The outbreak of numerous and simultaneous violent conflicts around the globe in the 1990s resulted in immense human suffering and lost lives. In part, both results were perpetuated by inactivity or by belated and often misplaced response by the international community towards the embattled groups. The apparent inability of the international community to respond firmly and purposefully to violent conflicts can be partially attributed to a general confusion and misunderstanding of the root causes of such conflicts.

In some cases, the international community argued that violent conflicts could be attributed to irreconcilable ethnic identities, which like earthquakes are impossible to prevent or control. At other times, the argument was that such conflicts were the results of evil leaders capable of engineering mass violent acts. This text constitutes an interdisciplinary and comparative effort to explain the root causes of ethnic conflicts in term of political, economic, and social common denominators that characterize all such conflicts.

It seeks to dispel misplaced assumptions about violent domestic conflicts, and by providing a clearer picture of the mechanics of such conflicts it hopes to assist in the process of conflict resolution and conflict prevention.