Summary

• Identity politics mobilized along ethnic and/or religious lines has filled the vacuum created by the demise of ideological contenders for universal allegiance at the end of the twentieth century. It constitutes the driving force behind fragmentation and undermines the nation-state as the organizing unit of international relations.
• The unraveling of the nation-state and its monopoly on the use of force has dire consequences for order and predictability upon which security, stability, development and prosperity have been based.
• A healthy response requires strengthening the capacity of governments and societies to negotiate effective and legitimate solutions to existing problems and disagreements among them.