Negotiating Identity Conflicts in a Fragmenting World Order
Meerts, P.W. & Anstey, M. (Eds.). (2026). Negotiating identity conflicts in a fragmenting world order. Manchester University Press.
Abstract
Rapid systemic change within and across nations is disrupting traditional processes of identity formation and the ways groups manage their differences. The result is fragmentation: multiple identity groups making maximalist claims on governments and on one another. Internationally, a new tripolar imperialism is emerging, globalisation is weakening under US protectionism, and the United Nations' capacity to fulfil its mission has been eroded. Within states, democracy has been in retreat for two decades. Some governments build physical or digital walls to exclude outsiders; others push vulnerable groups out or deny minorities autonomy, while minorities resist majority rule. Traditional religions are divided over gender, sexuality, and human rights. As intolerance grows and interest in accommodation declines, we must rethink diplomacy, political design, and how identity can be negotiated in an era reshaped by cyber communication and AI.
Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction - Mark Anstey
Part One: Identity, fragmentation and negotiation
Chapter 2. Negotiating Identity: cohesion and fragmentation - I William Zartman
Chapter 3. Identity in Diplomatic Negotiation: A Double-Edged Sword - Paul Meerts
Chapter 4. Negotiating problems of fragmentation at the levels of states - Mark Anstey
Part Two: Two bloody conflicts: failures in identity negotiations
Chapter 5. Fading Signals. How Fastened Identities Undermined Strategic Stability in the Post-Cold War Era - Mikhail Troitskiy
Chapter 6. Israel and Palestine: Identity, Fragmentation and Negotiation at the Navel of the World - Mark Anstey and Paul Meerts
Part Three: The European Union: coherence dilemmas in a multi-identity association of states
Chapter 7. Identification processes and cultures of negotiation in EU policy making - Alain Guggenbuhl
Chapter 8. Political Identity, Nondomination and the European Union - Rudolf Schuessler
Chapter 9. Winning a Battle, Losing the War: Bulgaria's Veto to the EU accession of North Macedonia - Ida Manton
Part Four: Experiences in developing countries
Chapter 10. Transitioning Identities: the Colombian Peace Negotiations 2010-2016 - Paula Garzon and Frans Schram
Chapter 11. The Normative Dance: the use of mediation in Mali as a Space of Norm Contestation between a regional organisation and a member state - Brown Odigie and Jose Pascal da Rocha
Part Five: Detoxifying relations
Chapter 12. Decoding the New Geopolitics of Cyberspace, Hybrid Operations and Emerging Technologies and Their Impact on States and Society - Christina Schori Liang
Chapter 13. In Conclusion - Mark Anstey
Appendix 1. Secretary General's Address to the General Assembly 19th September 2023.
About the Editors
Paul Meerts is Deputy General Director Emeritus of the Netherlands Institute of International ‘Clingendael’ Leiden University and member of the Steering Committee of the Processes of International Negotiation (PIN) Program.
Mark Anstey is a professor emeritus of Nelson Mandela University in South Africa
