People everywhere are more dependent than ever on foreign migrants, products, and ideas—and more xenophobic. Intolerance and hate-based violence is on the rise in countries from Hungary to South Africa, threatening global security. With Interdependent Yet Intolerant, Robert Mandel explains why we live in an unexpectedly and increasingly hateful world, why existing policies have done little to help, and what needs to be done.

Through an in-depth analysis of case studies from twelve diverse countries that have experienced violence between native citizens and foreign migrants, Mandel finds that the interdependence of the current liberal international order does not breed mutual understanding between groups through increased contact, but rather, under specific conditions, stimulates boomerang effects in the exact opposite direction. And the very policy measures intended to decrease violence—from heightened border enforcement intended to minimize instability, to intergovernmental payoffs to other countries to keep foreigners away, as in the EU—only inflame intolerance and promote global insecurity.

Providing practical policy recommendations for managing identity-based violence in an age of mass migration and globalization, Interdependent Yet Intolerant calls on societies around the world to rethink their predominant notions of national identity and control.