Full Description
This title was first published in 2001. Why, in this contemporary secular age, does violent conflict among confessional communities still occur? Covering several key conflicts of recent years in one of the most dynamic areas of the world, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans, Mario Apostolov uses both interpretative and comparative analysis to answer this question. His versatile approach makes for an engaging account that makes an important contribution to the current debate surrounding such conflicts.The author focuses on five case studies taken from the traditional zone of contact between Christianity and Islam:- The Copts- The Palestinian Christians- The Lebanese communities- The Pomaks- The communities of Bosnia-HerzegovinaThe book examines the relationship between these issues and communal mobilisation, the collective use of violence and the problems of international security. An informative study for students, academics, policy makers and personnel in international organizations with an interest in communal conflict and security.
Contents
List o f Maps -- List o f Tables -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Goals, Approaches and Limits o f this Study -- Methodology -- PART Is TERMS OF ANALYSIS -- 1 Terms of Analysis and Problems of Definition -- Religious Minorities -- International Security and Religious Minorities -- 2 The Eastern Mediterranean: Religious Minorities in the Post-Ottoman Space -- Common Origins? -- The Ottoman Heritage -- A Region without a Sense o f Regionalism -- PART II: FIVE CASES OF CONFESSIONAL MINORITIES IN THE BALKANS AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN -- 3 The Copts -- Historical Identity -- Participatory Egyptian Nationalism -- The Present Condition o f the Minority and Communal Violence -- Conclusion -- 4 The Palestinian Christians -- Historical Identity -- Participatory Nationalism among the Christian Palestinians -- Present Circumstances o f the Community -- Responses to the Risk o f Marginalisation: Extremists and Mediators -- Conclusion -- 5 Lebanon: Constitutive Communities or Minorities? -- Patterns o f Historical Identity -- The Political System, Contending Claims on Nationhood, and the Civil War -- The International Dimension -- The Taif Settlement -- Conclusion -- 6 The Pomaks: A Transborder Religious Minority -- Multi-Level Group Identity -- Pomaks in the Nation States of the Balkans -- Conclusion -- 7 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Improbable Nation -- Historical Identity -- The Civil War (1992-95) -- The External Involvement -- The Dayton Peace Agreement -- The Sandjak -- Conclusion -- PART III: THE POTENTIAL FOR CONFLICT AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS -- 8 The Potential for Communal Conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean -- Traditional Identity versus the Nation State -- The External Factor and Community - Nation State Relations -- Communal Mobilisation as a Problem in Security -- Conclusion -- 9 Possibilities for Accommodation -- Political Pluralism -- External Intervention -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.
