1 - Introduction

Summary

Tamils, Acehnese, Moros, Tibetans, Abkhazians, and Basques seek more power and control over their territorial homeland. Over time, some groups have gained new institutions and financial resources while others remain embroiled in episodes of violent conflict. All of these groups are territorially concentrated and seek self-determination. As a result, these nationalist conflicts strike at the core of a state’s identity, its boundaries and its unity. They pose deep challenges to a state’s territorial integrity.

The deep divide between nationalists and the state often appears unbridgeable. The gap separating the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lankan state and Tamils, for example, appears just as wide even after the Tamil Tigers’ defeat. Papuans in Indonesia feel marginalized and excluded while migrants threaten to outnumber them in their claimed homeland. Civil war in Sudan ended with the creation of a new state of South Sudan, but it caused thousands of deaths and vast destruction while laying the basis for new territorial claims.