The Foundations of Ethnic Politics: Separatism of States and Nations in Eurasia and the World [Paperback]

Hale examines separatism in the USSR and CIS through a new psychological understanding of ethnic identity.Hale argues that ethnic identity is a cognitive uncertainty-reduction device with special capacity to exacerbate, but not cause, collective action problems. He applies this concept to illuminate separatism in the USSR and CIS, ultimately advancing a significant reinterpretation of nationalisms role in the USSRs breakup.Hale argues that ethnic identity is a cognitive uncertainty-reduction device with special capacity to exacerbate, but not cause, collective action problems. He applies this concept to illuminate separatism in the USSR and CIS, ultimately advancing a significant reinterpretation of nationalisms role in the USSRs breakup.Despite implicating ethnicity in everything from civil war to economic failure, researchers seldom consult psychological research when addressing the most basic question: What is ethnicity? The result is a radical scholarly divide generating contradictory recommendations for solving ethnic conflict. Research into how the human brain actually works demands a revision of existing schools of thought. At its foundation, ethnic identity is a cognitive uncertainty-reduction device with special capacity to exacerbate, but not cause, collective action problems. This produces a new general theory of ethnic conflict that can improve both understanding and practice. A deep study of separatism in the USSR and CIS demonstrates the theorys potential, mobilizing evidence from elite interviews, three local languages, and mass surveys. The outcome is a significant reinterpretation of nationalisms role in the USSRs breakup, which turns out to have been a far more contingent event than commonly recognized. International relations in the CIS are similarly cast in new light.Acknowledgements; Note on transliteration; 1. Introduction; Part I. Theory with Worldwide Examples: 2. The need for a microfoundational theory of ethnicity; 3. A relational thl£'