What is Conflict?

Conflict refers to some form of friction, disagreement, or discord arising within a group when the beliefs or actions of one or more members of the group are either resisted by or unacceptable to one or more members of another group.

From the Latin for ‘to clash or engage in a fight’, a confrontation between one or more parties aspiring towards incompatible or competitive means or ends.

Conflict may be either manifest or recognizable through actions or behaviors.

Within the field of international relations, Peter Wallensteen (2002) identifies three general forms of conflict:

Interstate Conflict
Internal Conflict
State-formation conflicts

Interstate conflicts are disputes between nation-states or violations of the state system of alliances. The international community, however, has become increasingly concerned with the rise in frequency and intensity of internal conflicts, which are contributing to the expanding nature, sophistication, and, at times, legitimization of interventionist policies.

Examples of internal and state-formation conflicts include civil and ethnic wars, anti-colonial struggles, secessionist and autonomous movements, territorial conflicts, and battles over control of the government. Today, attention has also focused on ‘global conflicts’, where non-state groups combat international and regional organizations.

How Conflict and War are interrelated?

Two or more organized and armed groups, whether national or transnational organizations, engage in prolonged physical violence in war. In war, large groups of armed individuals are mobilized, fighting for gain, such as land or resources.

Conflict is a prolonged state of hostility between two or more organized groups that encompasses a wider variety of factors, whether these are political or economic.

Israel has fought 5 wars (War of Independence, Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, and two invasions of Lebanon) but remains in a perpetual state of conflict with Palestinians, using border control and economic leverage against them.

What are Forms of conflict and their causes?

Conflict exists whenever incompatible activities occur. An activity that is incompatible with another is one that prevents, blocks or interferes with the occurrence or effectiveness of the second activity. A conflict can be as small as a disagreement or as large as a war. It can originate in one person, between two or more people, or between two or more groups.

What is a classification of Conflict?

1. Controversy: A controversy occurs when one person’s ideas, information, conclusions, theories, and opinions are incompatible with those of another and the two seek to reach an agreement. When managed constructively, academic controversy facilitates learning in the classroom and decision controversy facilitates high-quality decision-making in the school.

2. Conceptual Conflict: Conceptual conflict arises when incompatible ideas coexist in an individual’s mind or when received information appears incongruent with existing knowledge. Engaging in controversy leads to an individual experiencing conceptual conflict as they encounter ideas and arguments that do not align with their original position.

3. Conflict of Interests: Interpersonal conflict occurs when the actions of one person attempting to maximize his or her goals prevent, block, or interfere with another person attempting to maximize personal goals.

What are the Reasons for Conflict in International Areas?

The world we live in always seems to contain war and conflict. just by looking back over 100 years,history is full of major wars,like two world wars, the constant threat of war during the cold war,the Afghan and Iraq war,now Arab spring or WANA (west Asia north Africa )crisis.