Distribution by Region

Distribution by Organisation Type, Document Type, Region and Year

Conflict occurs mostly in documents published in Europe, followed by North America, Asia, Africa and MENA with comparatively smaller contributions. Overall, the top five contributors in terms of occurrences are NGO, IGO, RC, NGO_Fed and Found organisations.

NGO, RC, NGO_Fed and Found documents provide the greatest number of occurrences, primarily from activity reports published in Europe Occurrences from IGO were mostly obtained from general documents published in Europe.

Conflict ...

• is a

  • type of / form of violence

  • situation of violence (particularly in Red Cross texts)

  • emergency / humanitarian crisis

  • catastrophe / disaster / shock

  • security factor

  • challenge / problem

  • altercation / dispute

• is rarely defined explicitly

• usually refers to armed conflict

  • Uppsala Conflict Data Program having the most widespread definition

  • which has multiple types

    • interstate

    • internal

    • internationalized internal

    • extrasystemic

    • non-international

    • ongoing

    • war

• can have qualitative & quantitative characteristics

  • the use of armed force or protracted armed violence within a State

  • altercations with the use of force

  • including some nonviolent activity

  • two parties, including one government

  • resulting in 25 deaths in from battle in a year (i.e., an armed conflict)

  • resulting in 1,000 deaths in from battle in a year (i.e., a war)

  • internal disputes with victims and perpetrators

• has causes / motivations, including

  • human movement

  • violence

  • land & resources

  • natural disaster

  • historical grievances

  • humanitarian programmes

  • inequality

• has effects, including

  • human movement

  • violence, sexual violence, suffering, death

  • food insecurity, famine

  • health issues (e.g. outbreaks, HIV)

  • organisational challenges

  • economic, social, political decline

• is often protracted / prolonged / persistent

• takes place at various levels

  • internal

  • local

  • regional

  • global

• has intensities

  • low-intensity

  • intense / major / devastating

• has modes

  • armed hostilities

  • other violence

  • political / social disputes

• has participants

  • Syrian

  • ethnic

  • community

  • military

  • family

• has phases

  • potential

  • active

  • frozen

  • recurring

  • open

• has locations

  • Karabakh

  • South Sudan

  • Western Sahara

  • Syria

  • border

• has timescales

  • past, current, modern

• is changing

  • departing from traditional wars between nations

  • with self-defence, combatant & civilian being contested concepts

  • with no clear-cut end

  • due to climate change, cyberspace

• is addressed with conflict prevention, which

  • may be poorly understood

  • is more cost efficient

  • can be nationally driven

  • is linked to peacebuilding

  • can save lives when training is given directly to affected civilians

  • can be difficult to measure

• is addressed with conflict resolution, which

  • can be traditional (indigenous, local)

  • non-traditional (imported, Western)

  • requires cultural sensitivity

  • needs a Track 6 approach

  • can function at a community level

  • is linked to peacebuilding

• can be prolonged, worsened by humanitarian aid

  • creating aid dependency

  • providing resources to actors

  • influencing economic systems

  • with aid used as a weapon

  • which is addressed with

    • conflict sensitivity

    • Do No Harm

    • cause & response mapping

  • which requires accountability

• must be better understood

• must not be aggravated by humanitarian action

• must be resolved with more women playing part in peacebuilding

• can be integrated with disaster response, development activities

The chapter adopts the definition of conflict by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as "whenever there is a resort to armed force between States or protracted armed violence between government authorities and organised armed groups or between such groups within a State" (cited in Bailes and Nord, 2010).

ACLED defines a conflict event as "a single altercation where often force is used by one or more groups for a political end, although some instances – including protests and non-violent activity – are included in the dataset to capture the potential pre-cursors or critical junctures of a conflict.

We define as conflicts those that involve two parties, of which one is the government of a state, and that result in at least 1,000 battlerelated deaths in one year, and exclude interstate armed conflicts between two or more states, so that our variable covers only "civil" conflicts.

Conflict-related violence regularly blends with criminality, and is continuously fed by war economies and the political exploitation of ethnic and religious differences. 1 In this document, the term 'armed conflict and other situations of violence' will be shortened to 'conflict and violence' for ease of reading. Please note that the ICRC uses 'other situations of violence' (hereafter 'violence') to refer to situations of collective violence, perpetrated by one or several groups, that do not reach the threshold of an 'armed conflict', but that may have significant humanitarian consequences.

Most conflicts are internal disputes that take place in developing countries, primarily in the poorest countries and regions. In such internal conflicts, not only combatants but also ordinary citizens and children become both victims and perpetrators.

• violence / situation, form of violence

• emergency

• crisis / humanitarian crisis

  • war

• catastrophe / disaster

  • natural disaster

• shock

  • disaster

• security factor

• challenge / problem

  • income disparity

• altercation

• cause / motivation

  • resource conflict

  • man-made conflict

  • water conflict

• duration

  • ongoing conflict *

  • protracted conflict *

  • continued conflict

  • intractable conflict

  • prolonged conflict

  • chronic conflict

  • long-standing conflict

  • persistent conflict

  • long conflict

  • long-running conflict

  • long-term conflict

• extension

  • internal conflict *

  • local conflict *

  • regional conflict *

  • widespread conflict

  • wider conflict

  • international conflict

  • localized conflict

  • cross-border conflict

  • global conflict

  • external conflict

  • intra-state conflict

  • national conflict

  • domestic conflict

  • inter-state conflict

  • interstate conflict

• intensity

  • low-intensity conflict

  • devastating conflict

  • intensifying conflict

  • intense conflict

  • serious conflict

  • major conflict

  • bloody conflict

  • destructive conflict

• mode

  • armed conflict *

  • violent conflict *

  • political conflict *

  • social conflict

• participant

  • syrian conflict *

  • ethnic conflict *

  • community conflict

  • sectarian conflict

  • intercommunal conflict

  • israeli-palestinian conflict

  • military conflict

  • tribal conflict

  • human conflict

  • arab-israeli conflict

  • clan conflict

  • communal conflict

  • religious conflict

  • inter-ethnic conflict

  • family conflict

  • palestinian-israeli conflict

  • georgian-abkhaz conflict

  • inter-tribal conflict

• phase

  • active conflict *

  • frozen conflict

  • recurring conflict

  • renewed conflict

  • unresolved conflict

  • existing conflict

  • acute conflict

  • emerging conflict

  • forgotten conflict

  • worsening conflict

  • recurrent conflict

  • open conflict

• location

  • Karabakh conflict, Nagorny Karabakh conflict *

  • conflict in South Sudan *

  • Western Sahara conflict, Sahara conflict *

  • Syria conflict

  • border conflict

  • conflict in Sri Lanka

  • Darfur conflict

  • Gaza conflict

  • Kosovo conflict

  • Transdniestrian conflict

  • Palestinian conflict

  • Malian conflict

  • Israeli conflict

• timescale

  • past conflict *

  • current conflict *

  • new conflict *

  • potential conflict *

  • future conflict

  • recent conflict

  • previous conflict

  • today's conflict

  • contemporary conflict

  • modern conflict

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program/ Peace Research Institute Oslo defines four types of armed conflict: interstate, which occurs between two or more states, internal, which occurs between the government of a state and one or more internal opposition groups without intervention from other states, internationalized internal, which occurs between the government of a state and one or more internal opposition groups with intervention from other states (secondary parties) on one or both sides, and extrasystemic, which occurs between a state and a nonstate group outside its own territory. Extrasystemic conflicts mainly relate to the colonial wars. To reduce the number of categories, extrasystemic conflicts are included in interstate conflicts, and internationalized internal conflicts are included in internal conflicts.

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) collects information on a large number of aspects of armed violence since 1946. According to UCDP, an armed conflict concerns government and/or territory where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is the government of a state, results in at least 25 battle-related deaths in one calendar year. The intensity variable is coded in two categories: Minor: At least 25 but less than 1000 battle-related deaths in a year. War: at least 1000 battle-related deaths in a year.

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) UCDP has been recording data on ongoing violent conflicts since the 1970s. Its definition of armed conflict – 'a contested incompatibility that concerns government and/or territory where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is the government of a state, results in at least 25 battle-related deaths in one calendar year' – is becoming a standard in how conflicts are systematically defined and studied.

Armed Conflict: A dispute involving the use of armed force between two or more parties. International humanitarian law distinguishes between international and non-international armed conflicts.

• International armed conflict: A war involving two or more states, regardless of whether declaration of war has been made or whether the parties recognize that there is a state of war.

• Non-international armed conflict: A conflict in which government forces are fighting with armed insurgents, or armed groups are fighting amongst themselves.

Mention is made of some of the negotiations entered into with a view to bringing protection and assistance to the victims of international and non-international armed conflicts and other situations of violence.

The notions of ‘war’ and ‘peace’ are increasingly outdated. The definition of war as a state of violent conflict between nation states is disappearing in international relations. Instead, violence is dispersed among different players inside and across the territories of different countries. It may be and usually is caused by a variety of motivations: political, criminal, a demand for resources, ethnic or religious. National armies are increasingly competing with different groups of privately organised armed forces, guerrillas, mercenaries or other guns for hire. At the same time, peace as a state of calm brokered within the realm of governments is becoming less important in providing security and freedom from fear for ordinary people.

Public posturing notwithstanding, the roots of this phenomenon appear to run deep. The means of waging war have evolved and the traditional definitions of what war is, what self-defence means, and who constitutes a combatant or a civilian are being contested.

In the past, most major conflicts were triggered by territorial ambitions and fought in contained theatres of war. Today it is more likely the enemy is not a far away, foreign army but a fellow citizen or neighbour. The new reality of war means civilians become the primary targets and actors in armed conflicts. And it means traditional methods of high-level diplomatic talks, ceasefires and peace agreements are no longer sufficient for tackling the root causes of conflict and creating lasting peace.

causes

• human movement

  • migration

  • resettlement programmes

• violence

  • the spread of small arms

  • insecurity

  • gender-based violence

• land & resources

  • use, access, control, ownership

  • territorial disputes

  • competition

  • water, coal

  • climate change

• natural disaster

• unresolved historical divisions

  • political, military, community

  • colonial wars

• humanitarian programmes

  • causing competition between groups/beneficiaries

• tension, grievances

  • socioeconomic, political

• inequality

  • exclusion

  • access to livelihood assets

  • injustice

  • poverty

• social & cultural factors

  • religion

  • lack of respect for people’s rights

  • cultural identity issues

  • breakdown of cultural values and norms

• political issues

  • poor governance

• the nature of the political system and development model

• domestic problems

  • crime

  • economic fragility

  • lack of social services

  • rapid population growth

effects

• human movement

  • expulsion

  • displacement (also as a weapon of war)

  • refugee crisis

  • migration

• violence

  • gender-based, sexual violence

  • unexploded ordinance

  • proliferation of small arms, weapons

• food insecurity, malnutrition, famine

• suffering

  • loss of human life

  • disability

  • injury

  • psychological effects

• health issues

  • outbreaks, disease, HIV/AIDS

  • lack of health care

• organisational challenges

  • logistics

  • follow-up

  • access

  • risk

  • insecurity

• economic, political, social decline

  • poverty

  • unemployment

  • underdevelopment

  • global economic costs

  • breakdown in education

  • disaffected youth

  • poor government accountability, performance

  • division between political systems

  • destruction of infrastructure

• humanitarian crisis, need

  • deteriorating human rights situations

  • forced recruitment

  • child marriage, labour

  • missing-persons cases

  • acute & chronic issues

• isolation

• disaster

Many of today's crises and conflicts span borders but can be traced to local grievances and situations in which people feel excluded from their society's political or economic life. Indeed, a lack of inclusion often grows to affect the society as a whole, making a country vulnerable not only to internal strife but to external groups adept at exploiting people's disgruntledness or the sense of exclusion they feel. This is not a new dynamic, but it is one that we probably don't think about enough.

Displacement in the region is highly complex because of the broad range of interlinked triggers and drivers at play. Disasters increase competition for land and resources, which can lead to violence and conflict. This in turn can increase communities' vulnerability to the impacts of natural hazards.

Some conflicts were directly programme related, for example disputes over ownership of the land where WASH infrastructure was to be placed, or over failure to reimburse funds under the Economic Empowerment programme.

Humanitarian response is not an easy task – there are numerous sectors of response that must come together to meet the needs of those affected by disasters or armed conflicts. Trying to over simplify the impact of disasters and conflicts on the lives of people to a series of numbers and dials is a risky undertaking. As humanitarian actors, we have a responsibility to those with whom, and for whom, we work – and that includes providing accurate portrayals of the situation in terms of both protection and assistance needs.

Over the past 10 years the cost of conflicts in terms of human lives has increased exponentially. An increasing number of people are forced to leave their homes and their countries: at the beginning of 2018, 65.6 million people are displaced due to conflict and violence and 22.5 million are refugees, half of whom are under 18 years of age. The growing number of conflicts and the scale of their impact influence the humanitarian assistance programmes. Today, about 97% of humanitarian assistance is dedicated to complex emergency situations: increasingly prolonged conflicts, which often last for decades, taking on regional implications; political solutions that are increasingly difficult to identify; increasingly frequent overlaps between crises produced by man and environmental crises.

India and China have been among the three countries with the largest number of disaster-affected people each year between 2000 and 2010. In 2010, two-thirds of disaster-affected people in developing countries lived in China alone. Conflict is the other major driver of humanitarian need, though the relationships between the incidence of conflict and volumes of humanitarian financing are not always straighforward.

Conflict is a leading cause of food insecurity and hunger in several parts of the world, undermining food security in multiple ways and creating access problems for governments and humanitarian agencies who often struggle to reach those most in need.

Armed conflict is the primary driver of displacement; associated reasons such as fear of forced recruitment, destruction of property, disappearance of family members, and expulsion by government forces or armed groups also played significant roles.

• conflict resolution

• conflict prevention

• conflict zone

• conflict situation

• conflict area

• conflict management

• conflict transformation

• conflict analysis

• conflict sensitivity

• conflict victim

• conflict setting

• conflict party

• conflict context

• conflict mitigation

Conflict prevention: Actions, policies and procedures undertaken in particularly vulnerable places and times in order to avoid the threat or use of armed force and related forms of coercion by states or groups as the way to settle the political disputes ... [Conflict prevention] can occur at two points in a typical conflict’s life history: (a) when there has not been a violent conflict in recent years, and before significant signals of violence [make] possible [the] escalation to sustained violent conflict ... and (b) when there has been a recent violent conflict but peace is being restored (Schmid, A.P., 1998).

Peacebuilding: Political, military, humanitarian and developmental interventions aiming to consolidate peaceful relations and strengthen viable political, socio-economic and cultural institutions capable of mediating conflict (Soges S.p.A, 2008).

Even though there is support for conflict prevention, it is still a poorly understood concept. For us, it is vital to keep on working on demystifying prevention as well as explaining how it can be applied in practice.

Crisis and conflict prevention are more cost-efficient than engaging after the damage has been done.

Experience shows that successful conflict prevention efforts are nationally driven and owned, with regional organizations and international actors playing a supporting role.

Peaceful Coexistence between ‘Traditional’ and ‘Non-Traditional’ Conflict Resolution Mechanisms

In many (post-)conflict countries with dual systems of justice and governance, there is little information about how traditional systems of conflict resolution relate to and interact with state-based approaches. This project filled this gap and analysed the forms of coexistence between ‘traditional’ (indigenous, local, community- based) and ‘non-traditional’ (imported, liberal, state- based, Western) approaches to conflict resolution, and their effects on conflict settlement processes and outcomes in communities.

"Jan Suphaphong also highlights the value of international expertise in her experiences of conflict resolution in Thailand, reiterating the need for such expertise to be imparted in a culturally-sensitive way: "International experts often bring a certain gravitas, when they have relevant experience to share – provided that they do it in a humble rather than a bullying way.

In conflict resolution and peacebuilding, adopting a "Track 6" approach is ever more important as the nature of conflict is changing.

The group exchanged points of view on the best way to deliver assistance so as to mitigate the risk of conflict or help to resolve it. General consensus was reached that communities benefited most from coordination between humanitarian action and conflict resolution at the community level.

‘Does humanitarian aid prolong conflict?’ Everyone in the humanitarian world knows the problems and negative effects of humanitarian aid. Conflict parties often manipulate aid for their own benefit; agencies create aid dependency; aid is used as a substitute for political action; there is the concern of aid giving power to belligerents. These and other issues can influence the dynamics of conflict in its duration and violence.

We would rather not overlook anything that makes a difficult situation more vulnerable. It is challenging to avoid mistakes, not least in countries with a climate of political instability or those that suffer recurring natural disasters. In aid jargon, we call this “conflict sensitivity”. In practical terms, it means that we study how a project is perceived in the context of its implementation, and if we think that there have been negative consequences, we work with these and point them in a positive direction instead.

It is not the prospect of foreign aid per se that generates conflict in Somalia, but rather the prospect of foreign aid with so little accountability over how it is spent. Clashes can occur at the local level as well, where the principal prize is usually the resources of aid agencies. External political and humanitarian actors are, in other words, part of the fabric of conflict, thanks to the resources they introduce into the country.

Humanitarian actors need to be aware if aid is used as an instrument of war or if aid is an indirect part of the dynamics of the conflict’.2 Such unintended negative consequences may be wide-ranging and extremely complex.

One of the crucial elements in assessing harm is looking at the extent to which humanitarian assistance contributes to the overall economy of the conflict. Prior to the expulsion of aid organisations, it was estimated that the cost of providing assistance in 2009 in Darfur alone was a billion dollars.3 The complexity of the economic dynamics in eastern Chad and Darfur makes it impossible to see exactly how resources may have been diverted, manipulated or incorporated into the strategies of parties to the conflict. That said, this kind of investment is inevitably a catalyst for change, both positive and negative.

An expanding literature has drawn particular attention to the way in which aid agencies become part of the political economy of conflict. DFID has developed a methodology for analysing conflict based on drawing up ‘maps’ of causes, which can be superimposed on a similar map of responses. This shows how aid interacts with conflict, reveals gaps and helps agencies to devise strategies that integrate an understanding of conflict. Instead of making a few superficial adjustments based on general ‘conflict-sensitive’ or ‘do no harm’ principles, the methodology models the complexity of information about a specific conflict.

Aid dependency: aid dependency can increase risk of conflict – severe aid shocks (i.e. decreases in aid) have been found to alter the domestic balance of power and induce violence (Nielsen et al., 2011).

The chart below represents the distribution of conflict between 2005 and 2019 in terms of the number of occurrences and relative frequency of occurrences. It also allows you to view the distribution across Regions, Organisations and Document types.

Most conflicts can only be understood in a local context. A more legitimate enactment of such principles as the Responsibility to Protect will thus require institutional changes in global governance relationships that create stronger links and, indeed, greater checks and balances between the local, national, regional and global level.

A lack of understanding of local contexts, and a failure to adequately consult with local actors, risks not only failing to resolve problems but actually exacerbating conflicts

As the evidence in this report suggests, the international community must broaden its focus beyond conflict to understand the multiple risk factors and dynamics associated with violence at the subnational and local level as well as at the interpersonal level.

PROPOSED RECOMMENDATIONS: Disaster response in conflict or post-conflict settings can potentially contribute to conflict resolution at the local level, creating an opportunity for enhanced engagement with the community and parties to a conflict, but great care must be taken not to exacerbate existing tensions and conflict.

Humanitarian and development donors, policy-makers and practitioners are increasingly advocating so-called integrated missions in transitional or post- conflict contexts. Such missions are being described as ‘the new reality’ for UN operations. Proponents of the integrated model are convinced that a system-wide approach to programming in post-conflict contexts can reduce the likelihood of conflicts resuming. More specifically, there is a growing sense that integrated approaches to disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) can enhance the work of the two primary UN contributors – the Depart- ment of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

While few observers dispute the desirability of integration in principle, many practical constraints confront integrated missions on the ground.

The fact that many war-affected societies experience conflict, transition (also referred to as early recovery or recovery) and development simultaneously rather than in consecutive phases, has underlined the need for a concerted and coherent response from relief and development actors from the onset of a conflict. Moreover, the root causes of violent conflicts are often linked to widespread poverty and exclusion which has to be addressed in order to avoid a downward spiral of further conflicts and displacement. The debate has sparked off a number of initiatives involving both humanitarian and development actors.

"Involving women throughout the conflict cycle is the best way to achieve comprehensive security. In many conflicts, women have bridged the gap between opposing parties, even though their efforts have seldom been recognized. A failure to include women is a waste of resources and a wasted opportunity to use all possible factors to create sustainable peace.

The reality is that women in countries experiencing conflict play important roles that often go unnoticed. African women are not only affected by conflict, but are also actively engaged as conflict preventers, combatants and peacebuilders, and take part in rebuilding in the aftermath. They provide for their families and maintain the social fabric before, during and after the conflict.

The nature of conflict has radically changed. With more child soldiers, armed groups which are not confined within a single country, and fewer clear front lines, wars have become less conventional. Protagonists in today’s conflicts do not always want to win, profiting as they are from instability. New forms of violence are emerging. In the Sahel, Angola and East Africa, tensions between poor herder and farming communities are breaking out into open violence, due to climate stresses as well as the continuing abuse of land rights. Often the end of militarised conflict leads not to peace, but to the beginning of other forms of violence.

Ever more crises While interstate armed conflicts have become less frequent since the end of the Cold War, new types of armed clashes have emerged. As societies become more fragmented, causing growing political and socioeconomic tensions, local and infra-state conflicts have risen sharply. A total of 278 armed conflicts were identified in 2006; there were 402 in 2016. Across the world, most humanitarian needs are a result of conflicts: 23 of the 25 countries covered by the UNcoordinated humanitarian response plans for 2018 are in conflict.

CONFLICT ENVIRONMENTS AND CHALLENGES FOR HUMANITARIAN ACTION In 2009, the ICRC operated in contexts marked by a number of striking common features. The first noticeable characteristic of today’s conflicts is their average duration. In most cases, the ICRC has now been present for two, three or even four decades. In other words, conflicts experience a combination of acute and chronic phases and rarely come to a clear-cut end, with a specific peace agreement to chart the next phase of a country’s history.

Climate change will also increase the threat of new conflicts , which will mean more people displaced, and the need for more humanitarian aid.

A key challenge is that the intangible nature of cyberspace can foster ambiguity, speculation and misunderstanding that can lead to tensions or conflicts between states.

• gender-based violence

• food security

• health

• sanitation

• negotiation

• neutrality

• armed actors

• access

• peace

• security

• shelter

• vulnerability

Experience shows that successful conflict prevention efforts are nationally driven and owned, with regional organizations and international actors playing a supporting role. To ensure that prevention is not a priority, but the priority, all stakeholders must step up and play their role in preventing and ending conflict

Experiences from earlier conflicts in Gaza show that a local population with no access to shelter from explosive weapons nevertheless has an increased chance of survival if it has had CPP training. – We hope our provision of CPP training will help increase awareness of the safety measures the Gaza population has at its disposal and make it possible for them to protect themselves and their families in periods of armed conflict, says Colin Bent, head of the Norwegian People's Aid country programme in Palestine. – Each of the characters in the theatre piece represents an aspect of CPP,

Unlike development agencies, for example, the conflict prevention community did not have a global voice or representation at the international level.

The language used is not always consistent and sometimes contested. Some would say that the term ‘fragile states’ is colonial condescending language, others would say that ‘conflict management’ is better than ‘conflict prevention’, because how can we ever establish that an instance of violent conflict has been prevented? Regardless of the differences in language used, two issues are outstanding in these debates: there is a dire need for solid information and good analysis of conflict-prone situations and everyone is looking for institutional innovations that would support a more effective response. On both accounts, civil society organisations have a vital role to play. They are often closer to potential conflicts and possess a wealth of information that has, as yet, to reach the broader community of decision makers.

"It is time to banish it (the term 'frozen conflict ') from the political lexicon and act quickly to settle outstanding conflicts in our region," he said.

Though much has been written on the importance of humanitarian principles and conflict sensitivity in crisis situations, the way in which they are understood and perceived by field staff and translated into practical action is often given less importance.