ABSTRACT
Ethnic conflicts as “protracted conflicts” are not only conflicts between competing interests, but are also identity-driven. This means there is an underlying “fear of extinction”, fueled often by memories of century-old massacres and other horrible events in the history of mutual relations. Identity and interest are analytical categories, i.e. scientific tools for a better understanding of contemporary social reality. Both influence each other - indeed, the two factors are merely two strategies to face the world and its complexity. Ethnicity is a structure of relevance for the ethnic group concerned. Ethnic tensions are often expressed in relations of minorities to a majority. Belgium has devised general consociationalism as the predominant political feature, in fact, as its political culture guaranteeing not only the reduction of ethnic and political conflict but the survival of the state. The regions are conceived as sub-states, and their concern should be of general politics centering around economic policy and social welfare.
