October 9, 2000

Media Contacts: -Ronald J. Bee, IGCC, (858) 534-6429 or 
                              -Paula Cichocka, IR/PS, (858) 534-1465 

The University of California’s systemwide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), headquartered at UC San Diego (UCSD), has received a two-year, $296,700 award from Carnegie Corporation of New York to conduct research on power sharing and peace-making in ethnically divided societies. The study, entitled Power Sharing and Peacemaking, will examine internal political structures across several regions and determine which methods and conditions for power sharing are necessary for building peace and security over the longer term.

The study’s principle investigator will be Peter F. Cowhey, who is the director of IGCC and holds a joint appointment as professor in UCSD’s Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) and adjunct professor in UCSD’s department of political science. Cowhey will work with Philip G. Roeder, associate professor of political science at UCSD and a specialist in the politics of the Soviet successor states and Donald Rothchild, professor of political science at UC Davis and an expert in the fields of ethnic conflict and conflict management in Africa. Roeder and Rothchild will be co-project leaders of Power Sharing and Peacemaking.

In the early 1990s, IGCC recognized that ethnic conflicts have become increasingly serious international security issues in the aftermath of the Cold War, especially in the regions of Africa, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and South Asia. Power sharing has been a preferred solution in the settlement of such conflicts. However, critics of this solution point out that democratic power sharing arrangements often are unstable and fall to authoritarian seizures of power or political disorder.

The mixed record of success in the application of power sharing arrangements to real-world situations reveals how little is understood about bringing peace to multi-ethnic states. The Power Sharing and Peacemaking study will carefully compare successful and failed experiments in ethnic power sharing and examine under what conditions appropriate alternatives should be used. Case studies will include:

• Electoral systems (Ben Reilly, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Stockholm)
• Federalism in India (Arend Lijphart, UCSD)
• Federalism in Russia and Eastern Europe (Valerie J. Bunce, Cornell University)
• Federalism and Central Leadership in Ethiopia (Edmond Keller, UCLA)
• From Power Sharing to Majoritarian Democracy in South Africa (Timothy Sisk, University of Denver)
• Power Sharing and Changing Demographic Patterns in Lebanon (Marie Joelle Zahar, McGill University)

Research for the Power Sharing and Peacemaking study will build on work already conducted by IGCC concerning the international spread and management of ethnic conflict, and durable peace settlements for civil wars.

Established in 1983, the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) is the University of California's multi-campus research center for international affairs, with programs on all nine UC campuses. IGCC’s mission is to study the causes of international conflicts and to examine options for resolving them through international cooperation. More information on IGCC can be found at: http://www-igcc.ucsd.edu.

Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic foundation established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. As a grantmaking foundation, the Corporation seeks to carry out Carnegie's vision of philanthropy, which he said should aim "to do real and permanent good in this world." The Corporation awards grants of more than $70 million a year in the areas of education, international peace and security, international development, democracy, and special projects.