THE CONCEPTS OF

CONFLICT
AND
THE CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Dr. Murat Aslan

 PART I

* SOURCE:
Peter Wallensteen, Understanding Conflict Resolution: War, Peace and the Global
System, pp. 3-12.
 CONFLICT
* Peace agreements;
- Resolve the conflicts(?) or curtail another form of violence(?) or builds a regime for
the victors(?) or constructive(?)…

* The aim of the CR: do not repeat challenging experiences.

* The questions to be addressed: what should parties discuss?, How can they agree, how
could the agreement be materialized?, What could be the context of the settlement?

* Effective course is to prevent conflict. Once ignited, it is costly.

* CR is a new and transforming process: The ones who did not engaged had mediated.
 CONFLICT
* CR = justice and security for all parties (But perception matters in interpreting these
concepts).

* CR = reach a consensus on the least terms of common sense, interests and goals. Our
agreement, not mine!

* But peace making after wars is a losing proposition.

* Sustainability of the settlement: who is happy or not?, who lost or gained what? Intangible
dynamics (religion, nationalism etc)

* Offering pledge to the revisionist (appeasement) is a dilemma. The quest of preventing the
war by pledging privileges to the revisionist. Gradual escalation by revisionist to grab more.

Lasting peace require solid victory?

 CONFLICT
* Post Cold War Era:
- Limited agreements to prevent another war due to security dilemma.
- Arms control / disarmament and nuclear weaponry (recall Cuba crises).
- Proxy rather than direct confrontation due to increased risk of MAD.
- Political assurances are effective if compared to technical approaches.
* CR is part of peace research.
* CR addresses the causes of war and dynamics of disagreement.
* Usually referred to historical discourse and comparative analysis of the conflicts.
* What is changing in the individual, regional, wider regional and global trends? How does
the change affect the CR / war / peace?
 CONFLICT
* Traumas and hopes in the contexts of witnessed events.
- How to interpret events? The themes to focus on. The debate of art and science!
- Utopia vs. Realist vs. Rationalism

* Peace research and CR are intrinsically multi-disciplinary and multi functional.

* Institutionalization of the CR: Formal and informal arrangements, the UN, Customary
Law.

* Moral values and ethics: Limited use of force?

 CONFLICT RESOLUTION
* A definition to the CR;
- Enter into an agreement that solves incompatibilities,
- Accept each other’s continued existence,
- Cease all violent acts against each other.

* CR – before, during and after conflict?

* Truce is to freeze the conflict without any peace agreement.

* CR is not establishing peace or ending armed struggle.

* CR is more than the absence of the war, more than the limited definition of peace.
 CONFLICT
* A definition to the CR;
- Enter into an agreement that solves incompatibilities,
- Accept each other’s continued existence,
- Cease all violent acts against each other.

* CR – before, during and after conflict?

* Truce is to freeze the conflict without any peace agreement.

* CR is not establishing peace or ending armed struggle.

* CR is more than the absence of the war, more than the limited definition of peace.
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 PART II - REVITALIZING CONFLICT STUDIES

* SOURCE:
Isabel Bramsen, Poul Poder & Ole Wæver, Resolving International Conflict: Dynamics of
Escalation, Continuation and Transformation, pp. 38-54.
 REVITALIZING CONFLICT STUDIES
* Conflicts, really endemic?
- Continue to surprise, erupting with unexpected force and resisting attempts at
resolution, often recurring again and again??
* …look ‘before’ the conflict for its ‘causes’.
* Conflict continuation, it is crucial to focus on the dynamics of the conflict itself:
- Dynamics rendering it not only resistant to resolution but enabling the generation of
new energy, which reinvigorates the conflicting parties.
* Conflict is a form of social relations.
* A conflict exists only when a communication offer is refused, and the first party also
refuses the refusal.
* The central assertion is that conflict is a particular social form that rebuilds social
identities, subjectivities, energies and emotions as part of a conflictualization of situations.
 REVITALIZING CONFLICT STUDIES
* Ramsen and Waever: Escalation, continuation and transformation of conflict.
* ‘Protracted conflict’ indicates particularly strong, underlying sources of conflict (in terms
of human needs or incompatible identities), thus rendering a conflict ‘intractable’ in the
sense of being ‘resistant’ to efforts at resolution that would work in other cases.
* Edward Azar’s concept of ‘protracted social conflict’ has become part of ordinary
parlance. He developed a theory of protracted conflict focusing on deep-seated cleavages,
hatred and fear among social groups that cause hostile interactions often turning into
violence.
* Ramsen and Waever:
We focus on the dynamics of conflict as such – how conflict organizes social relations.
SIT triangle
Emotion, Memory and Media
 REVITALIZING CONFLICT STUDIES
* Peace and conflict studies are usually ecletic and inclusive.
* The general intellectual style in peace and conflict research is broadly inclusive, which
probably relates to its solution-oriented self-understanding and that ‘whatever works’ is
therefore welcome.
* Wallensteen presents three basic approaches to conflict resolution focused on,
respectively, human needs, rational calculations and conflict dynamics.
- Conflict is the expression of unmet needs that find expression in violent behaviour
towards other social groups (Burton 1990).
- Rational calculations: violent conflict typically continues as long as the parties believe
it is possible to win the conflict; the moment first becomes ripe for mediation when they
reach the realization that the situation has evolved into a ‘mutually hurting stalemate’.
- There is no single ‘source’ of a conflict; once a conflict has evolved, it becomes a
combination of perceptions, conflict behaviour and contradictory demands.
- A possible fourth approach to conflict could be called structural analysis or
transformation. Some cultures and societies generate more violence than others (Galtung
1996).
 REVITALIZING CONFLICT STUDIES
* Resource Mobilization Theory: the social dynamics involved in the process of people
becoming mobilized by ‘movement entrepreneurs’ and creating self-sustaining processes.

* The main cause of violence is very often not the underlying grievances in each situation
but rather the previous violence and confrontations between the groups. a complex process
whereby local feuds and patterns of grudges channel choices into the formation of the larger
groups that then emerge with major fault lines.

* a literature on wars (especially in Africa) which argues that especially the continuation of
war is explained less by the importance of what the parties allegedly fight over than by the
advantages for important actors on both sides in continuing them (Keen 2012; cf. Kaldor
2012).
 REVITALIZING CONFLICT STUDIES
* Radical Disagreement: it points to the independent importance of how a conflict is
constituted through intra-conflict dynamics.

* Understand the conflict prism.

* In sociological conflict theories conflict refers to the ongoing, ever-present struggle over
resources and power in society.

* In Peace and Conflict Research, conflict often refers to a specific conflict with a beginning
and end in time and space, including two or more parties striving to obtain incompatible
goals (Ramsbotham, Woodhouse and Miall 2011; Wallensteen 2015).

* It matters whether something is considered a conflict rather than, for example, a

revolution, an uprising, a war or analysing other aspects of international relations.
 REVITALIZING CONFLICT STUDIES
* Discuss the difference the conflict makes.

- It was part of the original intervention by conflict research to try to create awareness
of the fact that conflict shaped relations, and the parties to a conflict therefore tended to be
locked into focus on the ‘substance’ of the conflict, unable to see how the problem had
become a constellation of which they had become a party themselves.

* From Luhmann’s communication-centred approach to social systems, the defining

feature of conflict is the lack of agreement involved in jointly developing a differentiated
social world. The form of social relationship that is characteristic of conflict is a
communication offer that is not accepted.
 REVITALIZING CONFLICT STUDIES
* Emotions: how parties to a conflict are energized or de-energized, how emotions work
as distinct psychological barriers to peace-making.

* The sociology of emotions – especially the theory of interaction rituals by Randall Collins
(2004, 2012) – suggests placing collective patterns at the centre of analysis.

* In conflict studies, the question of what a conflict is is often confused with what causes
conflict. (Messmer 2003a, 2007). Most theories describe the larger field around conflict
(causes and effects), but pay surprisingly little attention to what happens between input and
output (i.e. the conflict as an independent entity).

* A useful definition of conflict must describe not what is in a conflict or what is affected
by conflict (e.g. identities, interests and attitudes) but what is a conflict.
 REVITALIZING CONFLICT STUDIES
* Conflict density: there is no evidence that higher levels of intensity lead to higher levels of
violence (Chenoweth and Lawrence 2010). A non-violent conflict can nevertheless be very intense.

* From a relational perspective, conflict is not merely a question of incompatibility (a third-party

characterization of the constellation), but rather defined by a conflictual relationship, the rhythm
of communication and the emotional tension that emerges between the conflicting parties.

* Intensity of what: conflict. What is conflict: Revisit Galtung’s conceptualization of conflict as

attitude (A), behaviour (B) and contradiction (C).
- Attitude: Emotional and cognitive dimensions of conflict from traumas to enemy images and
mistrust.
- Behaviour compromises the most visible dimension of conflict (i.e. what people do and say in
conflict): from bullying to sanctioning and bombing.
- Contradiction then refers to the issue about which the parties disagree, such as the
ownership of territory or distribution of power in a society.
REVITALIZING
CONFLICT STUDIES
* Bramsen and Wæver (2016) - the SIT triangle.
- Tension (T) better grasps the emotional and
cognitive dimensions of conflict, as it refers to a field or
state of a relationship between the parties rather than
within or adopted by the conflicting parties.
- Interaction (I) is a more accurate description
of what a conflict is, as this implies the actions and
reactions of both parties.
- Situation (S) of contradiction, which implies
that it is the structure of the situation rather than the
actual deprived needs or scarce resources that defines
a conflict.
 How conflict escalation happens: Three central interaction rituals in
conflict
* Social and political conflicts emerge suddenly and unexpectedly. (Agree?)

* Emotions are often considered as phenomena in need of control.

* Emotions drive non-violent action and diplomatic practice as well as violent action.

* Three basic forms of interaction in conflicts: (a) cooperative interaction, (b) conflictual
interaction and (c) dominating interaction.

* Ritual practices and the outcome of Emotional Energy (EE) have implications beyond
immediate situations in terms of agency formation.

* EE dynamics in conflict escalation can be based on two themes: (1) the mobilization of
collective EE and (2) emotional dynamics influencing political elites.
 How conflict escalation happens: Three central interaction rituals in
conflict
* Each conflict is a social ‘situation’ with their own local structures, dynamics and outputs
(Collins 2005:32).

* Collins conceptualizes situational dynamics in terms of interaction rituals, which are

understood as the gathering of persons around a common action or event.

* It consists of mutually focused attention and emotion that engender a shared reality in
terms of group emotion and membership (Collins 2005:7). An interaction can be
symbolically productive when people represent their interaction through common symbols,
like a scarf.
 How conflict escalation happens: Three central interaction rituals in
conflict
* For Collins, the interaction ritual consists of four basic ingredients:
(a) co-presence of at least two persons in the same place so that they affect each other
by their bodily presence, whether or not they are aware of it;
(b) barriers to outsiders where participants have a sense of who is (not) taking part in
the interaction ritual;
(c) people focus their attention on the same activity or object and become aware of each
other’s focus;
(d) people share a common mood or emotional experience (Collins 2005:48).
 How conflict escalation happens: Three central interaction rituals in
conflict
* Ritual interaction can generate
(a) feelings of membership or group solidarity,
(b) feelings of confidence, elation, strength, enthusiasm and initiative in taking action
(EE),
(c) symbols – visual icons, words and gestures – that members feel are associated with
themselves collectively and
(d) feelings of morality and a sense of rightness in adhering to the group.

* If the ritual interaction is part of a recurring pattern, it might also contribute to common
standards of morality among the participating individuals (Collins 2005:49).

* Interaction rituals not only generate emotions and EE, but they also transform emotions
(Collins 2005:107).
 How conflict escalation happens: Three central interaction rituals in
conflict
* Build and Broaden theory of Fredrickson; positive (pleasant) emotions are resources of
agency. (surprise, joy, interest and pride)

* Confidence is fundamental to action: ‘All action is ultimately founded on the actor’s

feeling of confidence in their capacities and the effectiveness of those capacities.

* Trust is also a social emotion fundamental to cooperation; it is the belief that the actions
of others will conform to expectations. Trust implies a feeling that one can rely on others’
unknowable actions. possible. Knowledge and competence also contribute to generating
trust.

* Loyalty is the emotion of confidence in organization.

* Emotion is simultaneously a physical, psychological and social phenomenon.

 How conflict escalation happens: Three central interaction rituals in
conflict
* Group formation is simultaneously both a precondition and a product of conflict
(Simmel [1908] 1955).
* Without internal solidarity, groups do not engage in conflicts with others (Collins
2005:41).
* Conflict generates and reinforces group solidarity. Parties do not actively pursue their
goals and values without the EE of solidarity.
 How conflict escalation happens: Three central interaction rituals in
conflict
* Collins theorizes power rituals where one party gets positive EE (confidence, pride),
while the other party loses EE and becomes frightened or demoralized (shame, depression).
 How conflict escalation happens: Three central interaction rituals in
conflict
* Negative EE is a general category that refers to emotions such as avoidance, irritation,
embarrassment, anger, shame, resentment, hatred, rage and fear (Boyns and Luery
2015:155).
* For a conflict to continue, both positive and negative energies are necessary, for
example, in both the hope that ‘we will win’ and anger towards the other.
 How conflict escalation happens: Three central interaction rituals in
conflict
* Boyns and Luery suggest that the level of positive EE predicts the intensity of
engagement but not necessarily its destructiveness. Strong internal EE is a precondition for a
conflict to become overt, but whether it turns destructive depends on other conditions,
such as the chosen strategies of the involved parties.
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