Topic: UN's Role of Addressing Sectarian and Ethnic Conflict within a Nation
Country: Sweden
Delegate Name: Noel Tamboer
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Sweden position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
With differences among people comes conflict. Whether it’s a difference in beliefs, traditions, or the way of life, it could bring about problems within a nation’s walls. Samuel P. Huntington proposed a theory called the Clash of Civilizations that states that culture and religious identity will be the primary source of conflict within a nation in the post-Cold War world.
On the surface, this idea applies directly to Sweden, even though today it is a relatively homogeneous country and has been spared from internal and external conflict because of this. So being free of conflict paired with the fact that it is a neutral nation, helps to reduce conflict within its borders. This could change though, due to the recent increase in migration, bringing a new range of diversity to the country. Thankfully, it has not yet provoked ethnic or cultural conflict.
There are many countries dealing with ethnic conflict today. There have been recent proposals to help eliminate it by giving parliaments the power to delegate duties to regional courts to work through these issues at a more personal level or to create laws and regulations to help in prevention. The proposals deal with subjects such as agriculture, land area, religion, education, and health and social services. This could potentially help to put an end to disputes based on cultural differences among people, although it could take a while.
Sweden, although not currently troubled with these issues, should do its best to help neighboring nations when facing conflict relating to ethnicity. We need to help spread the idea of peace and serenity within a nation’s borders. Sweden could give aid to those who have already faced problems resulting from those who can’t work past differences. Also countries could work together to help with the prevention of further disputes by sending peacekeeping people to show how much countries will benefit by its people being united. There are many different ways we can deal with the ethnic problems we face; we just need to all work together to come up with the plan to address them.
