Dominant Ethnicity: From Background to Foreground word count 4951 25.11.03 Today's nations are experiencing an unprecedented degree of pressure from the forces of globalisation. In particular, the spread of human and collective rights discourse since the 1960s has mounted an increasing challenge to the model of ethno-national congruence. Nations, nearly all of which were formed on the basis of a dominant, 'core' ethnic group, are thus facing pressure to shift their self-definitions from 'ethnic' to 'civic' criteria. They are encouraged to look to their future rather than their past, to treasure their cultural diversity (past and present) rather than their homogeneity, to recognise the autonomy claims of minorities and to be open to foreign trade, foreign immigration, and foreign ('multi') cultural influences. In short, global narratives of liberal multiculturalism, embedded in both global and national institutions, are driving an ever-greater wedge between modern nations and their dominant ethnic groups. Meanwhile, the aftermath of the Cold War and the attendant loss of ideological discipline have led to a fracturing of many fragile ex-communist and post-colonial regimes along ethnic lines. The new wave of democratisation in the former communist bloc and many parts of Africa and Asia has given a boost to ethnic party systems, accentuating the trend. Iraq and Afghanistan are exhibiting similar tendencies post-9/11, suggesting yet a further dynamic of dominant ethnicisation. Never before have dominant ethnic constituencies been appealed to so narrowly and directly. Add the aforementioned globalising pressures 1