Introduction

Past geography of ethnicity and race is becoming complex and globalized, as the movement of capital and labor has internationalized all regions, transcending national boundaries (Omi & Winant, 1994). Lazarus (1999), for example, maintained: “The singularity of capitalism as an historical formation consists precisely in this relentless and almost irresistible tendency toward universalization” (p. 16). Yet ethnicity provides a powerful cultural basis for group solidarity and national identity, both of which people struggle to preserve across the globe. As the 20th century comes to a close, ethnic civil and national liberation wars have intensified worldwide, most recently in Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, Rwanda, Burundi, Indonesia, Sudan, Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Kashmir, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. It is no wonder that policy makers and journalists often ascribe the driving forces behind these wars to deep-seated ethnic conflicts, although more complex accounts of such conflicts must take into account the structural, political, and economic factors that intersect with intense ethnic conflicts (Brown, 1997).