Historical animosity alone cannot explain the outbreak of ethnic violence.

Evidence

A history of off-again-on-again slaughter, however, does not itself explain why violence was on again in the late twentieth century. After all, as many pointed out, Serbs, Croats, and Muslims for decades lived very peacefully together in Yugoslavia. Muslims and Hindus did so in India. The many ethnic and religious groups in the Soviet Union coexisted, with a few notable exceptions produced by the Soviet government. Tamils and Sinhalese also lived quietly together on an island often described as a tropical paradise. History did not prevent these relatively peaceful relationships prevailing for substantial periods of time; hence history, by itself, cannot explain the breakdown of peace. Other factors must have intruded in the last decades of the twentieth century. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 720 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Other researchers have demonstrated that, contrary to Allport’s argument, violence does not require a history of animosity at either the group or individual level. Weingast (1997) has shown that social groups can become poised for armed conflict, even when they have a history of good relations and a preference for peace, if political institutions fail to safeguard each group’s interests and mutual trust is undermined. At the individual level, experimental research has shown that organizational factors alone transform ordinary people with no personal pathologies or prior hostility into demons who torture and punish their victims for minor infractions or for no reason at all (e.g., Milgram, 1974; Zimbardo, 2004). Such organizational factors include instructions that permit or legitimize the use of violence, a chain of command that relieves perpetrators of responsibility for their acts, the assignment of anonymous identities to perpetrators, and granting pervasive powers to perpetrators without threat of retaliation or sanctions. Experimental results were validated by the revelations in 2004 of widespread torture, abuse, and humiliation of detainees in Iraqi prisons under the supervision of ordinary young American men and women during the American occupation of Iraq. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 655 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Historical grievances alone cannot explain the timing of ethnic violence’s resurgence — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 720; Antisemitism alone cannot explain or produce genocide. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 455; Group violence can erupt without any prior history of animosity — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 655 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Historical grievances alone cannot explain the timing of ethnic violence’s resurgence #corroborates (0.95) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 720
• Group violence can erupt without any prior history of animosity #complicates (0.82) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 655