Geographical, Historical and Political Conditions of Ongoing and Potential Ethnic Conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe
Barwiński Marek ()
Additional contact information
Barwiński Marek: University of Lodz, Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Department of Political and Historical Geography and Regional Studies, ul. Narutowicza 88, 90-139Łódź, Poland
European Spatial Research and Policy, 2019, vol. 26, issue 1, 149-173
Abstract:
For centuries Central and Eastern Europe has been the scene of frequent changes of borders and numerous ethnic conflicts. Contemporary ethnic diversity of this region is much smaller, however, the growing nationalisms of the various societies, mutual mistrust, and the temptation of politicians to use ethnic issues in the regional geopolitical competition pose a real threat to the stability and peace in Central and Eastern Europe. The dynamic political, legal, social and economic changes which have been taking place in this part of Europe for three decades now, which overlay its clear civilization division into the Latin and the Byzantine parts and are intensified by historical animosities, must have had an impact on the situation and the perception of minorities. In contrast to Western Europe, the contemporary ethnic diversity of Central and Eastern Europe is primary the consequence of various, often centuries-old historical processes (settlement actions, voluntary and forced migrations, border changes, the political and economic expansion of particular countries), and in the ethnic structure especially dominate the indigenous groups, migrants, particularly from the outside of the European cultural circle, are of marginal importance. Moreover, national minorities are usually concentrated in the border regions of countries, often in close proximity to their home countries, becoming – often against their will – element of the internal and foreign policies of neighbouring countries.
Keywords: national minority; ethnic minority; border region; separatism; ethnic conflicts; international relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.18778/1231-1952.26.1.08 (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:eusprp:v:26:y:2019:i:1:p:149-173:n:8
DOI: 10.18778/1231-1952.26.1.08
Access Statistics for this article
European Spatial Research and Policy is currently edited by Tadeusz Marszał
More articles in European Spatial Research and Policy from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().