Specialist Group on Ethnic Politics
Newsletter Winter 2001/2002

Dear Members,

In case you haven’t noticed the second issue of ‘The Global Review of Ethnopolitics’ is now out at www.ethnopolitics.org.  It features articles by Andrew Finlay on Protestant identity in Northern Ireland , Julie Mertus on the human rights culture in Kosovo, Rossen Vassilev on post-communist ethnopolitics in Bulgaria, and Chris O’Sullivan on the news media and conflict resolution.  There are also review essays by Camille O’Reilly and Stephen Hopkins, and a website review by Ailsa Henderson.  Last, and by no means least, Chris Gilligan, our reviews editor has selected the latest publications in the field for consideration and illumination. Once again, we hope you enjoy the over 100 pages of high-quality content, and remember, like all our ‘services’, it’s absolutely FREE. We are also sure that you will be pleased to learn that the last issue was accessed by over 9,000 different individuals. 

Once again if anyone has anything they would like to contribute to the journal in general or to our intended special issues on the politics of ethnicity in Central Asia and the theoretical debates on ethnic conflict, please send your proposals to k.cordell@plymouth.ac.uk; and s.wolff@bath.ac.uk). Similarly, if anyone else has any ideas for special issues please step forward.

Also on the publishing front, as stated on the research group’s website, we are actively seeking to publish full length Occasional Papers.  Of all our ventures this is the only one that has so far proven to be a little difficult to realise.  If any of you are working on a substantive piece that you would prefer to be published as an individual item, once again let us know. As we mentioned in the previous Newsletter, work on the ethnopolitical encyclopaedia of Europe is progressing well.  If any contributors reading this did not recently receive an e-mail from us concerning publishing schedules can they please get in touch.  We also recently secured a contract from Routledge to produce a co-authored volume on German policy toward the Czech Republic and Poland since 1990.

On the conference front, we have once again submitted a proposal to APSA.  However, whereas Aberdeen has many delights, it’s a long way from Bath and especially Plymouth, so neither of us have submitted a proposal.  On the other hand, if the more intrepid among you wish to organise something under the auspices of the research group, then please get in touch and we’ll help out. We are also pleased to announce that between 12-15 September, we are organising a conference entitled: Forced Migration and Displacement: Causes, Consequences and Responses. With the support of the PSA we have managed to secure the participation of Professor Alan J. Kuperman of the Center for International Studies, University of Southern California.  Professor Kuperman is one of the leading young scholars in the field and has published widely on the issue of humanitarian intervention and its limits. His latest publication on this issue, The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention: Genocide in Rwanda (Brookings Institution Press, 2001) has been one of the most highly acclaimed books on this subject.  In addition, he has contributed to publications as diverse as Foreign Affairs, Political Science Quarterly, SAIS Review, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.

Once again, thanks for your support.  Enjoy the journal and keep us informed. The next issue of the newsletter will appear in the spring. In the meantime, we hope the following (strictly in alphabetical order) will prove to be of interest to our many readers:

NCPR announce the first edition of "News Notes" - an electronic version of their newsletter, "The Peacemaker". The January 2002 edition of News Notes highlights two of NCPCR's current projects the Practitioners Scholars Writing Project and the Sonoran Borderlands Peacebuilding Initiative. For further information contact Sean Byrne at sjbyrne@NOVA.EDU

John J. Kulczycki of the University of Chicago has just published "The National Identity of the 'Natives' of Poland's 'Recovered Lands,'" in National Identities, Vol. 3, No. 3 (2001), 205-219.

The Network Scholarship Programs (NSP) Department of the Open Society Institute is pleased to offer supplementary grants to students from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Yugoslavia. The purpose of the program is to enable qualified students to pursue doctoral studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at accredited universities in Western Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. For further information, please visit the NSP web site at http://www.soros.org/scholar. You may also contact NSP at: Open Society Institute, 400 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019, Tel: 1-212-548-0175, Fax: 1-212-548-4652, Email: scholar@sorosny.org.

John Rex of the University of Warwick has asked us to forward details of an ESRC-sponsored conference on "The Governance of Multicultural Societies" from February 7th to 10th.  If any one wants to come they should contact John Rex at Johnrex@clara.net or by phone at 02476 523969(office) or 01926 425781(home). Fees are £400 for three nights in residence or £100 as a day participant. The preliminary programme can be accessed at http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/CRER_RC/events/govconf.

Best wishes,

Karl & Stefan