This article is aimed at developing our understanding of ethnic conflict and war which is needed to be able to build new theories about resolving these conflicts what is up until now barely covered...Show moreThis article is aimed at developing our understanding of ethnic conflict and war which is needed to be able to build new theories about resolving these conflicts what is up until now barely covered within the literature. This is executed by testing the theory of Tang, Xiong and Li about the ethnogeographical location of the oil. This theory states that when the oil is located within the core territory of a subordinate minority group it has a positive effect on the onset and escalation of an ethnic conflict. By performing case studies on conflicts between the Kurds and the Iraq state and Cabinda and Angola we found this theory to be true. There is also found that each case has a high degree of specificity which makes it very difficult to establish a universal model to accommodate ethnical conflicts caused by the ethnogeographical location of the oil. It is therefore logical to suggest further research which aims at establishing a framework for resolving ethnical conflict to perform a case study and develop a case specific solution while attempts of establishing a universal one are likely to fail.Show less
Advanced master thesis | Political Science (Advanced Master)
open access
The main focus of this thesis lies in re-examining the impact of territoriality on the conduct of international relations in the context of separatism of exclaves. The enclaves were selected...Show moreThe main focus of this thesis lies in re-examining the impact of territoriality on the conduct of international relations in the context of separatism of exclaves. The enclaves were selected because of their specific territorial character, being separated from their mother state by a territory of another state entity. Our initial hypothesis stating that the demands of independence are formed by coexistence of both territorial and historical factor has been demonstrated on the cases of Cabinda and Oecussi. Using the qualitative comparative analysis, we have justified the selection of variables and conducted a cross-case study that confirmed our hypothesis. According to our findings, the historical background has a more important role in the creation of separatist tendencies than territory, while this has only a modifying effect on the initial preconditions. In the discussion we contrasted this result with the opportunity and willingness model and concluded that causal logic that applies to the interstate conflict does not adequately describe the situation of exclave’s separatism and therefore a further research into this area is needed.Show less
