Riggs argues that this process is continuing into the present. The ideology that states are based on rights linked to culture and ethnicity or other forms of particularisms is now moving downward to the subnational level as multinational empires break up. The third Tsunumi will involve the conflict between subnationalism and nationalism. The UN and other international bodies will be busy trying to maintain states and state boundaries. Handleman does a better job at explaining these particularisms.
Ethnic groups are groups that claim a common history, tradition, beliefs, and ancestry.
Because emany states are artificial states linking diverse people, ethnic conflict affects the state because any change threatens to disrupt the balance of power between often conflicting groups. You find examples of this in the Punjab of India, in East Timor, and in Ethiopia. Handleman defines a nationality as a population with its own language, cultural traditions, historical aspirations, and which claims sovereignty over a specific area. The sense of nationality is subjective and tends to emerge when an ethnic minority is concentrated in a particular region. He presents as an example the Hindu Tamils in Northeast Sri Lanka who want to create their own state of Eelam and are in armed conflict with the Bhuddist Sinhalese who control the rest of the Islan of Sri Lanka.