ABSTRACT
The widely documented tensions in Ireland, the Middle East, and the former Yugoslavia may illustrate some problems that result from social groups being unwillingly forced to coexist. A diverse set of constructs and theories are pulled together to help illuminate the characteristics that differentiate undesired relationships from their more desirable counterparts. The study of undesired relationships is founded on a set of assumptions that may differ from ones scholars often make when studying maintenance of more traditional relationships. Relationships can be unwanted for rational and/or emotional reasons. The rational reasons can be described as interference with personal goals, and the emotional reasons share the common factor of negative effect. For goal interference to make a relationship unwanted, the interference must have a lasting effect over time. External barriers are forces that originate outside the individual and make the person feel constrained to that relationship.
