What's All the Shouting about? 1

Not long ago it was fashionable to argue that modernization would reduce, if not eliminate, ethnic hatred. ² Instead, nationalism appears stronger than ever, and ethnic conflict remains a major global issue. The study of ethnic conflict as a distinct field from nationalism itself is only about twenty years old, gaining wide attention mainly in the last ten. ³ It has grown up primarily in response to the decline over the last half century in the number of interstate wars and the simultaneous rise in the number of internal wars, especially ethnic and religious wars. ⁴