An ethnic conflict or ethnic war is a conflict between ethnic groups often as a result of ethnic nationalism. They are of interest because of the apparent prevalence since the Cold War and because they frequently result in war crimes such as genocide. Academic explanations of ethnic conflict generally fall into one of three schools of thought: primordialist, instrumentalist or constructivist. Intellectual debate has also focused around the issue of whether ethnic conflict has become more prevalent since the end of the Cold War, and on devising ways of managing conflicts, through instruments such as consociationalism and federalisation.

The causes of ethnic conflict are debated by political scientists and sociologists who generally fall into one of three schools of thought: primordialist, instrumentalist, and constructivist. More recent scholarship draws on all three schools in order to increase our understanding of ethnic conflict.

Proponents of primordialist accounts of ethnic conflict argue that “[e]thnic groups and nationalities exist because there are traditions of belief and action towards primordial objects such as biological features and especially territorial location”. The primordialist account relies on a concept of kinship between members of an ethnic group. Donald L. Horowitz argues that this kinship “makes it possible for ethnic groups to think in terms of family resemblances”.

Lisa Anderson is the President of the American University in Cairo, Egypt. She assumed this position in January 2011 after having served as Provost of the same institution from September 2008 through December 2010. Her academic background is as a professor of international relations, with special expertise in state formation and regime change. As a specialist on Libya, she has made numerous media appearances in connection with the political turmoil that erupted there in 2011.

Anderson holds a Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a Ph.D in political science from Columbia University, where she also received a certificate from the Middle East Institute.

From 1981 to 1986, Anderson was an assistant professor of government and social studies at Harvard University. In 1986, Anderson joined the faculty of Columbia University. Anderson was James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs and served as director of Columbia's Middle East Institute from 1990 to 1993. From 1997 until 2007 she served as dean of the faculty.

Abbas Malekzadeh Milani (Persian: عباس ملک‌زاده میلانی‎; born 1949) is an Iranian-American historian and author. Milani is a visiting professor of Political Science and the director of the Iranian Studies program at Stanford University. He is also a research fellow and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Milani has found evidence that Persian modernism dates back to more than 1000 years ago.

Milani was born in Iran to a prosperous family and was sent to California when he was sixteen, graduating from Oakland Technical High School in 1966 after only one year of studies. Milani earned his B.A. in political science and economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970 and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Hawaii in 1974.

With his girlfriend Fereshteh, Milani returned to Iran to serve as an assistant professor of political science at the National University of Iran from 1975 to 1977. He lectured on Marxist themes veiled in metaphor but was jailed for one year as a political prisoner for "activities against the government". He was a research fellow at the Iranian Center for Social Research from 1977 to 1978. He was also an assistant professor of law and political science at the University of Tehran and a member of the board of directors of Tehran University's Center for International Studies from 1979 to 1986, but after the Iranian Revolution he was not allowed to publish or teach. With his young son Hamid and his wife Fereshteh, he left Iran in 1986.

The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), codenamed Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 – 28 February 1991) commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a UN-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.

The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf War, Gulf War I, or the Iraq War, before the term "Iraq War" became identified instead with the 2003 Iraq War (also referred to in the U.S. as "Operation Iraqi Freedom").

The invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi troops that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. U.S. President George H. W. Bush deployed American forces into Saudi Arabia, and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. An array of nations joined the coalition. The great majority of the military forces in the coalition were from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Egypt as leading contributors, in that order. Around US$36 billion of the US$60 billion cost was paid by Saudi Arabia.

Persian Arab generally refers to people who are of both Arab and Persian ethnic or cultural background.

In pre-Islamic times, there were many Arabs who lived in the cultural sphere of Persia and who use Persian as their written language. These are referred to as Persian Arabs (in Arabic العرب الفرس al-?arab al-furas).

Persians also traded with the Arabs in Arabia and there were Persians living in Arabia, who also spoke Arabic. One of Muhammed's early followers, Salman Al-Farsi, was Persian.

After the rise of Islam and the Arab conquest of Persia, Persians in turn began to use Arabic as their written language. Many famous Arabic writers were ethnic Persians and others (e.g. Harun Al-Rashid) were of mixed ancestry.

During the various Islamic kingdoms and empires, there was much intermixture between Persian and Arabs.

Arabs and Persians acted together in spreading Islam to new grounds and members of Muslim communities in e.g. China (see Hui Chinese, Uyghur people), India (see Ashraaf, Iraqi Biradri, Bihari Muslims, Indian Muslims)consider themselves to be descendants of Arabs or Persians or both (of traders, soldiers or religious figures). In other words, they have Persian Arab roots.