  The force of the ethnic separatism, essentially origining from negative
effect of ethnic identity, is damaging the stability and harmony of multiethnic
countries. In order to eliminate the foundation of the ethnic separatism and
set up a harmonious ethnic relationship, some scholars have proposed a
viewpoint: ethnic harmony could be promoted by popularizing civic identity.
However, this viewpoint is discussed only from a philosophical prospective and
still lack supports of scientific evidences. Because ethic group and ethnic
identity are products of evolution and ethnic identity is the parochialism
strategy under the perspective of game theory, this paper proposes an
evolutionary game simulation model to study the relationship between civic
identity and ethnic conflict based on evolutionary game theory. The simulation
results indicate that: 1) the ratio of individuals with civic identity has a
positive association with the frequency of ethnic conflicts; 2) ethnic conflict
will not die out by killing all ethnic members once for all, and it also cannot
be reduced by a forcible pressure, i.e., increasing the ratio of individuals
with civic identity; 3) the average frequencies of conflicts can stay in a low
level by promoting civic identity periodically and persistently.
