Uncertain Globalization: Refugee Movements in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
Author(s)
Suhrke, Astri
Abstract
The proximate causes of refugee flows during the second half of the twentieth century have varied in the extent to which they have been connected. The clearest cases are those linked to the decolonization process and the Cold War. In the 1980s, in particular, a series of local conflicts and associated refugee flows acquired a distinct Cold War imprint as they became drawn into and shaped by the superpower rivalry. The end of the Cold War meant that local conflict dynamics again came to prevail. Refugee flows generally underwent a strategic devaluation: their political significance came to depend chiefly on the regional or local political context.
