Addressing Ethnic Divisions in Post-Conflict Institution-Building: Lessons from Recent Cases

Abstract

Where the lines of an armed conflict coincide with ethnic boundaries, the political salience of ethnicity increases. In post-conflict situations that may seem defined by ‘ancient hatreds’, the political salience and character of ethnic identities remain dynamic. Bringing together con-tributions from the comparative politics literature on power-sharing and the policy-dominated field of post-conflict peacebuilding, this article examines how ethnic divisions have been addressed in recent cases of institution-building directed by international forces following military intervention – in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It finds that an ‘assumption of intransigence ’ has often influenced decisions on institutional design, and that the institutionalization of ethnicity has become an important hindrance to peacebuilding. Against this background, the article argues in favor of institutional designs that do not fixate the accentuation on ethnicity in politics: more flexible ways should be sought to assure inclusivity and repre-sentativeness for different ethnic groups. There exists a wide range of institutional-design options that can be combined, on the basis of in-depth assessments of each individual conflict, to de-ethnicize politics and build sustainable peace