Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hicks, Barbara

Area of Concentration

Political Science and International and Area Studies

Abstract

One of the most significant trends in modern political history is the reduced prevalence of traditional interstate wars and concurrent spike in the number and intensity of non-international armed conflicts (NIACs). In particular, NIACs based in a contestation of identity between the state and its constituent national communities pose an important question to academics and policymakers: how can top-down institutional reforms reconcile group differences in order to forge a stronger, more unified state identity and reduce the potential for violent conflict? This paper posits that differences in the underlying causes – termed “proximate identity crises” – of such conflicts influence the efficacy of commonly utilized institutional power-sharing arrangements – i.e. autonomy, consociationalism, and centripetalism – in reconciling opposing national and state identities. Using a mixedmethod analysis of eight case studies of identity-driven NIAC. this study explores the relationship between sources of identity dissonance – i.e. tension between national and state identities – and the institutional reforms believed to resolve such dissonance. The results of this study suggest differentiated institutional effects over the range of proximate identity crises, leading to preliminary conclusions as to the conditions under which each institutional change is most successful in reconciling identity dissonance and reducing violence.

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