ABSTRACT
Should ethnonationalist wars be resolved by formally partitioning states? The answer cannot be decided on a case by case basis, because two incentive problems cause ad hoc partitions to have effects that extend beyond the specific case for which the ad hoc partition was tailored. First, if some level of violence is the implicit criterion for major-power intervention in support of partition, then this encourages the use of violence by movements seeking to mobilize cultural difference to claim statehood. The Wilsonian diagnosis is wrong. Perpetual civil peace cannot be achieved by properly sorting "true" nations into states. Nations are not born but made, partly in response to international incentives and major power policies.
