Throughout this book, I explore the impact of education on ethnic violence. Using a mixed-methods design that combines cross-national statistics with comparative-historical analysis, I provide consistent evidence that education contributes to ethnic violence. First, the statistical analysis finds that education increases the risk of ethnic violence, especially in environments with ethnic diversity, resource scarcity, and ineffective political institutions. The statistical analysis also offers evidence that the relationship between education and ethnic violence is not driven by the impact of ethnic violence on educational expansion. Next, through a comparative-historical analysis using pattern matching, process tracing, and narrative comparison, I highlight sequences showing that educational expansion precedes ethnic violence, provide evidence that educated individuals commonly organize ethnically violent movements and actively participate in violence, and highlight mechanisms linking education and ethnic violence. The comparative-historical analysis therefore reinforces the findings of the statistical analysis and offers important new insight that helps explain why education is positively related to ethnic violence. All in all, the findings suggest that popular beliefs about the impact of education on peace and tolerance are one-sided and must be reconsidered.

The analysis highlights four mechanisms through which education can contribute to ethnic violence. Through the mechanisms, education shapes both the motivations and capacities of individuals to organize and participate in violent ethnic movements. Through the socialization mechanism, education shapes how people perceive themselves, others, and the appropriateness of relations with ethnic others. The analysis fails to support strong constructivist views suggesting that educational socialization can construct identities from scratch and create intercommunal animosity when none existed previously. Instead, I find that education can strengthen, legitimize, and popularize preexisting views and divisions, and that these effects – while less influential than the strong constructivist position claims – still contribute to ethnic violence. Second, I find that education increases the expectations and assertiveness of individuals. Thus, in environments that offer limited opportunities for the educated to meet their expectations, they are at a heightened risk of frustration and aggression. Third, education can place individuals at a heightened risk of intercommunal competition. Competition is often intense for white-collar jobs and political power, and the educated compete for both. As a consequence, the educated are more likely to use violence as a means of eliminating ethnic rivals. More directly, people commonly compete over access to schools and control of the curriculum. The mobilization mechanism is the fourth and final mechanism linking education and ethnic violence. I find that education provides several resources that individuals commonly use to mobilize ethnic violence.