This essay makes a provocative case against the study of 'ethnic conflict' as a special subset of... more This essay makes a provocative case against the study of 'ethnic conflict' as a special subset of political conflict. It pushes against the 'silo-ing' of conflict studies that exists in which 'specialists' study 'civil war', 'counter-insurgency', 'ethnic conflict', 'terrorism', etc. It calls for theories and hypothesis tests drawn from frameworks of political conflict that can explain everything from quiescence that is seen in contemporary Syria. My reaction to the study of 'ethnic' conflict 1 is that it is generally a bad idea. That is, I am concerned that despite the widespread recognition that ethnic identity is socially constructed , our continued use of the concept belies an essentialist approach that is ultimately counterproductive. Put plainly, by studying ethnic conflict as a 'thing apart' we will obscure more than we will illuminate. Why? Let us begin generally and ask: 'Why and how does political conflict among humans occur?' The most simple answers are: over a difference of interests, and via the collective use of coercion by one group against another. Studies of human conflict thus must (implicitly or explicitly) address two issues: (1) what interests divide groups of people and (2) are both groups willing to mobilize to defend/press their claims? To those familiar with the literature circa the 1970s it will be apparent that I am strongly influenced by the work of both Ted Robert Gurr (who emphasized conflict of interest) and Charles Tilly (who emphasized collective action). This position is valuable because of its claim to generality: quiescence induced by repression can be explained, as can harmony (if it exists), as well as the full range of observed dissident ,¼. state coercion between those two poles. I am unaware of alternative theoretical first principles that can also account for the full scope of human political conflict. When we focus our attention on a subset of mobilized conflict, such as ethnic conflict, we draw attention away from the full range of human political conflict, and that is more likely to be counterproductive than productive. Is it necessarily harmful to argue that there is a subset of human conflict that is mobilized over an ethnic cleavage? I argue that it is unless we explicitly note that we are
Abstract Participation in organized violent collective action against a government carries signif... more Abstract Participation in organized violent collective action against a government carries significant penalties should one be apprehended. Further, because such actions generally pursue collective goods, the participants will receive that good (if the action is successful) regardless of whether they participate. The free-rider hypothesis suggests that rational people will forego partici pation in large" N" collective action, unless they receive side payments of some kind. Yet, large numbers of people have periodically engaged in the ...
ABSTRACT Why would people abandon their homes in favor of an uncertain life elsewhere? The short ... more ABSTRACT Why would people abandon their homes in favor of an uncertain life elsewhere? The short answer, of course, is violence. More specifically, the authors contend that people monitor the violent behavior of both the government and dissidents and assess the threat such behavior poses to their lives, physical person, and liberty. The greater the threat posed by the behavior of the government and dissidents, the larger the number of forced migrants a country will produce. To test hypotheses drawn from this argument the authors use a global sample of countries over more than forty years. Their findings are held to be consistent with their argument, showing that violent behavior has a substantially larger impact on forced migration than variables such as the type of political institution or the average size of the economy.
''Information politics'&am... more ''Information politics''INGOs such as Amnesty International have incentives to maintain their credibility by carefully vetting information about rights abuses committed by governments. But they are also strategic actors that may inflate allegations of abuse to fulfill organizational imperatives. This raises an intriguing question: When are INGOs more likely to exaggerate their allegations? In answer to this question, we argue that news media reporting pressures INGOs to comment for organizational reasons, even if the information available to them is ...
This essay makes a provocative case against the study of 'ethnic conflict' as a special subset of... more This essay makes a provocative case against the study of 'ethnic conflict' as a special subset of political conflict. It pushes against the 'silo-ing' of conflict studies that exists in which 'specialists' study 'civil war', 'counter-insurgency', 'ethnic conflict', 'terrorism', etc. It calls for theories and hypothesis tests drawn from frameworks of political conflict that can explain everything from quiescence that is seen in contemporary Syria. My reaction to the study of 'ethnic' conflict 1 is that it is generally a bad idea. That is, I am concerned that despite the widespread recognition that ethnic identity is socially constructed , our continued use of the concept belies an essentialist approach that is ultimately counterproductive. Put plainly, by studying ethnic conflict as a 'thing apart' we will obscure more than we will illuminate. Why? Let us begin generally and ask: 'Why and how does political conflict among humans occur?' The most simple answers are: over a difference of interests, and via the collective use of coercion by one group against another. Studies of human conflict thus must (implicitly or explicitly) address two issues: (1) what interests divide groups of people and (2) are both groups willing to mobilize to defend/press their claims? To those familiar with the literature circa the 1970s it will be apparent that I am strongly influenced by the work of both Ted Robert Gurr (who emphasized conflict of interest) and Charles Tilly (who emphasized collective action). This position is valuable because of its claim to generality: quiescence induced by repression can be explained, as can harmony (if it exists), as well as the full range of observed dissident ,¼. state coercion between those two poles. I am unaware of alternative theoretical first principles that can also account for the full scope of human political conflict. When we focus our attention on a subset of mobilized conflict, such as ethnic conflict, we draw attention away from the full range of human political conflict, and that is more likely to be counterproductive than productive. Is it necessarily harmful to argue that there is a subset of human conflict that is mobilized over an ethnic cleavage? I argue that it is unless we explicitly note that we are
Abstract Participation in organized violent collective action against a government carries signif... more Abstract Participation in organized violent collective action against a government carries significant penalties should one be apprehended. Further, because such actions generally pursue collective goods, the participants will receive that good (if the action is successful) regardless of whether they participate. The free-rider hypothesis suggests that rational people will forego partici pation in large" N" collective action, unless they receive side payments of some kind. Yet, large numbers of people have periodically engaged in the ...
ABSTRACT Why would people abandon their homes in favor of an uncertain life elsewhere? The short ... more ABSTRACT Why would people abandon their homes in favor of an uncertain life elsewhere? The short answer, of course, is violence. More specifically, the authors contend that people monitor the violent behavior of both the government and dissidents and assess the threat such behavior poses to their lives, physical person, and liberty. The greater the threat posed by the behavior of the government and dissidents, the larger the number of forced migrants a country will produce. To test hypotheses drawn from this argument the authors use a global sample of countries over more than forty years. Their findings are held to be consistent with their argument, showing that violent behavior has a substantially larger impact on forced migration than variables such as the type of political institution or the average size of the economy.
''Information politics'&am... more ''Information politics''INGOs such as Amnesty International have incentives to maintain their credibility by carefully vetting information about rights abuses committed by governments. But they are also strategic actors that may inflate allegations of abuse to fulfill organizational imperatives. This raises an intriguing question: When are INGOs more likely to exaggerate their allegations? In answer to this question, we argue that news media reporting pressures INGOs to comment for organizational reasons, even if the information available to them is ...
Uploads
Papers by Will H Moore