The resulting "nations" started their ill-starred journey with ethnic and nationalist grievances. Nations whose territory is disputed by different groups are like landowners whose property rights are insecure. The insecure landowner will divert effort away from investing in the fertility of the soil or constructing a lovely house and toward litigation and shotgun defense of his property. Nations with insecure orders will have more civil and international wars. They will devote more effort to defense and less effort to investing in the productive potential of the nation. Gangsters will exploit ethnic hatreds to promote their own self-serving agendas.
From Easterly in The White Man's Burden.
From Easterly in The White Man's Burden.