religious difference emphasizes a linguistically striking and possibly historical difference between
groups within the population, in the case of ethno-nationalist actors the (defensive or offensive)
motivation of “us-versus-them” often to be seen in the “micro-national” segment evidently strong
enough to accept the price of escalation to the extreme.
4.2.3 The importance of religiously-defined actors is increasing, while the number of
“ethnic” actors in conflicts has remained relatively constant
If we consider the involvement of the different groups of actors in the different types of cultural conflict8
(across all five intensity levels), then we see that religious groups (as was to be expected) are
most frequently involved in religious conflicts. Their involvement has risen dramatically in particular
since 1998 (see chart 6). This is in line with the finding that the number of religious conflicts has
clearly grown since that same year. Our findings thus indicate a factual increase in the importance
of religiously defined actors and the religious issues they highlight.