ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at religious minorities that share the same language with the majority and differs just in terms of religion. The concept of a nation and a nation state, with which the religious minorities interact politically, also means different things in different social contexts. There is no unanimity among scholars on the definition of minorities, and the problem is even more acute with respect to religious minorities. The revival of identity issues in security at the end of the Cold War raised the problem whether these should be regarded as "new" or "old" problems in security studies. The debate in all international fora stumbled on the fact that if one state accepts a given definition, others would reject it as dangerous for their territorial integrity and security. The implications of communal conflict for international security reflect, among others, the uneven evolution of nation states in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean.
