Media Criticism

The title to this post may sound stuffy but it is the most succinct way to state my position. I have been advocating the idea of partitioning areas based on historically-verifiable claims since I was a graduate student nearly five years ago. This idea has grown anew in my mind after reading an article by Professor Jerry Muller from Catholic University of America in this month’s Foreign Affairs.

The article is entitled “Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalismâ€? and discusses the vices and virtues of dealing with ethnic claims to nationhood. Muller speaks to the issue of partitioning based on ethnic nationalist claims in his closing remarks by stating that “…it inevitably creates new flows of refugees but at least it deals with the problem at issue. The challenge for the international community in such cases is to separate communities in the most humane manner possible: by aiding in transport, assuring citizenship rights in the new homeland and providing financial aid for resettlement and economic absorption.â€?

Muller is accurate in depicting the political hot potato that is changing preestablished national boundaries. Partition has acquired an ugly taste in the mouths of foreign policy experts who use the word most commonly in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I know the challenges that would face leaders throughout the world if they mentioned partitioning counties, departments and other political units within their constituency. The difficulty in verifying claims to geographical areas as historical homelands is not lost in my analysis. The reason that partition is the most palatable option for global peace and security is the crumbling nature of artificial political boundaries.

Every line drawn on a global map today is fake. There are boundaries that are negotiated around natural feature including the border between Texas and Mexico (Rio Grande River). The problem lies in Africa where four decades after the end of de jure colonialism we still use silly borders cut up by long-dead monarchs. The end of World War I brought about the division of the Middle East and Eastern Europe between the major powers (many who are still major players today) that were not based on ethnic and historical backgrounds. It is time to wipe the slate clean, redraw boundaries that bring ethnic minorities out from under the thumb of oppressive majorities and reset our old ways of thinking about foreign policy. The only people who would be upset about a clean slate would be profiteers and a few disgruntled cartographers.