ABSTRACT
Great Powers as a collective do little in normal times to tackle problems of ethnic minorities in small states, whether in Europe or globally. For they have a predisposition to adhere to Westphalian norms that forbid intervention in the internal affairs of other states and they are particularly so inclined if the minorities concerned have no direct connection with any Great Power. From time to time, however, relations among the Great Powers undergo upheavals - usually as a result of wars. Then we have come to expect to see international conferences of the Great Powers that suspend the usual Westphalian rules and impose on many smaller powers great changes, whether wanted or unwanted by the populations affected. Then, as Chancellor Otto von Bismarck put it, it is a case of ‘when the eagles agree the sparrows must be silent’. With much ruthlessness new states may be created; boundaries may be altered; and populations may be moved. Such upheavals in modern times occurred, for example, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 following the Napoleonic Wars; at the Congress of Paris of 1856 following the Crimean War; at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 following the Russo-Turkish War; at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and various continuation meetings following the First World War; in 1940-1941 after the victory of Germany and Italy over France and its continental European allies; at the Conferences at Yalta and Potsdam in 1945 following the Second World War; and, to a lesser extent, in the changes that followed the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, culminating in the fragmentation of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Sometimes on these seminal occasions ‘national self-determination’ is taken into account and sometimes arrangements for ‘multicultural harmony’ are in the forefront of the thinking of the leading statesman of the day. But considerations of 'Realpolitik' frequently predominate and then a capricious approach to the needs and wishes of ethnic minorities may result. And of course a meeting of Great Powers may have an outcome that has mixed implications from this perspective.
