International Change and the Stability of Multiethnic States: Yugoslavia, Lebanon, and Crises of Governance

"[A]n important contribution to scholarship. . . . rigorous and intelligible." —Patrick James, University of Missouri

International Change and the Stability of Multiethnic States contributes to the debate over ethnic conflict and cooperation in multiethnic states destabilized by the changing environment of the post–Cold War era, proposing a new way of viewing and dealing with these problems. Through an analysis of important moments in the history of two prominent multiethnic societies—the former Yugoslavia and Lebanon—in which nonstate actors such as communal groups played important roles in events that determined the fates of both states, Badredine Arfi builds a general theory of how the governance of multiethnic societies is transformed under changing international conditions. His work provides new insights on how policymaking can be improved to respond to the challenges posed by the creation, maintenance, transformation, and, when it occurs, collapse of state governance in multiethnic societies. This timely work will interest scholars of international relations and comparative politics, regional specialists, policymakers, and activists.