Introduction

Abstract

This book is about the role of cultural and political identities in generating (or settling) conflicts, and includes both attempts to work out a theoretical frame of reference (Part one) and to analyse the Mediterranean as a case-study (Part two). Depending on the reader’s prevailing interest, the volume can also be described the other way around: a study on cultural, especially religious identities in the Mediterranean area as a source of present conflicts, however a study in which general questions concerning the notion of identity are discussed. We hope that a book, which puts together the views of political philosophers, sociologists, historians and International Relations scholars, may have some effect of cross-fertilization.