ROBERT NALBANDOV: Foreign Interventions in Ethnic Conflicts Farnham 2009 Ashgate Publishing, 206 p. W hat makes some foreign interventions in ethnic conflicts more successful than others? This is the question Robert Nalbandov raises, analyzing the success and the failure of foreign interventions in intra-state ethnic conflicts, not using the traditional approach of determining whether the outcome was the es­tablishment of durable peace in a target country, but rather on the basis of the real fulfillment of unique third party goals and objectives, thereby creating a new goal-oriented approach. Nalbandov argues that our history and development are conducted – and thus our contemporary world order is shaped – in the form of a constant struggle for existence, power and resources in inter- and intra-state con­flicts. This pessimistic background on which Nalbandov’s work draws places his research within a realistic tradition. After providing a broad and detailed context of theories on third-party inter­ventions – which is also a good overview of the recent research in the field of in­ternational security and conflict resolution – Nalbandov presents a technical and detailed quantitative analysis of foreign interventions in ethnic conflicts since World War II. In an attempt to define the causal factors that contribute to or impede the success of interventions, Nalbandov extends this rather theoretical background through four informative and interesting case studies before reach­ing his conclusion. Nalbandov contends that the end of the Cold War and the simultaneous dis­solution of a relatively stable and clearly situated world structure resulted, on the one hand, in a new era of democratization within the international system, but also encouraged the proliferation of severe ethnic clashes both within and be­tween state territories. Although such conflicts existed before and during the Cold War, Nalbandov argues that these divisions remained relatively clearly ar­ranged and tightly controlled within the context of the two ideological super­powers. Globalization and the emerging multi-polar international system meant that wars between states became more and more costly and less likely to reveal a clear winner – as we can see in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, intra-state con­flicts have emerged as the more dominant form of conflict, or at least have gained greater international attention. According to Nalbandov,»Ethnicity and nationalism became(again) key dis­tinguishing features of groups representing country populations« in a more glo­balized world without a stable order. While this may be true, it is not necessarily a new or recent development. Ethnicity and nationalism have been key driving forces in conflicts during the past century, and were also a dominant influence in several hegemonic or ideological conflicts. Nowadays, such ethnic conflicts, espe­166 Rezensionen/Book Reviews ipg 3/2010