The case for ethnic cleansing
I did a search and did not find a topic on this article from the latest Foreign Affairs: Us and Them, The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism by Jerry Z. Muller. A summary:
Quote:
Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. But in fact, it corresponds to some enduring propensities of the human spirit, it is galvanized by modernization, and in one form or another, it will drive global politics for generations to come. Once ethnic nationalism has captured the imagination of groups in a multiethnic society, ethnic disaggregation or partition is often the least bad answer.
The most interesting aspect of the article concerns post-WWII large scale ethnic cleansing:
Quote:
Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin all concluded that the expulsion of ethnic Germans from non-German countries was a prerequisite to a stable postwar order. As Churchill put it in a speech to the British parliament in December 1944, "Expulsion is the method which, so far as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble. . . . A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed at the prospect of the disentanglement of population, nor am I alarmed by these large transferences." He cited the Treaty of Lausanne as a precedent, showing how even the leaders of liberal democracies had concluded that only radically illiberal measures would eliminate the causes of ethnonational aspirations and aggression.
Between 1944 and 1945, five million ethnic Germans from the eastern parts of the German Reich fled westward to escape the conquering Red Army, which was energetically raping and massacring its way to Berlin. Then, between 1945 and 1947, the new postliberation regimes in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia expelled another seven million Germans in response to their collaboration with the Nazis. Together, these measures constituted the largest forced population movement in European history, with hundreds of thousands of people dying along the way.
The handful of Jews who survived the war and returned to their homes in eastern Europe met with so much anti-Semitism that most chose to leave for good. About 220,000 of them made their way into the American-occupied zone of Germany, from which most eventually went to Israel or the United States. Jews thus essentially vanished from central and eastern Europe, which had been the center of Jewish life since the sixteenth century.
Millions of refugees from other ethnic groups were also evicted from their homes and resettled after the war. This was due partly to the fact that the borders of the Soviet Union had moved westward, into what had once been Poland, while the borders of Poland also moved westward, into what had once been Germany. To make populations correspond to the new borders, 1.5 million Poles living in areas that were now part of the Soviet Union were deported to Poland, and 500,000 ethnic Ukrainians who had been living in Poland were sent to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Yet another exchange of populations took place between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, with Slovaks transferred out of Hungary and Magyars sent away from Czechoslovakia. A smaller number of Magyars also moved to Hungary from Yugoslavia, with Serbs and Croats moving in the opposite direction.
As a result of this massive process of ethnic unmixing, the ethnonationalist ideal was largely realized: for the most part, each nation in Europe had its own state, and each state was made up almost exclusively of a single ethnic nationality. During the Cold War, the few exceptions to this rule included Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. But these countries' subsequent fate only demonstrated the ongoing vitality of ethnonationalism. After the fall of communism, East and West Germany were unified with remarkable rapidity, Czechoslovakia split peacefully into Czech and Slovak republics, and the Soviet Union broke apart into a variety of different national units. Since then, ethnic Russian minorities in many of the post-Soviet states have gradually immigrated to Russia, Magyars in Romania have moved to Hungary, and the few remaining ethnic Germans in Russia have largely gone to Germany. A million people of Jewish origin from the former Soviet Union have made their way to Israel. Yugoslavia saw the secession of Croatia and Slovenia and then descended into ethnonational wars over Bosnia and Kosovo.
The implication, of course, is that Europe's presently peaceful condition is at least partially the direct result of ethnic cleansing.
Might this be replicated elsewhere in the world and furthermore could it be considered a morally acceptable solution to enduring ethnic strife?
While I would generally agree with Rex, Tom, et. al.
I would have to argue that there are, indeed, cases where ethnic separation (less the horrific 'cleansing') make sense. The population exchange of Greece and Turkey after WWI, although hardly peaceful, has worked out relatively well in the long run. In the nearer term, the separation of Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus - again not peaceful - has resulted in a more peaceful island. (Yes, I know it has the longest running peacekeeping operation in the history of the UN:eek:, but also one of the most peaceful.)
I would also say that aquiescing in the breakup of Yugoslavia was one of the dumber things the West has done at great cost to Serbs, Croats, Bosniacs, and Kosovars in terms of ethnic cleansing. And we are about to compound the problem whenever we get around to trying to make Kosovo's decaratory independence truly de facto.:rolleyes:
Cheers
JohnT
I don't pretend to be a Balkan expert either
but it seems from a reading of history that there was a South Slav nationalism that went beyond a greater Serbia. Similarly, there are those in Iraq who see a united nation and not just 3 major (& several minor) ethnic entities.
As to the question of wheter separation can be effectively managed - Cyprus is th best example I can think of and it was only managed after Turkey invaded. Moreover, it seems to be a case of permanent PKO!:eek: But, perhaps, that is the least bad solution.
Cheers
JohnT
