Nationalist review.

AuthorWooster, Martin Morse

From Sarajevo to Sri Lanka, Jerusalem to Djakarta, it seems that much of the world is engaged in a war pitting one ethnic group against its rivals. In fact, a very interesting magazine could be created to report on the different ethnic conflicts around the world, including who is fighting whom; newly rediscovered martyrs, epics, and sagas; reviews of current quarrels; and so forth. The New Republic suggests calling this magazine Modem Hate; a more apt title would be Nationalist Review.

It's hard to say precisely how many of these ethnic struggles are taking place, but the April Current History has a chart (adapted from The New York Times) that is as authoritative as any. It lists 47 countries involved in violent ethnic conflict, including eight in Europe (counting Russia and Cyprus), 10 in the Middle East (including four that used to be part of the Soviet Union), 15 in sub-Saharan Africa, 11 in Asia, and four in Latin America. Current History does not include democracies such as Belgium, Canada, and France, where separatist movements are peaceful and do not generally involve hatred or fascistic principles.

Most of the time, most of us have a hard time figuring out why a particular secessionist movement is resorting to war; in many cases, we have a hard time even finding out where the particular conflict is taking place. There can't be that many eighth-grade geography classes that tell the students where Abkhazia is, much less Chechenya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, or South Ossetia. Two recent reports help to explain the scope and ferocity of nationalism.

In the March Post-Soviet Prospects the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Janusz Bugajski reports that the current warfare in the nations that once made up Yugoslavia has "provided a happy hunting ground for several thousand mercenaries and adventure-seeking volunteers from all comers of the globe." These mercenaries, says Bugajski, have come to Zagreb or Belgrade for a variety of reasons. The Croats seem to have the most hard currency and have hired soldiers from Croat communities in Australia, Germany, Canada, and the United States. Some simply want jobs, others are Catholics wanting to fight Eastern Orthodox soldiers, while still others joined "the hyper-nationalist Party of Rights," a group whose chief purpose appears to be to kill as many Serbs as possible.

The Serbs acquire their mercenaries from such Orthodox Christian countries as Romania, Greece, and Russia. Some...

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