Early Intervention & Power Sharing

Can They Ward Off Violent Ethnic Conflict?

thnic conflict has erupted around the globe with stunning violence in recent years. Is it possible that early intervention by the international community to promote power sharing could prevent such violence from occurring? Timothy Sisk, program officer in the U.S. Institute of Peace's Grant Program, explores this question in his recent book, Power Sharing and International Mediation in Ethnic Conflicts, co-published in July by the Institute's press and the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict.

Sisk discussed his book as a panelist at a July 15 current issues briefing on "Preventing and Managing Deadly Conflict" hosted by the Institute and the commission. Other panelists included U.S. Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, David A. Hamburg, co-chairman of the commission, and Jane E. Holl, commission executive director. Institute president Richard H. Solomon moderated the discussion.

Sisk defined power sharing as practices and institutions that result in broad-based governing coalitions that are generally inclusive of all major ethnic groups. Main approaches to power sharing include grand coalition governments of national unity, autonomy, federalism, and proportional electoral systems.

Sisk offered the following guidance to policymakers considering possible power-sharing arrangements.

Power-sharing arrangements should be flexible, lest they break down under pressures like those that afflicted the Lebanese National Pact in 1976.

They should incorporate a strong core of moderates who can sustain them, or they may succumb to extremists as did Rwanda's 1993 Arusha Agreement.

They should be based primarily on the political will of the parties in conflict and not be the result of excessively heavy pressures from outside, a possible drawback of the Dayton Agreement on Bosnia.

They should be transitional and not permanent, transformed in time to a more majoritarian form of democracy, like South Africa's most recent experience in constitution-making.

Sisk's book features case studies of international efforts to mediate ethnic or religious conflicts in Angola, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Cyprus, Liberia, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and other countries.

Power Sharing and International Mediation in Ethnic Conflicts is available from the Institute's press ($7.95, 1-878379-56-9). For order information, call 1-800-868-8064 or fax 703-661-1501. © 1996 United States Institute of Peace