Conflict Dynamics and Causes of Conflict

Rene Girard makes a pretty convincing argument that human culture is founded on a scapegoating mechanism - we keep our peace and happiness by finding the guilt and ugliness in the Other. We create unity and community by excluding what is "bad" out there. Most of us have learned to form our identities in ways that are in opposition to other people rather than for them. We don't know how to have an "us" unless there is a "them." It's how we do politics, religion, comedy. It works (at some level). But it isn't harmless. Girard would say this mechanism is the foundation of violence.

• Debbie Blue, Geez Magazine, Summer 2012

Our key focus this lesson is on what causes conflict. There are complex dynamics at play in individual relationship, societies, nations and states that can cause conflict and our goal in this lesson is to highlight some of these without generalizing too much.

Prescribed Content:

• Causes of conflict

• Conflict dynamics

By conflict we mean the pursuit of incompatible goals by different groups. This suggests a broader span of time and a wider class of struggle than armed conflict. We intend our usage here to apply to any political conflict, whether it is pursued by peaceful means or by the use of force. (Some theorists, notably John Burton, have distinguished between disputes about negotiable interests that can be settled by compromise and more deep- seated conflicts that involve human needs and can be resolved only by removing underlying causes.)

Armed conflict is a narrower category denoting a conflict where parties on both sides resort to the use of force. It is notoriously difficult to define, since it can encompass a continuum of situations ranging from a military overflight or an attack on a civilian by a single soldier to an all- out war with massive casualties. The research community has identified a number of thresholds and rules for deciding what to count.

Violent conflict, or deadly conflict, is similar to armed conflict, but also includes one- sided violence such as genocides against unarmed civilians. We mean direct, physical violence. We acknowledge the strong argument in peace research for broadening the concept of violence to encompass exploitative social relations that cause unnecessary suffering, but prefer to use the now well- known term ‘structural violence’ for this.

Contemporary conflict refers to the prevailing pattern of political and violent conflicts at the beginning of the twenty- first century; contemporary armed conflict refers only to those that involve the use of force.

Conflict settlement means the reaching of an agreement between the parties to settle a political conflict, so forestalling or ending an armed conflict. This suggests finality, but in practice conflicts that have reached settlements are often reopened later. Conflict attitudes and underlying structural contradictions may not have been addressed.

• From Contemporary Conflict Resolution by Hugh Miall, Oliver Ramsbotham, and Tom Woodhouse

Complete your conflict case study template for Ethiopia: Complete the tables for Galtung’s Conflict Triangles and Brown’s Causes of Internal Conflict.

Conflict Quiz