I. Introduction 

In the past few decades, the world has seen numerous cases of ethnic conflict break out. This was 

extremely surprising for most intellectuals as it was believed that in the face of state-formation 

and globalization, ethnic identities would be blurred and would eventually phase out. Thus in the 

post-80’s era, the emergence of ethnic identities which were stronger than ever and the eruption 

of large scale violence driven by ethnic tensions was a cause for both, surprise and concern. 

Naturally, this led to the ubiquitous question: What causes ethnic tensions to escalate to the point of large scale genocide? The answer has been examined from all possible angles using different case studies. This paper shall attempt to outline the main factors which lead to ethnic violence, 

and will point out how various cases of ethnic conflict, even though they occurred in different 

parts of the world, and indeed, at different times, usually have the same common elements to 

them. In this paper, Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina will be used as case studies to elaborate 

the aforementioned framework.