The Consequences Of Ethnic Violence By Anthony Oberschall

Anthony Oberschall attempts to explain the result of ethnic violence through identifying two cognitive frames; normal frame and the crisis frame. The former draws on peaceful cooperation between neighbours from all ethnic relations and emphasises on the cohesiveness of the community lacking prejudices against one another’s nationality and religion. Whereas, the latter attracts memories of historical wars, forcing the previous conflict to reflect on behaviour and treatment towards any opposing ethnicity. The crisis frame is further stimulated by sensationalism, forcing individuals to be held accountable for their nationalities and religious beliefs, and in turn, allowing innocent civilians to become targets and eventually victims of mass killings.
Neighbourly and welcoming attitudes are visible throughout communities during peaceful eras, however, once an individual’s nationality or religion is endangered, the crisis frame engulfs any further notice of a cooperative and friendly community. This is a concerning point, considering there appears to be a priority for protecting ethnic identity over enforcing peace. The primordial view acknowledges this priority through recognising the non-rational and emotional attachment individuals tend to have towards their ethnic identity (Oberschall 2000, 982). The Syrian crisis sets up a good example of this. Syrians had lived at peace since the French imperialism which occurred during the early to mid-1900s, however, once the regime became under threat in 2011, a large divide between the nation's citizens had occurred. Groups passionate about protecting their ethnicities from extinction or domination were slowly being exposed with the result of tension rising between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and others including Kurds, Turkmen, Druze and Assyrians. This reflects a similarity with the violence in Yugoslavia, whereby peaceful relations were present amongst the Muslims, Croats, Serbians and Bosnians up until the war broke out, and only then did people begin distancing
I concur with Oberschall, considering it is a method still used during major events such as elections and wars today. For instance, there was a recent revelation regarding a subversive experiment which claims to have played a key role in the Brexit leave campaign and US 2016 elections. The project consisted of accessing millions of social media accounts, taking data from independent profiles, and using that information to appeal to each individual through political ads which fit the psychological profile of each person. Albeit, this is an extreme and more technologically advanced example, it, however, demonstrates how the media is a strong tool which can be used to manipulate and influence individuals. In support of this, the crisis frame during the Yugoslavian conflict was largely successful due to the media, as they take advantage of the uproar and further empower ethnic violence through propagating fabrications regarding war crimes ranging from mass killings to