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A study to examine the empirical developments relating to the Cambodian conflict by examining the explanatory value of I. William Zartman's 'ripeness theory' in the resolution of the Cambodian conflict is conducted. Findings show that Zartman's theoretical approach may have some explanatory value in the case of the resolution of the conflict situation at internal Cambodian level.

A study of Java's socio-economic determinants of the everyday kind of social violence during 1994-2003 is examined using panel-data analysis of count data. It revealed that policies aimed at reducing socio-economic human insecurity simultaneously reduced violence and development is one way to achieve peace.

Despite the high visibility of religiously charged international social conflicts, the unique role of religion often is overlooked in social science research and theory. Some studies ignore religion, others conflate religion with other identities. Virtually all lack adequate data. We respond to these deficiencies by testing a theory-driven model of a particular form of social conflict, religious persecution. We investigate the proposition that religious regulation leads to religious persecution. Using measures coded from the 2003 International Religious Freedom Reports, we consider how both social regulation and government regulation of religion in 143 countries affect the level of religious persecution. We also consider and test competing hypotheses, particularly Huntington's clash-of-civilizations thesis. We find strong support for the religious economies arguments and only limited support for the clash-of-civilizations thesis and other competing arguments.

Biographical note: FLOYA ANTHIAS is Professor of Sociology and Head of Sociology at the University of Greenwich, London. She has published extensively on the social divisions of gender, ethnicity/race and class, as well as on Cypriot society and Cypriots in Britain. Her latest book (co-edited) is Gender and Migration in Southern Europe: Women on the Move (Oxford: Berg, 2000). Another new book, on The Social Division of Identity, will be published by Macmillan.

On the one hand, cultural differences in the contemporary world seem to vanish rapidly. This is effected through homogenizing processes of economic and political integration into nation-states and into the global system, as well as the globalization of culture brought about through modern means of mass communication. On the other hand, recent decades have seen the widespread resurgence of ethnic sentiments and the revitalization of local cultural identities. This apparent paradox is here seen as an inherent aspect of modernity. The processes of integration into nation-states puts strong pressures on minorities to assimilate. For this reason, many minority languages are threatened. The article compares the situation of several linguistic minorities, focusing on their relationship with the nation-states to which they are subjected, their strategies of resistance, and problems in challenging linguistic hegemony. Perhaps paradoxically, cultural minorities may have to assimilate culturally in important respects in order to present their case effectively and thereby retain their minority identity. A main conclusion emerging from the comparisons is that states need not be nation-states relying on nationalist ideologies proclaiming the virtues of absolute cultural homogeneity. Although they may be unspectacular, forms of linguistic oppression are forms of oppression no less, and they demand the attention of peace and conflict researchers.

The ethno-political conflict between Kusasis and Mamprusis in Bawku in the north-east Ghana discusses the communal conflict and violence faced by the state. It also discusses about the various social conflicts and explains the pattern of conflict between the two groups.