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This report summarizes discussions at a workshop, “Balancing and Sharing Political Power in Multiethnic Societies,” held in Moscow on January 25–27, 1993. The meeting was jointly sponsored by the Committee on International Conflict and Cooperation of the National Research Council and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Approximately 100 scholars and policy practitioners from various parts of the Russian Federation and other countries on the territory of the former Soviet Union, as well as a select group of Western researchers, engaged in wide-ranging discussions on the nature and sources of ethnicity, nationalism, and ethnic conflict in multiethnic societies.

The three-day workshop was organized into five half-day paper sessions, each including an extensive discussion period; an evening session focused on a recent violent conflict involving the Ingush of North Ossetia; and a final round-table session that provided several participants an opportunity to present their views of the workshop discussions. Most of the workshop discussion time was devoted to reflections by participants from the successor states to the former Soviet Union on ethnic relations in particular areas and on policies that might prevent, manage, or ameliorate ethnic conflict.

A major focus of the workshop was on the institutions, processes, and strategies for conflict management that balance competing communal interests in democratic, multiethnic states. The workshop organizers anticipated that a broad consideration of the experiences of many countries would suggest approaches applicable to the contemporary situation within and between the successor states to the Soviet Union.

The importance of the topics discussed—nationalism, human rights, and democratization—and the tremendous interest in strategies that can effectively safeguard and balance diverse ethnic interests in multiethnic states produced a large and diverse turnout at the workshop. Participation by individuals from throughout the Russian Federation, Central Asia, the Baltic, and beyond enriched the debate, but the number and diversity of the participants made it difficult to discuss particu-

lar institutional arrangements or strategies in any great depth or in particular national contexts.

Workshop organizers and participants considered the meeting to be an excellent first step in what should be an ongoing dialogue. Future collaborations are now being planned that will follow the topics discussed at this workshop and allow participants to analyze in greater depth and in the light of comparative knowledge various policy options that might be implemented in the successor states to the Soviet Union. We anticipate that these collaborations will include discussions in autonomous political regions outside Moscow, where political systems are being redesigned and the experiences of other multiethnic societies may be of the greatest practical use.

The workshop would not have been possible without the long-term commitment of the cochairs, John Comaroff and Valery Tishkov, who foresaw the importance of the activity in 1990 and were active at all stages. The staff of the Committee on International Conflict and Cooperation and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology were also indispensable for their persistence, commitment, and organizational efforts. Special thanks are due to Lee Walker, Paul Stern, and Mary Thomas at the committee and Anatoly Yamskov and Yelena Sorokina at the institute. The transformation of a long and full workshop program into a coherent summary document is due to the work of Lee Walker and Paul Stern, at the committee, and the institute staff, who translated the report into Russian. Finally, we gratefully acknowledge the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace, which provided funds for U.S. participation and for producing the report, and the Russian Academy of Sciences, which provided support on the Russian side.

Sidney Verba, Chair

Committee on International

Conflict and Cooperation