Interethnic Conflict: A Challenge for the Future of the Newly Independent States

This article focuses on the nature of interethnic conflicts in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. The author discusses the prevailing patterns that characterize such conflicts and gives a brief account of the changes that took place in the newly independent states over the past decade that laid the ground for the present volatile sociopolitical climate there. Apart from the material causes of conflict, a lot of attention is given to psychological causes such as the loss of identity which is being compensated by a growing nationalism. In the opinion of the author, these psychological causes should be given much more attention in order to predict and prevent outbreaks of interethnic conflicts in the area.