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Conflict Fact Sheets To get sheets that detail the interests of parties and the actual outcomes you should order the Peacegames.
Current Conflicts
Balkans Conflicts Middle East World Conflicts Bosnia &Herzegovina Palestinians & Israel Conflict in Macedonia Syria & Israel The Vietnam War First World War Lebanon & Israel S.D.I. Negotiations Ethnic Cleansing Egypt & Israel The Test Ban Treaty Conflict over Kosovo Regional Issues Seabed Arms Control Role Play Peacegames - check above on peacegames for more information. One reviewer wrote, "Learn and have fun. Each game has a fact sheet with background, and sheets for each party to the conflict telling their interests. Games include instruction in mediation." Each game is $8.95. The facts sheets taken from the games are presented below.
Copyright © 1998 by David W. Felder
Mediation Games For All Types of Conflicts
Wellington Press
9601-30 Miccosukee Road
Tallahassee, FL 32308
The Facts
Parties
American Revolutionary
American Loyalist
British Hardliner
British (Realist)
Revolutionary War
The first shots had been fired at Concord and Lexington on April 19, 1775. There had been trouble in Boston, the "Metropolis of Sedition," as early as 1768 when British troops had to be sent to quell rebellious rumblings. The presence of these troops provoked the famous Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770. Troops were removed temporarily, but brought back in to close the port as a way of punishing the city for it defiant demonstrations against the taxes England imposed on the colonies. The people of Boston, painted up as Indians on a war party, protested a tax on tea by throwing a shipment of tea into Boston Harbor at the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773. The Provincial Congress controlled by American patriots formed a Committee of Safety and Supplies and started to stockpile weapons which they hid to the West of Boston in Concord. General Gage, Military Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay found out about the secret weapons stockpile and planed a night march to destroy the weapons at Concord. Paul Revere noticed the movement of British troops and rode to Lexington and Concord to warn the leaders, John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
When the British troops arrived at Concord they divided into two parties, one was to guard the bridge over the Concord River and the other was to destroy the military stores. When the British commander arrived at the bridge he saw that the American force of over 400 was larger than his own, and he sent a message to the town for reinforcements. Meanwhile the force in Concord found only 500 pounds of ammunition which they threw into a pond. Their orders were to burn munitions but leave the town alone. They set fire to the town hall which they thought hid munitions, but put out the flames when the Concord residents pleaded with them.
An American at the bridge, Joseph Hosmer saw the flames and asked "Will you let them burn the town down?" The Americans advanced toward the bridge "to march into the middle of town for its defense or die in the attempt."
Shots were fired. The Americans had been under orders not to fire first, but once shots were fired Major Buttrick yelled "Fire, fellow soldiers, for God's sake, fire!" As the Americans stepped onto the bridge, the Redcoats fled, leaving two men on the ground. American forces kept a harassing fire the British all during their retreat back to Boston. By the end of the day 73 British had died and 49 Americans had lost their lives.
Two English brothers, Richard and William Howe decided that enough people had died. They wanted to have the parties talk instead of killing each other. To that aim, they decided to organize a conference on Staten Island in New York Harbor, known to history as the Staten Island Conference. The purpose of this conference was to prevent any further bloodshed and to have the colonists reconciled with England. You have been asked to participate in this conference.
It has been estimated that a quarter to a third of the colonists support the Continental Congress, and the same number support England. The remainder have not decided where their loyalty lies.
The Facts
Parties
James Madison
Roger Sherman
Benjamin Franklin
General Charles Pinckney
The Constitutional Convention
Between 1783, when the Revolutionary War ended, and 1787, the infant United States of America struggled under a weak government based on the Articles of Confederation and the Continental Congress, the same system of government that the U.S. had adopted after the Declaration of Independence. The Continental Congress was unable to resolve several disputes that had arisen among the states over fishing and navigation rights in the rivers that made up their borders. The Continental Congress was also bankrupt, and people who had loaned it money during the Revolutionary War were afraid that they might never be repaid. Delegations from several states met in Annapolis in 1786 and voted to hold a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia the following year.
The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were appointed by the legislatures of their home states. Many of them were not sure that they wanted to abandon the Articles of Confederation and write a new Constitution, but the Chairman of the Constitutional Convention, George Washington, used his considerable prestige to encourage the Convention to take a long-range view of the United States' needs.
Many of those who came to Philadelphia for the Convention favored a strong central government that would place the states in a secondary role. Others were equally certain that a weak central government would prevent the United States from lapsing into a tyranny. There were also a number of delegates who wanted to use the Constitution either to protect or discourage the institution of slavery, which was already a source of mistrust and conflict between North and South. Finally, there were delegates who cared less about any of these issues than they did about protecting personal liberty and private property under the new government, no matter what form it took.
Your task is to write a Constitution that will ensure the survival and prosperity of a new country, while ensuring that personal rights are protected.
The Facts
Parties
President Lincoln
Border States
Southern States
Northern States
It looked like the nation was heading for a civil war. Between Abraham Lincoln's election as President of the United States and his Inauguration, seven states of the South had seceded from the Union. Fighting had not yet begun, but people were talking about war. Senator Crittendon had experience as a peacemaker. Being from the border state of Kentucky, he had tried to reconcile the claims of North and South before. There had been many attempts at reconciliation.
One attempt at reconciliation was the Missouri Compromise. According to this agreement, the introduction of new States into the Union was to be balanced: one free state for each slave state admitted. This prevented the Northern states from gaining the two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate and among the states that would have enabled them to pass a Constitutional amendment banning slavery. Now Senator Crittendon suggested that members of the Senate organize a conference to develop another compromise.
The conference will address these issues:
1. The fugitive slave law, and its enforcement in the North.
2. Preservation of slavery in the South.
3. Establishing permanent rights in Congress for the soon to be outnumbered Southern States.
4. Continuing the Missouri Compromise, or abandoning it for a new formula.
Senator Crittenden suggested what was known as the Crittendon Compromise, one of the proposals to be considered at the conference. The Crittenden compromise would establish stronger fugitive slave laws and mandate that Northern states cooperate with the return of fugitive slaves. It would amend the U.S. Constitution to protect the power of the South in the event that the population of the industrial North increased faster than that of the rural South. Finally, it would strengthen the Missouri Compromise that allowed slavery below the Mason-Dixon
The Facts
Parties
Southern Whites
Southern Blacks
Radical Reconstructionists
Moderate Reconstructionists
During the Civil War, the Union Congress passed several laws depriving the governments of the Southern states of their authority under the U.S. Constitution. When the war ended, it became necessary to "reconstruct" the Union by bringing the Southern states back into it. Before his death, President Lincoln had developed a plan based on a policy of amnesty and forgiveness. The Lincoln plan called for the Southern states to resume self-government as soon as possible, so long as the rights of former slaves could be protected.
The Radical Abolitionist plan, by contrast, called for Southern leaders to be put on trial for treason. Radical Abolitionists wanted to punish the whole South for slavery and for beginning the Civil War; they wanted to keep the former secessionist states under military government. Other Abolitionists favored a milder course, but they still opposed any plan to restore political equality to the Southern states quickly.
The former slaves, now called "freedmen" wanted the promise of "forty acres and a mule" fulfilled, so that they could become landowners and farmers. This would require the intervention of the Federal Government, because land owned by Southern whites would have to be seized so that it could be distributed to former slaves.
Many Southern whites, including some who had been Confederate leaders, favored as quick and as painless a re-introduction into the Union as possible.
The fate of all these plans was to be decided in the Congress of the United States. These discussions began in 1864 when there were no elected black members in the House of Representatives or the Senate. By 1866, the groundwork for Reconstruction had been laid.
Your job is to work out a plan for the nation after considering all these plans.
The Facts
The Parties
Doves
Internationalists
Moderate Hawks
Extreme Hawks
As the Cold War deepened, the American national security establishment identified a new threat to global peace. The old European colonial powers, especially France, England and Holland, were giving up their former colonies, which were becoming independent nations. Communism was a popular ideology in these new nations, and seemed ready for a massive takeover of the third world.
In tiny Vietnam, Communist guerrillas had been fighting for independence from France since the 1930's. In 1946, France tried to reassert its power in Vietnam, only to become bogged down in a long war of attrition that the French finally gave up. The Geneva Agreements of 1954 partitioned the country into a Communist North and a Democratic South. However, this did not result in peace. Southern Communists of the Viet Cong guerrilla movement continued to fight the recognized government there, with the help of the Communist North. Gradually, the French disengaged themselves from Vietnam, and the U.S. replaced France as the chief military protector of South Vietnam. The first U.S. troops arrived in 1955, to train the South Vietnamese Army.
The government of South Vietnam, which was riddled with dissension, coups, counter-coups and corruption, proved ineffective at fighting the Viet Cong. American troops and military aircraft entered combat in 1962, but South Vietnam continued to lose ground against the Viet Cong. In 1964, two American destroyers off the coast of North Vietnam were fired upon. President Lyndon Johnson persuaded Congress that this was an act of war against the U.S. by North Vietnam, and Congress agreed to authorize military action against North Vietnam.
By mid-1966, over 250,000 American troops were directly involved in the Vietnam War, and more were on their way. For the first time, people began to ask how we had gotten drawn into the war, and how we would find our way out of it.
The Facts
Parties
Liberals
Conservatives
Left Radicals
McCarthy Supporters
In the 1950s many Americans were scared. The United States had in 1945 ended a World War, and looked forward to peace. But Russian troops did not withdraw from Eastern Europe as American troops did from Western Europe. Instead, they stayed as occupiers in Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria. The elections promised by Stalin at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences never came. China became a Communist nation in 1949, partly because revolutionary leader Mao Tse Tung had Soviet help against the Nationalist Government. Later that year, the Soviet Union exploded an atomic bomb. In 1950, Communist forces invaded South Korea. It looked to many as if Communists intended to conquer the world..
Senator Joe McCarthy spoke of the Red threat. He argued that something must be done. In this climate of fear, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted of passing nuclear secrets to the Soviets and sentenced to death on what many felt were trumped-up charges.
A group of United States Senators are meeting to see what if anything they should do to respond to these threats. Several proposals are being considered. One is to grant more powers to the Committee on Un-American Activities. Another proposal is to deport any known communists who were born in another country. Some Americans want to try and negotiate a treaty with the Soviets to limit nuclear weapons, or place them under an international authority.
(Peace of Westphalia)
The Facts
Parties
Ferdinand
German Catholic States
North German Protestants
Sweden
France
For thirty years, from 1618 to 1648, war had ravaged Europe. It appeared that the war was fought over religion, but it is hard to separate the religion from the politics. Since 962, all of central Europe had been loosely united under the Holy Roman Empire. This Empire depended upon voluntary payments by nations and voluntary contributions of troops. It was called Holy because all the nations had originally been of the Roman Catholic Church. Then the Protestant Reformation came. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire stated that there could be no political unity unless everyone shared a common religion, and he did not want any more North German nations to adopt the growing Lutheran and Calvinist Protestant religions.
What is now Germany consisted then of some three hundred small states, many of which had embraced Protestantism. The leader of one small Protestant state, Matthias, who had no children of his own, designated that his throne and the title of Holy Roman Emporer should pass to his cousin Ferdinand, who happened to be a fanatical opponent of Protestantism. The Calvinists of Bohemia revolted in 1618, and this rebellion let to interventions by three successive nations, the Danes in 1625, the Swedes in 1630, and the French in 1635.
Each of these nations had its own interests in the war. All are represented in the talks at Westphalia. Ferdinand defeated the Protestants in the early stages of the war, and began to stamp out Protestantism in Bohemia. An Edict of Restitution was issued by Ferdinand that restored all land and properties that Protestants had taken from the Catholic Church. The small Protestant states of North Germany sought help from the larger Protestant states of Denmark and Sweden, which decided to intervene. Ferdinand, in fighting the small Protestant states, conquered them and expanded his rule. This created the possibility of a unified Germany–something the French feared, so they, too, intervened. Now all parties to the war are exhausted and are seeking a peace treaty.
(The Seven Years War 1756-1763)
The Facts
Parties
Austria
Prussia
France
England
Russia
(The Seven Years War 1756-1763)
The first of the wars of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, began over the issue of the succession to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, which was centered in what is now Austria. Upon coming to the throne, Frederick renounced an agreement his father had made. Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire had no sons and he had wanted his daughter Maria Theresa to take the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. Frederick's father had agreed. Then, after his father died, Frederick refused the accept the succession to the throne of Maria Theresa. Frederick took advantage of the death of Charles to attack one province of Maria Theresa's empire, Silecia. He conquered it quickly, but if he thought that Maria Theresa could be beaten easily, he was mistaken. Maria Theresa refused to let Frederick keep Silesia and the War of Austrian Succession was on.
The Austrians needed an ally to get their land back. They turned to France, a country they had been in conflict with for two hundred years. Alliances changed over all of Europe.
The Seven Years War raged from 1756 to 1763, starting when Czarina Elizabeth of Russia joined the alliance with Austria and France against Prussia. Frederick of Prussia made an alliance with England, which was a rival of France, in Europe, in India, and on the American continent. The war provided George Washington and other American patriots with military experience at the same time it created the need for the new taxes that the Americans were to protest.
Sexism played a role in the war. Frederick was openly contemptuous of his enemies, because two of them–Austria and Russia–were ruled by women. He called Maria Theresa, Elizabeth and Madame Pompadour of France "the Furies," not just because their nations fought so well, but because they held the fate of Prussia in their hands–and "the Furies" is another name for "the Three Fates."
The Russian armies had penetrated East Prussia when Elizabeth died in 1762. Her successor Peter III choose to reverse the alliance and support Prussia because he admired Frederick the Great. Had Peter III not switched sides, Prussia would surely have been destroyed. Before the end of the year, Peter III was deposed and murdered, and his wife Catherine was acclaimed "Empress of all the Russias." One of her first tasks was to meet with others in Paris in 1763 to end the Seven Years War.
(Treaty of Vienna)
The Facts
Parties
France
England
Prussia
Europe was continuously at war for twenty years, from 1793 to 1815. The first phase of wars following the French Revolution were revolutionary wars fought over the new democratic ideologies. Then the wars started over commercial and political interests. The entire map of Europe was changed by Napoleon's conquests. Instead of three hundred states in Germany, there were now thirty, most of them pro-French. Italy, too, was consolidated, from many small states into four. Napoleon rearranged things wherever he led his army. Old laws were thrown out and new ones written. Religious tolerance was instituted, and old privileges of birth abolished.
Now Napoleon has been defeated, and has gone into exile. A conference has been called at Vienna to end the wars. Prussia, Austria, and Russia want to put Europe back the way it was before
Napoleon. The English want to protect their access to the Low Countries, so they can be sure of trading their products. All are tired of the twenty years of continuous warfare. Your task is to make a peace that will last.
Facts
Parties
Germany
France
England
Austria-Hungary
Russia
It is the summer of 1914, the end of the Gilded Age. Four of the Great Powers of Europe–Germany, France, England and Russia–are rivals in the quest for colonial possessions in Africa, Asia and the Mideast. Russia and Austria-Hungary are rivals for the territories of the decaying Ottoman Empire. Most of Eastern Europe's ethnic groups–Poles, Magyars, Bosnians, Serbs, Albanians, Czechs and Slovaks–are part of empires and are ruled by foreigners who give them few rights. The strife within Empires like Russia and Austria-Hungary helped to produce strife between the Great Powers, as they sought to exploit each moment of weakness that they detected in a rival.
A system of alliances over a decade old links the Great Powers into two factions. Russia, France and England are united to contain the ambitions of Germany; Germany and Austria-Hungary are united together to limit English expansion in Africa and the Mideast, and Russian expansion in the Balkans, where the Ottoman Empire is still being squeezed by the Great Powers into giving up more and more of her territories.
Now this potentially dangerous situation is about to deteriorate into a war. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, has been assassinated in Bosnia by Serbian conspirators who want to create a unified Serbian state by combining Serbian populations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Austria-Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian government demanded in response that Serbia stop all nationalist activities in Austria-Hungary within 48 hours, which Serbia has refused to do.
Austria-Hungary is now prepared to invade Serbia to enforce their demands. Russia is committed by treaty to help Serbia defend itself, and Germany is committed to defending Austria. France and England must side with Russia, and will therefore be dragged into the war, if it comes. In an effort to knock France out of the war quickly, Germany has demanded that Belgium give permission for German armies to pass through in a flanking move against the French main
(1999 Constitutional Convention)
Facts
Parties
Large Industrial Nations
Small Nations
Third World Nations
The United States
At first voters in California and Missouri voted for a referendum that mandated that voters be allowed to elect delegates to a World Constitutional Convention. Then voters everywhere supported the idea of a world conference of elected citizens who would write up a document to either reform the UN or replace it with a stronger organization. The document would then go back to the people for ratification.
You have been elected a delegate to the 1999 World Constitutional Convention. Proposals refer to the UN, although the convention will have the option of forming a new organization. Some of the proposals and problems being discussed are:
1. Allow the UN to collect taxes directly on oil under the oceans and other sources. Dues to the UN are now voluntary, and many nations are behind in paying their assessments. .
2. Have a permanent forces under the command of the UN. The United Nations has no troops of its own and must get troops from nations, which can decide whether nor not send them.
3. Allow UN troops to act as peacemakers in addition to peacekeepers. Peacekeeping forces are unarmed and cannot enforce peace agreements.
4. Change the decision making structure of the UN. The security council is dominated by the five permanent members who each have an absolute veto over UN action: France, the U.S., China, Great Britain and Russia. The veto has frustrated the majority at the UN.
5. Change the voting system to have voting strength proportional to a country's their population and economic power. Voting in the General Assembly is based on a one-country, one-vote system that give Trinidad the same voting power as China. Larger countries object to this.
6. Give the UN the power to apply sanctions to enforce U.N decisions. Nations sometimes ignore UN decisions.
Conflict over Bosnia & Herzegovina (1908)
The Facts
Parties
Austro–Hungarian Empire
Bosnia–Herzegovina
Serbia
Russia
To understand nationalism in the Balkans it is useful to go back to the battle of Kosovo in 1389 when the Turks conquered the Balkans and instituting 500 years of rule by the Turkish led Ottoman Empire. The Turks treated the Eastern Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Bosnians differently. The Orthodox Serbs, who had the same religion as Turkey's Russian enemy, suffered the most. They became serfs, forbidden to take part in politics and taxed into poverty by the corrupt Ottoman government. Catholic Croats did better under the Turks and in 1699 most of present day Croatia came under the rule of the Catholic Hapsburg empire centered in Germany. The Turks encouraged Bosnians, many of whom had been considered Christian "heretics" persecuted by both Orthodox and Catholics, to convert to Islam and to serve the Ottoman Empire as tax collectors, officials, etc.. For their role in Ottoman rule, the Serbs have resented the Bosnians for the past 600 years.
In 1875 Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians fought together for their freedom and expelled their Ottoman rulers. Serbia became the most militant of the new Balkan states. It's leaders subscribed to an ideology called "Serbian Nationalism," part of a larger movement called "Pan–Slavic Unification." The Serbs dreamed of uniting all ethnic Serbs into a single self–governing state, and perhaps going on to unify all the Slavic races in the Balkans. As is often the case in the Balkans, however, the fate of the newly independent Balkans depended on the interests of others.
In 1878 at the Congress of Berlin the map of Europe was reshaped after the Franco–Prussian War. Germany, as the biggest winner of the war, dictated the terms. The German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, gave several small prizes to his new ally, Austria. The Holy Roman Empire was broken up at last, and the many of the pieces were fused with Austria to form the Austro–Hungarian Empire, which immediately became Russia's rival for power in the part of Eastern Europe known as "The Balkans." Two small Balkan provinces, Bosnia and Herzegovina, were placed in trust to be
The Conflict Over Macedonia (1913)
The Facts
Parties
Serbia
Bulgaria
Greece
Macedonia
Between 1885 and 1914, the power of Ottoman Turkey rapidly declined. Turkey's European possessions, the Balkans, split from Turkey in a series of revolutions that established new states organized along linguistic and ethnic lines––Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro. Serbs, Slavs, Bulgars, Hungarians and others. The unrest spread rapidly to the East European minorities of the Austro–Hungarian Empire.
The Great Powers, especially Germany and Russia, each desired control over the tiny new Balkan states. Although they had been allies in the first round of the Balkan Wars, the new nations rapidly became enemies struggling for territory. The Great Powers were drawn into the conflicts because they were pledged to protect their Balkan client states. Germany supported Austria–Hungary and the Austro–Hungarian puppet states, while Russia supported the Pan–Slavic movement and the state of Serbia.
The First Balkan War which began in October of 1911 and ended in May of 1913 was a war for independence from Turkey that ended after the Young Turks (a group of young Turkish officers) seized control in Turkey and made peace. The new Turkish Republic agreed to allow Albania to become independent and to allow Serbia and Bulgaria to divide Macedonia. After the British negotiated an end to the war with the Treaty of St. James, the Serbian and Bulgarian premiers were to meet and divide Macedonia.
The First World War (1914)
The Facts
Parties
Austro–Hungarian Empire
Serbia
Russia
Since the mid–1800's, ethnic Serbs and Slavs had been agitating for the creation of a state or states in which they could exercise self–rule. Their efforts culminated in a series of revolutions and other wars against Ottoman Turkey, during which the modern states of Serbia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece were founded. The success of the East European Nationalists fueled their ambition; they sought to "free" (or annex, depending on your point of view) Serbian and other Slavic groups in Asian Turkey, Russia, and Austria–Hungary. The Serbians saw their destiny as that of freeing other Slavs.
Austria–Hungary was regarded as one of the weakest of the Great Powers, and consequently Austria-Hungary was allied to Germany for its protection. Serbia, another weak power, was allied to Russia. Because of these alliances, the conflicts of the Balkan nations had to potential to entangled the whole world.
On June 28, 1914, two ethnic Serbians from the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina killed the Archduke Ferdinand during a state visit to the Bosnian capitol of Sarajevo. The Archduke, whose wife was also killed, was the heir to the Austrian throne. Ferdinand, who had the reputation as a liberal reformer, had gone to Sarajevo to meet Serbian leaders and discuss the rights of Serbs. His assassins were quickly identified as a gang of Serbian Nationalists who had been born on Austro–Hungarian territory.
Within 48 hours of the murders, the Austro–Hungarian Government sent a message to the Serbian Government demanding their assistance in investigating the crime. On July 23, the Austro–Hungarians delivered to the Serbs an ultimatum that threatened military action.
Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia (1990)
"Ethnic Cleansing"
The Facts
Parties
Serbian Orthodox Christians
Croatian Catholics
Bosnian Muslims
At the end of World War I, both the Austrian Hapsburg and the Turkish Ottoman empires collapsed, freeing the people of the Balkans. Croats and Bosnians joined their lands to the existing state of Serbia to form Yugoslavia. The state was dominated by Serbs who the Croats and Bosnians claim oppressed them.
During World War II, when the Nazis conquered Yugoslavia, they established a puppet government in "Greater Croatia" led by a handful of Croatian Fascists. Historians estimate that this government murdered 300,000 Serbs, and that another 200,000 Orthodox Serbs converted to Catholicism. The Nazi rule was merciless. In one incident 7,000 civilians were killed in Serbia to retaliate for the deaths of 10 German soldiers.
At the end of World War II, Tito, a Croatian, formed a Communist government in Yugoslavia that was dominated by Serbs. The Communist government was officially hostile to national aspirations of all three groups, Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians.
At the death of Tito, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia voted for independence from what was left of Yugoslavia, namely Serbia and Montenegro. Yugoslavia did not recognize their independence. The Yugoslav army killed 60 people in Slovenia to "retain control over Yugoslav borders." and sent troops into Croatia "to protect the endangered Serbian minority." The United Nations has recognized Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and imposed sanctions against Serbia for its actions.
The patterns of settlement make it impossible to have the boundaries of Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia include only Serbs, Croats, or Bosnians. Minorities within each ethnic states fear being oppressed by the majority in that state. The history of the Balkans includes periods when each group, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Muslims, has oppressed the other groups.
Each group in the Balkans has been engaged in expelling members of the minority within their borders. During the current fighting more than 2.5 million people have been made homeless. Serbs forced 500,000 Croats in Croatia and 700,000 Muslim citizens of Bosnia to flee their homes in one month, in what has been called "Ethnic Cleansing." More than 100,000 Serbs fled their homes in
Croatia and Bosnia. While Muslims flee in one direction, Serbs flee in the opposite direction. There are reports of forced starvation and death camps.
As the various factions arrived in August 1992 for peace talks in London, the Serbs held about 70 percent of Bosnia, a state that was only 36 % Serbian when the fighting began in Spring. The Serbs created a corridor inhabited only by Serbs that connects Serbians in Bosnia to Serbia.
The Conflict over Kosovo (1998)
The Facts
Parties
Serbia
Albania
Kosovo is an area in Serbia located at the borders of Albania, Serbia, and Macedonia that is 90% Albanian. Kosovo was the spiritual heartland of the Serbian Kingdom, so the conquest of Kosovo by the Turkish Ottoman empire in 1389 signaled the end of that Serbian independence. Under the Ottomans, Albanians moved in and Serbs fled north.
The 1974 Yugoslav constitution, under the Communists, gave Albanians a degree of autonomy as part of Serbia. Serbs claim this led to discrimination and 400,000 Serbs fled the region. Serbian officials started to ignore the autonomy granted in the 1974 constitution and in 1981 ethnic Albanians demonstrating in support of autonomy were killed in the streets by the Yugoslav army. Autonomy ended completely in 1990 when Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic declared a state of emergency supposedly to protect the Serbian minority, and then proceeded to take jobs away from Albanians creating 40% unemployment in Kosovo.
An "ethnic cleansing" campaign has been conducted by Serbia which between 1990 and 1992 resulted in 100,000 Muslim lawyers, doctors, politicians and teachers losing their jobs. The ethnic Albanians have set up an underground network of schools and health clinics staffed by those who were fired by the Serbian government.
Open warfare between Albanians and Serbs in the capital city of Pristina is likely, and this could easily spread. Refugees would flood into Albania, and this could provoke a response from Turkey which has an economic and military Treaty with Albania. Turkish Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel told Albania' President Sali Berisha "If anything happens in Kosovo, we will stand with you." Greece could also be involved because Southern Albania has 600,000 Greeks, and ethnic Albanians in Macedonia might enter the fight for Kosovo.
EGYPT AND ISRAEL
Facts
Parties
Israel
Egypt
In 1947, the United Nations general assembly voted in favor of the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with Jerusalem held as a trustee of the United Nations. Soon afterward, seven Arab nations resolved "to prevent the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine." The day after the state of Israel was proclaimed, Israel was invaded by Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, and Lebanon. At the end of the l948 war, the borders of Israel were larger than the borders in the U.N. partition resolution. Over 1,000,000 Arabs had fled their land, and 800,000 Jews had fled Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, and Morocco. The Jews became citizens of Israel, but 1,000,000 Palestinians live as non-citizens in refugees camps in Arab countries.
In l952 Gamal Abdel Nasser became president of Egypt and the champion of Arab nationalism. He nationalized the Suez canal, and then banned Israeli shipping in it, which left Israel dependent on the port of Elath at the Gulf of Aquaba. Nasser then interfered with Israeli shipping through the Gulf of Aquaba at the Strait of Tiran, where the Sinai desert extends into the Red Sea.
In the 1956 war, Israel launched an attack on Egypt with air support from the French and British, who bombed Cairo in the hope of regaining the Suez canal. Israel overran most of the Sinai peninsula and occupied Sharm-el-Sheik at the Gulf of Aquaba. The United States, which had not been consulted, was outraged at the action of the British and French and was supported by the Soviet Union. Together the United States and the Soviet Union were able to get Israel to withdraw from the Sinai with the promise that United Nations forces would provide a buffer with Egypt.
In l967, President Nasser terminated the presence of the United Nations Emergency Forces in the Egyptian Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Israeli and Egyptian forces now confronted each other at their borders. Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, thereby blockading the Port of Elath. The Israeli
air force struck Egyptian air fields and within six days Israel occupied the Sinai peninsula, the Gaza strip, the whole West Bank of the Jordan river, the entire city of Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
In l973, on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, Syria and Egypt launched a surprise attack. Israeli forces withdrew at the Golan heights and in the Sinai. Egypt was able to insert 100,000 men on the east bank of the Suez canal. In the second week of the war Israel had trapped the Egyptian third army in the Sinai so that the Egyptians were dependent on the Israelis for food and water. A United Nations armistice was agreed to. Israel remained in control of the Sinai desert, Jerusalem, and the West Bank of the Jordan River.
In 1977 Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, made a historic visit to Israel to express his willingness to discuss peace. With U.S. President Jimmy Carter acting as a mediator, Anwar Sadat and President Menachem Begin of Israel met at the Camp David retreat.
The Facts
Parties
Israel
Lebanon
Syria
Prior to the first world war, Lebanon was part of a province of the Ottoman Empire that included Syria, the area of Israel, and the West Bank. The victorious allies created a separate state of Lebanon which was placed under French control.
While dominated by the French, Lebanon got a constitution that gave the Christians, a majority at that time, guaranteed control of the major govern-ment posts. Since 1975, Muslims, who now outnumber Christians three to two, no longer accept domination by the Christian minority. One reason the population changed is that 450,000 Palestinians settled in Lebanon after the establishment of the State of Israel.
The Palestine Liberation Organization acted as the de facto government in many Lebanese villages and maintained an army that attacked Israel over the Lebanese border. Israel responded to PLO attacks by striking back at villages that harbor PLO bases, but the villages and government of Lebanon were unable to expel the PLO.
In 1982 the Israelis invaded Lebanon and drove the PLO out of Southern Lebanon. After the Israelis withdrew, a Shiite militia group (Amal) fought the PLO to keep them from returning. Israel supported setting up the South Lebanon Army which controls a small strip of land on the Lebanon side of the border with Israel. The South Lebanon Army is supported by 1,000 Israeli troops and ultimately the entire Israeli military.
Syria, which maintains 40,000 troops in Lebanon under a mandate from the Arab League of Nations to keep the peace, brokered the Taif Peace Accord. This accord was accepted by the Christian Lebanese Forces led by Samir Geagea but rejected by the Christian Lebanese army of General Michel Aoun, who insisting that Syria first withdraw from Lebanon. In September 1990, President Elias Hrawi's government declared the "birth of the Lebanese Second Republic" and fought Aoun, who, as the last military commander of the now defunct Lebanese government, claimed to be the legitimate
governor of Lebanon. In October Aoun capitulated when his presidential palace and adjacent military headquarters were captured by Hrawi. Aoun left Lebanon for exile in France.
By 1992 Hrawi had consolidated power in all but South Lebanon where the Israeli supported South Lebanon Army of 3,000 troops holds a nine mile strip of land. This force is financed and supplied by Israel.
Lebanaon was once the "Jewel of the East Mediteranian" with resorts and banks, a Middle East Switzerland. There are more than a dozen different ethnic, religous, and political factions. Lebanon' s fifteen year long civil war has resulted in over 100,000 deaths and many times that number wounded. Material losses to Lebanon exceed 50 billion dollars.
Facts
Parties
Israel
Jordan
Palestinians
After the second world war, the United Nations general assembly voted in favor of the partition of Palestine into two states-one Jewish and one Arab, with Jerusalem held as a trustee of the United Nations. The day after Israel declared itself a state, Israel was invaded by seven Arab nations including Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, and Lebanon who sought to prevent a Jewish state in Palestine."
One result of the first Arab-Israeli war in l948 was that Israel was larger than the borders in the partition resolution of 1947. Another result was that 1,000,000 Arabs fled their land and 800,000 Jews fled Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, and Morocco. In 1950 Jordan annexed the West Bank of the Jordan river and East Jerusalem. There are 5.5 million Palestinians with 1 million living in refugee camps in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and Israel. Half the population of Jordan is Palestinian.
In l967 Egyptian President Nasser closed the straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, thereby blockading the Port of Elath. On June 5, l967 the Israeli air force struck Egyptian air fields and within one week Israel took the Sinai peninsula and the Gaza strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and West Bank of the Jordan river from Jordan.
The United Nations passed resolution 242 in 1967 which "Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
(i) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.
(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."
Since 1967 Israel, a country with 3.7 million Jews and 600,000 Arabs has held
on to the West Bank with 870,000 Arabs,
East Jerusalem with 150,000 Arabs, and
the Gaza Strip with 615,000 Arabs. Israel has supported settling 100,000 Jews in the West Bank.
In December 1987, Palestinians on the West Bank began the Intifada, an uprising opposing Israeli rule. In 1988 Jordan gave up any claims to the West Bank. The United States held talks with the PLO in 1988 but talks were suspended in 1990 when the PLO refused to condemn an attempted terrorist attack. In 1991 both the Palestine Liberation Organization and Jordan supported Iraq.in the Persian Gulf war. As a result of this, they lost financial support from Saudi Arabia and their relations with Syria and Egypt were hurt. A militant fundamentalist group, Hamas, now challenges the PLO's leadership.
Israel refused to meet with PLO members, but said it would meet with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation that has no Palestinians from East Jerusalem. The PLO consented to this.
The Facts
Parties
Israel
Egypt
Syria
Jordan-Palestinian
Gulf Cooperation Council
There is a need for regional agreements on armament limitations, security arrangements, water resources, environmental controls, protection of holy sites, refugees, trade and development. The parties to the regional talks include in addition to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Quatar.
Arms Control
If nothing is done to control armaments in the Middle East several nations will soon have methods of mass destruction including atomic, biological and chemical weapons, along with missiles to deliver these weapons. It would be very likely that a war of mass destruction would occur.
At present there is an arms race in the Middle East with nations importing more and more weapons. The only nation with a large modern arms industry is Israel. Other nations are more dependent than Israel on other countries to get their weapons.
Arms Control: Nuclear Weapons
There is a need to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. At present only Israel is known to have atomic bombs. It is only a matter of perhaps one decade before more nations could have atomic weapons.
Water Resources and Environmental Controls
Water resources are a point of contention between many states. People in Jordan complain that Isreal diverts water from the Jordan river, and also that the use of deep wells by Israelis ruins the shallower wells used by Jordanians. In addition to these existing conflicts there are possibilities of developing new sources for water together.
Protection of Holy Sites
All the nations in the region have an interest in the holy sites in Jerusalem. Islamic countries worry about protecting and maintaining their holy shrines.
Palestinian Refugees
There are more than fifty refugee camps in Arab countries. Arab nations have not granted citizenship to Palestinians living in their countries in the expectation that Israel would be defeated and Palestinians would go home.
Trade and Development
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait underscored the tremendous gap between the rich and poor nations in this area of the world. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had been giving money to the Palestine Liberation Organization, but when that organization backed Iraq, the aid ended. There is a need for some mechanism to aid development in this part of the world, financed by the rich oil exporting countries. There is also a need for increasing trade to improve people's life.
The Facts
Parties
Israel
Syria
After the Second World War, the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with Jerusalem held as a trustee of the United Nations. A month later seven Arab nations resolved "to prevent the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine." The day after Israel declared itself a state Israel was invaded by Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
One result of the first Arab–Israeli war in l948 was that Israel was larger than the borders in the partition resolution of 1947. Another result was that 1,000,000 Arabs fled their land and 800,000 Jews fled Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, and Morocco.
Between 1948 and 1967, Israeli villages on the boundary with Syria were subjected to periodic artillery fire from the Syrian held Golan Heights. In l967 Egyptian President Nasser closed the straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, thereby blockading the Port of Elath. On June 5, l967 the Israeli air force struck Egyptian air fields and within one week Israel occupied the Sinai peninsula, the Gaza strip, the whole west bank of the Jordan river, the entire city of Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
United Nations Resolution 242, passed in 1967, affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
(i) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.
(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.
In 1973, combined Arab armies launched a surprise attack on Israel. Syria overran Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. Israel soon recovered and pushed the Syrian advance back, once again controlling the Golan Heights. In the armistice that followed, Syria agreed to not allow the Palestine Liberation Organization to conduct terrorist raids in the area of the Golan Heights. That front has been quiet in the intervening years. Israel's legislature, the Knesset, passed legislation annexing the Golan Heights. Syria has never given up its claim to sovereignty of the Golan Heights.
One argument in Israel for annexing the Golan Heights was that having the Golan Heights in the possession of Syria gave Syria a way to attack Israel with artillery. Since that time Syria has put in place missile systems that can attack Israel without placing weapons on the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights thus are not as important militarily as they once were.
Facts
Parties
Iraq
Kuwait
The United States
The Arab League & the U.N.
Before the first world war, the entire Arabian Peninsula and what is now Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Israel were part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Turkey sided with Germany against England and France in the First World War. Sir Henry McMahan of England met with Arab leader Sharif Husain and promised that if Arabs revolted against the Turks, Great Britain would support Arab independence. Some areas were excluded from the promise of independence, including the part of Syria west of Damascus that the French wanted which is now Lebanon It is debatable whether the British had agreed to make Palestine independent.
The Arabs kept their end of the agreement by fighting the Turks. Meanwhile, in 1916 Great Britain had made a secret agreement, the Sykes–Pirot Agreement, with France and Russia to divide up the Ottoman Empire. Russia was to get Constantinople and the land on each side of the Bosporus, France was to get most of Syria, and Great Britain was to get the Southern part of Syria across to Iraq, including Baghdad and Basra and also the ports of Haifa and Acre in what is now Israel, with a small strip of land in what was known as Palestine under special international control.
After the war, the victorious powers (France, Great Britain and Russia) held a Supreme Council Conference at San Remo on April 25, 1919. Syria was divided into Lebanon and Syria and given as mandates to France, Palestine and Iraq were given to Great Britain.
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were recognized as independent states. In 1919, Great Britain defined the borders of Kuwait, and Iraq and Saudi Arabia agreed to the borders. Kuwait has been a member of the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the Arab League.
In 1954, while still under British control, Iraq's leader, Nuri es Said, proposed that Iraq give Kuwait access to fresh–water from the Shatt–al–Arab river in return for the Warbah Island in the Persian Gulf, which Iraq wanted for a port. Under the proposed "Baghdad Pact" fresh–water that now goes into the Persian Gulf would be diverted to create a 6,000 square kilometer fresh–water lake over the Iraq–Kuwaiti–Saudi Arabian desert. Kuwait rejected this offer because they didn't want to be associated with Nuri es Said, who they knew to be unpopular.
In 1961 Iraq had a revolution against Nuri es Said and British control. The new Iraqi leader, General Kassem, massed troops on the Kuwait border and claimed that Kuwait was part of Iraq. Great Britain brought in 3000 troops and 600 helicopter–borne commandos under the name "Operation Oil." Saudi Arabia sent 100 paratroops. The United Nations Security Council and the Arab League condemned Iraq. After seven days, Iraq withdrew.
Saddam Hussein massed Iraqi troops on the border with Kuwait several times. Each time Kuwait gave Saddam more money. Kuwait gave Iraq billions for its war with Iran.
On August 2, 1990, Iraq under Saddam Hussein invaded and seized the country of Kuwait. The United Nations voted for twelve resolutions condemning Iraq's invasion. Military forces from the United States went to the Persian Gulf as part of "Desert Shield" to protect Saudi Arabia. An economic embargo was ordered by the United Nations. Then, on November 29, 1990 United Nations set a deadline of January 15, 1991 for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, and authorized a coalition of nations led by the United States to use military force after that date. Diplomatic activity followed in the attempt to mediate a settlement and avoid the use of military force.
The Facts
Parties
The United States
The Soviet Union
On March 23, l984 President Ronald Reagan introduced in a television speech the idea that a "strategic defense Initiative" (star wars) could give us the means of rendering nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete." The president suggested that the United States would be able to "intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they could reach our own soil." The proposal to have a defense system that intercepts missiles is a departure from the policy of deterrence. Deterrence assumes that both sides will be vulnerable to attack so that each side fears retaliation if it launches a first strike on the other.
In negotiating for the ABM treaty of l972, the United States argued that an anti–ballistic missile system would lead to an increased arms race because each side would have to build more missiles to be able to overcome anti–missile defenses. the Soviet Union acquiesced in accepting the policy of mutual assured destruction. The United States would either have to win the approval of the Soviet Union for the strategic defense initiate or it would have to break the ABM treaty it signed with the Soviet Union. That treaty limited each side to protecting no more than two sites with anti–ballistic missiles.
The same technology that is used for shooting missiles from the sky could be used for attacking satellites. Both the United States and the Soviet Union rely heavily on satellites for military activities, and for verifying arms control agreements. arms control agreements. The United States has more sophisticated satellites and is more dependent on them.
There is no assurance that it will be possible to intercept missiles. Experts agree that missiles would have to be hit with heat sensing devices during their booster stage when rockets are firing. The booster stage could be made shorter and shorter. Also decoy missiles could be launched to confuse anti–ballistic missiles.
Facts
Parties
United States
Soviet Union
During 1957, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain were all testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. There were protests around the world, and many distinguished individuals called for a treaty to ban tests. In March of 1958, Nikita Krushchev became Premier in the Soviet Union and announced that the Soviet Union would not test nuclear bombs provided that other nations did not test them.
In April, President Eisenhower invited the Soviet Union to join Western experts in examining the technical requirements for verifying a nuclear test ban treaty. A conference of experts was convened in Geneva in July. The report of this conference suggested that there would have to be 160 to 170 locally placed control posts with detection devices, each with 30 to 40 scientists. The report also provided for having an international control organization send on–site inspection groups to investigate suspicious events.
In August President Eisenhower proposed that the three nuclear powers meet to put a permanent end to nuclear tests. At the conference the Soviet Union placed on a agency a draft treaty that called for all sides to stop testing, to set up a control system based on the Geneva suggestions, and to discourage other nations from testing.
United States scientists discovered that the Geneva conference of experts had greatly overestimated the ability of seismic instrumentation to detect underground tests and to distinguish them from earthquakes. The minimum yield that could be detected was 10 kilotons, not 5 kilotons as the experts had concluded.
THE PARIS PEACE TALKS OF 1968
Facts
Parties
The United States
South Vietnam: Republic of Vietnam
North Vietnam: Democratic Republic of Vietnam
National Liberation Front: NLF
During the second world war, when Indo–China was held by Japan, President Roosevelt proposed some form of international trusteeship for the area. After the war, France tried to re–establish its colonial rule over Indo–China and found itself fighting Vietnamese nationalists led by Ho Chi Minh. President Truman urged the French to end their war, and he refused to help the French restore Vietnam as a colony.
The Geneva Accords of l954, following a large French military defeat (at Dienbeienphu), provided for a "provisional military demarcation line" at the seventeenth parallel. Ho Chi Minh's Vietminh forces were to group north of this line, and the French were to regroup to the south. This line was only to divide the military forces. A general election to unite Vietnam was to occur in two years under the supervision of a neutral three–power International Control Commission consisting of Canada, India, and Poland.
Ho Chi Minh was convinced that the election in l956 would win him all of Vietnam. President Eisenhower wrote that "possibly 80% of the population would have voted for the communist Ho Chi Minh." The United States never signed the Geneva accords but did pledge to "refrain from the threat or use of force to disturb the settlement." Ho Chi Minh withdrew his troops from south of the seventeenth parallel as called for in the Geneva Accords.
In l955 the United States backed Diem who proclaimed the existence of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) with himself as president. In July l955 Diem declared that since the Republic of Vietnam had not signed the Geneva accords, he would not permit the elections named in the accords to occur. The United States created the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization which designated the countries of Cambodia, Laos, and the state of South Vietnam to be under SEATO protection. Ho Chi Minh protested that this was in violation of the Geneva Accords.
Ho Chi Minh began to train communist cadres for guerrilla war in the south. These were called the National Liberation Front or NLF. President Kennedy sent 17,000 Americans to Vietnam as advisers. President Lyndon Johnson claimed that North Vietnam had attacked United States PT boats in the Gulf of Tonkin and on August 4, l964 American bombers hit oil depots in North Vietnam, supposedly in retaliation for the attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. Lyndon Johnson committed more and more American soldiers to Vietnam. In April, l965 he sent 50,000 men, in May, 80,000, and in June. 200,000.
After a large North Vietnamese offensive in 1968 (Tet), President Lyndon Johnson announced on March 31, l968 that he was taking several actions to end the war in Vietnam, including not seeking reelection and cutting back bombing against North Vietnam. By May 13 the United States and the North Vietnam government (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) were making plans for peace talks which were to begin January 25, 1969.
Copyright © 1998 by David W. Felder
Mediation Games For All Types of Conflicts
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