Volker Prott

Volker Prott argues that at both the international and the local levels, key actors simplify the acclaimed principle of national self-determination by using ethnic definitions of national identity. While the Allies thus hoped to avoid uncomfortable decisions and painstaking efforts to establish an show more elusive popular will, local elites, administrations, and paramilitary leaders soon used ethnic notions of identity to mobilize popular support under the guise of international legitimacy. Henceforth, national self-determination ceased to be a tool of peace-making and instead became an ideology of violent resistance. show less