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The state of the field and debates on ethnic cleansing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

H. Zeynep Bulutgil
H. Zeynep Bulutgil*
Affiliation:
Fletcher School, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA Remarque Institute, New York University, New York, NY, USA
*
*Email: zeynep.bulutgil@tufts.edu
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Abstract

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This review article outlines the progress that the literature on the causes of ethnic cleansing has made in the last 10–15 years. The article specifically focuses on two lines of research that have expanded our understanding of ethnic cleansing: (a) the studies that focus on the role of wars (this literature can in turn be divided into those works that treat “wars as strategic environments” and those that treat “wars as transformational forces”); (b) the studies that focus on the pre-war domestic or international conditions that hinder or promote ethnic cleansing. The last section of the article suggests several future avenues of research that could further refine the study of ethnic cleansing and its relationship to other types of mass violence.

Keywords

ethnic cleansingmass violencegenocideethnic conflictexpulsion

Information

Type
Review Essay
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 6: Special Section: The evolution of nationhood in 20th century Europe: Lessons from the Northern Adriatic borderlands , November 2018 , pp. 1136 - 1145
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Footnotes

†

The term “ethnic cleansing” refers to deportations or killings conducted by a state, or a non-state actor that controls territory, that victimize a substantial segment of an ethnic group on the state's or non-state actor's territory (for more detail on this definition, see Bulutgil 2016). According to this definition, “genocide” is a subcategory of ethnic cleansing in which the victimization primarily takes the form of killings rather than deportations. I use the terms “ethnic cleansing” and “mass ethnic violence” interchangeably throughout the article.

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