unsuccessful, or late-coming, nationalism. Research on conflicts in Europe is also characterized by the fact that it usually conducted as a matter of urgency, when a conflict arises or gets more violent. It is therefore very often trapped in the specificity of case studies, or remains at a very general theoretical level. As a result, comparisons are underused, even though they have proven to be very fruitful, in particular when they go beyond the juxtaposition of case studies. What is more, there is a clear line of division between research on ‘peaceful’ conflicts, that concentrate for instance on linguistic divisions, and on the linguistic policies that they create, and research on ‘violent’ conflicts, that focus on groups generating violence, and on pacification and peace-building. In this panel we would like to build a bridge between these various sections of research on nationalist conflicts, and assess the heuristic dimension of nationalism for understanding the current patterns of political scenes affected by conflict. We will take a closer look at different types of nationalist behaviour and ideologies in Europe and at the conflicts which are caused by them. Papers to be presented should be theoretically informed and take several case studies into consideration.

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