Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T15:33:04.735Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ties Versus Institutions: Revisiting Foreign Interventions and Secessionist Movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2007

Stephen M. Saideman
Stephen M. Saideman
Affiliation:
McGill University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Abstract. This article is a response to one published by Louis Bélanger, Érick Duchesne and Jonathan Paquin challenging existing accounts for the patterns of external support for secessionist movements. They assert that regime type—democracy—provides a better explanation than either vulnerability or ethnic ties. I take issue with their operationalization of my arguments along with other aspects of their work. Here, I replicate their study first using their data and importing my variable measuring not just ethnic affinity with the secessionists but the possibilities of a country having ties with either or both sides of an ethnic conflict. Then, using my data, I again replicate their analyses. I find that ethnic ties, properly measured, not only better accounts for the international relations of secession but of ethnic conflict in general.

Résumé. Ce texte est une réplique à l'article de Louis Bélanger, Érick Duchesne et Jonathan Paquin, qui conteste les explications usuelles des variations dans l'appui international aux mouvements sécessionnistes. Selon eux, plus que la vulnérabilité ou les liens ethniques, c'est le type de régime – soit la démocratie – qui explique mieux le phénomène. Je remets en question leur façon d'opérationnaliser mes arguments, ainsi que plusieurs autres aspects de leur recherche. Afin de tester leurs résultats, je reproduis d'abord leur étude en utilisant leurs données et en y ajoutant ma variable qui mesure non seulement les affinités ethniques avec les sécessionnistes, mais également l'éventualité qu'un pays entretienne des relations avec l'un ou l'autre des protagonistes d'un conflit ethnique. Puis, je reprends leur analyse en utilisant mes propres données. Il en ressort que, lorsqu'elle est mesurée correctement, la variable des liens ethniques fournit une meilleure compréhension non seulement des relations internationales du phénomène de sécession, mais également des conflits ethniques en général.

Type
DEBATE/DISCUSSION
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 733 - 747
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akbaba, Yasemin, Patrick James and Zeynep Taydas. Forthcoming. “The ‘Chicken or the Egg’? External Support and Rebellion in Ethnopolitics.” In Dilemmas of Insecurity: Deterrence, Assurance, and the Role of the State in the Prevention and Resolution of Internal Conflict, ed. Stephen M. Saideman and Marie-Joëlle Zahar.
Bélanger, Louis, Érick Duchesne and Jonathan Paquin. 2005. “Foreign Interventions and Secessionist Movements: The Democratic Factor.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 38: 435–462.Google Scholar
Bremer, Stuart A. 1992. “Dangerous Dyads: Conditions Affecting the Likelihood of Interstate War, 1816–1965.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 36: 309–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carment, David, Patrick James and Zeynep Taydas. Forthcoming. “The Internationalization of Ethnic Conflict: State, Society and Synthesis.” International Studies Review.
Carment, David, Patrick James and Zeynep Taydas. 2006. Who Intervenes? Ethnic Conflict and Interstate Crisis. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca and Francesco Cavalli-Sforza. 1995. The Great Human Diaspora: The History of Diversity and Evolution, trans. Sarah Thorne. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Fox, Jonathan J. 2001. “Religious Causes of International Intervention in Ethnic Conflicts.” International Politics 38: 515–532.Google Scholar
Garn, Stanley. 1962. Human Races. Rev. 2nd edition. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Grimes, Barbara F. and Joseph E. Grimes. 2000. Ethnologue. Dallas: SIL International.
Heraclides, Alexis. 1991. The Self-Determination of Minorities in International Politics. London: Frank Cass.
Herbst, Jeffrey. 1989. “The Creation and Maintenance of National Boundaries in Africa.” International Organization 43: 673–692.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald L. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Jackson, Robert H. and Carl G. Rosberg. 1982. “Why Africa's Weak States Persist: The Empirical and the Juridical in Statehood.” World Politics 35: 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Charles and Neil J. Melvin. 1999. “Diaspora Politics: Ethnic Linkages, Foreign Policy, and Security in Eurasia.” International Security 24: 108–38.Google Scholar
King, Gary and Langche Zeng. 2001a. “Logistic Regression in Rare Events Data.” Political Analysis 9: 137–163Google Scholar
King, Gary and Langche Zeng. 2001b. “Explaining Rare Events in International Relations.” International Organization 55: 693–715Google Scholar
King, Gary, Michael Tomz and Jason Wittenberg. 2000. “Making the Most of Statistical Analyses: Improving Interpretation and Presentation.” American Journal of Political Science 44: 347–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewontin, Richard. 1982. Human Diversity. New York: Scientific American Library.
Osborne, Richard H. 1971. The Biological and Social Meaning of Race. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.
Saideman, Stephen M. 1997. “Explaining the International Relations of Secessionist Conflicts: Vulnerability vs. Ethnic Ties.” International Organization 51: 721–753.Google Scholar
Saideman, Stephen M. 2001a. The Ties That Divide: Ethnic Politics, Foreign Policy, and International Conflict. New York: Columbia University Press.
Saideman, Stephen M. 2001b. “Is Everything Relative? A Dyadic Analysis of the International Relations of Ethnic Conflict.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Chicago.
Saideman, Stephen M. 2002. “Discrimination in International Relations: Examining Why Some Ethnic Groups Receive More External Support than Others.” Journal of Peace Research 39: 27–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saideman, Stephen M. 2003. “Taking Sides: Dyadic Analyses of Involvement in Other People's Ethnic Conflicts.” Paper presented at workshop on Globalization and Self-Determination, Pomona, CA.
Saideman, Stephen M. and Erin K. Jenne. Forthcoming. “The International Relations of Ethnic Conflict.” In Handbook of War Studies III, ed. Manus Midlarsky.
Shain, Yossi. 1999. Marketing the American Creed Abroad: Diasporas in the U.S. and Their Homelands. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Shain, Yossi and Aharon Barth. 2003. “Diasporas and International Relations Theory.” International Organization 57: 449–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomz, Michael, Jason Wittenberg and Gary King. 2001. “CLARIFY: Software for interpreting and presenting statistical results. Version 1.2.2.” Cambridge: Harvard University.
Touval, Saadia. 1972. The Boundary Politics of Independent Africa. Cambridge: Harvard University.