Study reveals roots of ethnic conflict

Scientists have developed a computer model that uses census data to predict outbreaks of ethnic conflict.

Yaneer Bar-Yam is president of New England Complex Systems Institute and co-author of the 2007 study. He tries to understand how ethnic groups interact with a local environment. He told Earth & Sky that it’s the nature of ethnic groups to impose certain cultural behaviors not just on members of their own group, but on the region with which they associate their identity.

And if there are no clear physical boundaries between themselves and other groups in the region, conflicts are inevitable.

Yaneer Bar-Yam: You can look at all of the details of individual events and who’s doing what and who’s responsible for what action. But if you try to look at where the violence is taking place – not just which country, but which local region of the country violence is taking place – it really can be predicted just by the spacial arrangement of people in that area.

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Study reveals roots of ethnic conflict
Earth and Sky