The constructed nature of ethnopolitics

The range and intensity of ethnic cleavages and conflicts in the less developed countries, industrialized countries, and the former socialist countries in the 1980s and 1990s came as a surprise to most scholars. These events have sparked a host of research which has furthered our understanding of these events and converged on a new understanding of ethnic politics. The paper argues that a scholarly consensus is emerging that ethnic groups and nations are constructed, as is nationalism, ethnic conflict, and its accommodation. Through a broad literature review and a variety of empirical cases, the paper supports the argument that ethnic groups, nations, nationalism, and ethnic conflict are best understood as constructed rather than inherent to world politics or artificially constructed by politicians.