Identity Matters

Fulbright's 2002-2003 New Century Scholars program brought together social scientists from around the world whose work "addresses[ed] sectarian, ethnic and cultural conflict within and across national borders." Several of us agreed that group identity lies at the root of ethnic and sectarian violence. We spent a year in intense discussion of parallel research projects. This book is the result. It describes the processes, which lead to ethnic and sectarian violence, and reveals how alternative paths through intergroup tension can be made apparent by understanding the patterns of behavior used by groups worldwide to maintain their identities and by appreciating the unique identity of each group involved in a conflict, that is, what it holds sacred and what seems inalienable from it.