Is Partition The Answer To Civil Unrest

Is Partition the answer to civil unrest?

Index

1. Introduction For many centuries civilizations and cultures have been at war over ideological ideas, religious beliefs, land and scarcity of resources. The following essay serves to illustrate the recent belief that a forced and controlled separation of the two or more groups which are at war with each other can alleviate the chances of violent conflict. The essay will also assess whether measures such as partition are a viable alternative to co-existence and diplomatic discussions. The study will be based on C.D Kaufmann’s work entitled, ‘Possible and impossible solutions to ethnic civil wars’, published in International Security in 1996.

Although horror stories can instantly come to mind over South Africa’s partition legislations during the Apartheid era, the following paper will be based on purely academic insight, aiming to give an unbiased appraisal of work that has been conducted in recent years on partition in areas of the world, which have had huge cultural and religious differences. Such areas that will be considered will be the Irish divisions and the Indian partition.

Lastly an assessment of Kaufmann’s work will be analysed throughout the piece to allow for a benchmark assessment on partition as a tool of