Originally posted by Rictor
But what is implied by Janos is that all these clans will somehow have a go at each other at the drop of a hat. I don't know exacty how the clan system works, having never lived in a country that has one, but am I right in thinking that there isn't a whole lot of animosity between the clans anymore, and even if there s, that people don't identify themselves primarily as members of such and such a clan?
No, no, most likely not they won't go at each other, but in society like Iraq the chance is not theoretical. The clans are not just family-based, but also religion/ethnicity-based.
Pretty universally, every country with strong clan-based societies or many different ethnic groups living among each needs a strong central government to prevent the clans from trying to dictate the policies in and near their respective areas [no ****, sherlock!]. In a case of civil unrest and power vacuum, these checks and balances naturally fail.
It does not mean that the clans will immediately and automatically go after each other crying for blood, but more that the means to prevent such thing from happening do not exist.
Unless one of the different groups and alliances gains superiority in such situation and can simply override the other groups in one way or another [having more political influence, direct involvement and so on..], the possibility of impending catastrophe in diversed enviroment usually causes the different groups to try to make sure that they will survive/maintain status quo/get stronger.
In the case of power collapse and possible civil war, it would get really messy. Since different powerhouses support different factions and vice versa, even small conflicts have possibility to escalte quickly if there's no way to punish these semi-sovereign entities from even thinking that [read: central governmen, occupying force or any other suprior authority in said situation).
There are pretty much examples of such situations. Say, Afghanistan - there was a strong central government before Soviet invasion. After Soviets left, there was pretty much no one to get the upper hand at once, so the country kinda collapsed. Later, Talibans were able to drive the other groups into corner (they, naturally, had an uneasy peace treaty with each other because Talibans were much greater threat). As soon as Taliban regime fell, the different powerhouses began to gain more power. Now, there's the international group to try to prevent yet another bloodshed, but it seems a pretty tough task. Actually, this also applies to much of Caucasian Asia.
Somalia is yet another example, though the traditional rules gave the clans much greater power than in Afghanistan.
I know this was a long and incoherent post, but I think you'll get my point.
