DEALING WITH INTERETHNIC CONFLICT IN EUROPE: HISTORIC AND RECENT EUROPEAN POLICIES IN MULTIETHNIC STATES AND REGIONS

Abstract

This study analyses the evolution and effectiveness of public policies aimed at managing interethnic conflict in Europe through a comparative examination of historical and contemporary governance strategies in multiethnic states. It demonstrates that although ethnicity remains a central axis of political mobilisation, the success or failure of policy responses depends less on their stated normative goals than on underlying configurations of power, legitimacy, and structural inequality. The findings show that strategies based on separation and assimilation, while historically dominant, have repeatedly failed to produce lasting stability by entrenching divisions, suppressing minority identities, and provoking counter-mobilisation. In contrast, conciliatory approaches grounded in negotiation, institutional pluralism, and power-sharing offer more sustainable, though politically fragile, mechanisms for managing diversity. The study concludes that no single model of interethnic governance ensures success, and that effective conflict management requires a balanced integration of cultural recognition, political inclusion, and procedural fairness. It further argues that enduring pacification depends on the continuous renegotiation of belonging within democratic frameworks capable of accommodating difference