email: bernard.english@gmail.com
Some highlights from the article "The Essence of Group Conflict" by Julie J. Rehmeyer based on research by Yaneer Bar-Yam and colleagues at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge, Mass.
- The study predicts ethnic violence with remarkable accuracy using only one factor: the geographical distribution of the groups.
- It's when the groups are somewhat separated and the boundaries are poorly defined that trouble is almost inevitable.
- Their predictions had a 90 percent correlation with news reports of actual regions of conflict during the war in Yugoslavia. For India, the correlation was even higher, 99.8 percent.
- The researchers say the results suggest that policymakers can address the potential for ethnic violence by either encouraging mixing or developing clear boundaries.
- The researchers point to Singapore as a successful example of the former approach. Regulations there specify that ethnicities must be mixed in public housing blocks, where 84 percent of residents live.