Introduction: Federalism as a Tool of Conflict Resolution

ABSTRACT

There is a growing literature on the use of federalism as a tool of conflict resolution. Yet, while this literature focuses mainly on single case studies, there remains a gap in our comparative understanding of the workings of federalism as a tool to end violent conflicts, as well as the conditions under which it may succeed in bringing peace to war-torn countries. By discussing core themes that emerge when looking at single case studies and relevant theories on the use of federalism as a tool of conflict resolution, we highlight the importance of three main issues in our understanding of the workings of federalism as a tool of conflict resolution: (1) The role of centralization, decentralization and recentralization in the management of diversity and to accommodate the demands of different groups; (2) Contestation of the state, identity, the idea of federalism and other key issues in societies, in which ownership over the state is contested and fought over; and (3) Third-party intervention, geopolitics, and geoeconomics in the management of diversity. By bringing together existing debates on the topic of federalism and conflict resolution, and positioning the papers in this special issue within these debates, some of the complexities but also promises of the use of federalism as a tool of conflict resolution will be highlighted.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all authors in this special issue, as well as the participants in the 2018 ‘Federalism and Conflict Resolution' workshop at the Eurac Research Institute for Comparative Federalism in Bolzano/Bozen (South Tyrol) entitled ‘Between Power-Sharing, Secession and State Dissolution: Revisiting the Relationship between Federalism and Conflict Resolution’. Our thanks go also to Karl Cordell and Stefan Wolff, the Ethnopolitics editors, for guiding us through the editorial process.