Few nations today are ethnically homogenous and many are grappling for solutions to ethnic conflicts and crises. While some governments seek quick solutions through brute force, many first consider diplomatic and other peaceful strategies. Indeed, although some ethnic conflicts may never be completely resolved, many nations have successfully avoided or ended serious ethnic violence through peaceful economic, political, and social means.

Such options are frequently applied to ethnic trouble spots by the United Nations, the world’s largest peacekeeping body. For example, one of the UN’s goals is to use diplomacy to prevent violence from breaking out. In July 1992, the UN sent a team on a fact-finding mission to Moldova, a former Soviet republic southwest of Russia and Ukraine, where armed Russian residents had begun fighting troops of the newly independent country. UN undersecretary general of political affairs...