International Symposium
"Ethnic Division of Polity and Society in Post-Civil War and Under-Conflict Nations: Cyprus, Lebanon, Former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Israel/Palestine"
Schedule
Date: Sunday, January 28, 2007.
Place: Tokyo Green Palace, Nibancho 2, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0084
http://www.tokyogp.com/english/index.html
Admission free/ No registration required/ Simultaneous Interpretation provided
Please read the Website of Human Security Studies too.
Program:
10:00- Doors Open
10:30-10:45 Hidemitsu Kuroki (Professor, ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies): Welcome Remarks and Preamble
1. Session of Cyprus and Lebanon
Chair: Makoto Kobayashi (Professor, Yokohama City University)
10:45-11:15 Andreas Theophanous (Professor, Intercollege, Cyprus)
"Revisiting the Cyprus Question: The Challenge and the Promise"
11:15-11:30 Discussion
11:30-12:00 Lokman Slim (Director, Umam Documentation and Research, Lebanon)
"Lebanon: failure of a "common task"?"
12:00-12:15 Discussion
12:15-13:30 Lunch Break & Coffee Break
2. Session of Former Yugoslavia
Chair: Yuji Ishida (Professor, University of Tokyo)
13:30-14:00 Tetsuya Sahara (Associate Professor, Meiji University)
"Yugoslav wars of succession: chaotic nationalism or nationalization of chaos?"
14:00-14:30 Hidajet Repovac (Professor, Sarajevo University, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
"Ethnic Conflicts on the Balkans - Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina"
14:30-14:50 Discussion
14:50-15:05 Coffee Break
3. Session of Iraq and Israel/Palestine
Chair: Keiko Sakai (Professor, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
15:05-15:35 Ghanem Jawad (Al-Khoei Foundation, United Kingdom)
"The Structure of Iraqi Shias"
15:35-15:50 Discussion
15:50-16:20 Ahmad Sa'di (Professor, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)
"Advocating "Transfer" : The Liberman Epiphenomenon"
16:20-16:35 Discussion
16:35-16:50 Coffee Break
4. Session of Comments and Discussion
Chair: Jun Furuya (Professor, Hokkaido University)
16:50-17:20 Comment1: Hala Fattah (Former Director, American Academic Research Institute in Iraq, Jordan)
17:20-17:40 Comment2: Taro Tsukimura (Professor, Kobe University)
17:40-18:00 Comment3: Hiroyuki Tosa (Professor, Kobe University)
18:00-18:30 Discussion
18:30-20:30 Reception
Preamble:
Ethnic partition of state is a formula commonly applied to settle ethnic/ sectarian conflicts and civil wars. Even though the state is downsized as a result and its former national economy is fragmented into less efficient sub-national pieces, partition is often chosen as a solution with regret and resignation, on the justification that there is no other way to resolve the violent confrontation.
The Middle East and the Balkans are warehouses of ethnic conflict and divided states. In 1974, after two decades of violent confrontation between the Greeks and the Turks in Cyprus, a border was created to divide the island between the south and the north. This separation still continues today, despite local movements for reunification. In 1975, the civil war in Lebanon erupted as a result of sectarian antagonism and the Palestine Question. At the beginning of the fifteen-year civil war, the Lebanese feared their nation would follow in the footsteps of Cyprus. The small country’s dissolution into even smaller cantons created the term "Lebanonization," which was applied to the situation in Yugoslavia after 1991. Here, ten years of conflict and bloodshed dissolved the multi-ethnic country into five republics. Most recently, the sixth state of Montenegro was peacefully separated from Serbia in June this year. Now Iraq is on the verge of devastating civil war and is said to be in the process of "Lebanonization": the Kurdish north, the Sunnite center, and the Shiite south. In Israel/Palestine, extensive concrete walls are ghettoing the Palestinians into cage-like areas. Avigdor Lieberman, the vice-prime minister of Israel, now openly insists that Israel follow the "Cyprus Model," suggesting the possibility of expelling the Arab-Israeli population beyond the walls from inside Israel.
Ethnic partition of state causes ethnic division of society, and vice versa. During the civil wars of the Middle East and Balkan countries, polarization of residential areas along ethnic lines, population exchange, forced displacement, and "ethnic cleansing" occurred.
Here we raise questions. How are the multi-ethnic system and pluralism of the pre-partition states evaluated among divided societies? How were memories of pre-civil war co-existence transformed through these ethnic conflicts? Was ethnic division inevitable? How did exterior powers, including the super powers, intervene in the conflicts and exert their influence in the formation of the post-civil war framework? Do we see the shadow of colonialism in this process?
At this symposium we will discuss the above points from the perspectives of the respective countries and will explore the potential "local wisdom" applicable to establishing democracy in multi-ethnic societies.
Contact:
Office of the Human Security Studies
e-mail: murakami@aa.tufs.ac.jp
Organizers:
* "Advanced Studies for Building Peace" Project (supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, coordinator: Hidemitsu Kuroki(ILCAA))
*The Research and Educational Project for Middle East and Islamic Studies at TUFS
With the Cooperation of:
*NIHU Program: Islamic Area Studies -Unit of the University of Tokyo
*Comparative Studies on Transnational socio-political movements in contemporary Asia and Africa（Grand-in-Aid for Scientific Research(A), JSPS: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies）
