American Notes: Tribal Turmoil-- Elsewhere

There has been no global bloodletting in the years since World War II, but—almost as if by some law of compensation —internal strife has risen to an extraordinary degree. Old claims and ancient grievances, seemingly long forgotten in modern nation-states, flared up with greater virulence than ever.

Constitutional guarantees of civil rights were suspended in Canada last week after French separatists kidnaped officials to dramatize their claim for sovereignty. The southern tip of Italy barricaded itself against the rest of the country to assert a historical fealty to its traditional capital. Northern Ireland continued to smolder among its centuries-old religious...