ABSTRACT
And I would put the issue in yet another way. Minorities tend to distrust democracy as a legitimized means of oppression. How can this distrust be overcome? And, if it cannot, what can be done to keep the greatest degree of peace and harmony and, if necessary and in the best possible conditions, create new nation-states? Let me remind you that over 50 percent of wars since 1945 have been caused by the creation of new states. Of course, these are enormous issues and my example of Belgium is not going to answer one tenth of them. What it can do, perhaps, is to give food for thought, which will carry some of these themes into the rest of the conference.
