ABSTRACT
After decades of statistical studies on interstate wars, 1 political scientists more recently have turned to the question of civil wars. A spate of high-profile internal conflicts during the 1990s—including those in Bosnia and Rwanda—led some scholars to narrow their focus still further to ethnic civil wars. 2 In this context, a sharp debate has arisen over the prospects for resolving violent ethnic conflicts through negotiated, power-sharing settlements. In particular, two prominent articles reach opposing conclusions. Chaim Kaufmann adduces statistics to support his contention that ethnic (in contrast to ideological) civil wars are virtually impossible to resolve through such power-sharing settlements and can be resolved only by physical separation of the opposing ethnic groups into politically autonomous, ethnically homogenous zones. 3 A subsequent statistical study by David Mason and Patrick Fett, however, finds that ethnic conflicts are no more difficult to resolve through negotiated settlements than other civil wars. 4
