ABSTRACT
Ethnic or ethnicized conflicts may take various forms; this points to the need for some kind of classification. In conflict theory the elaboration of comprehensive typologies are a requisite for advances in understanding contemporary mass violence, in times characterized by the near disappearance of the Clausewitzean warfare type of 'classic' interstate conflicts and the tremendous multiplication of intrastate conflicts. Major wars and mass violence are distinguished from other armed conflicts or massacres by various degrees of medium or high intensity, claiming usually more than an estimated 1,000 victims per annum or as an average during the course of the conflict. Ethnicity as a term is used to describe a variety of forms of mobilization, which ultimately relate to the autonomous existence of specifically ethnic forms of socialization. Preventing terrorism and political violence in general can only be countered by an integrated approach, combining different means.
