Hoorcollege 2: understanding conflict; from analysis to conflict management

Question 1

Symmetric conflict

Answer 1

Conflict where parties are similar

Question 2

Three ways of approaching asymmetric conflict without coercion third party

Answer 2

1. Influencing and persuading powerholders
2. Mobilising popular movements, increading solidarity, making demonstrations of resolve and establishing a demand for change
3. Empowering and strengthening the underdogs (challenges legitimacy top dog)

Question 3

Asymmetric conflict

Answer 3

Conflict where parties are dissimilar. Root of the conflict lies in the structure of who they are and their relationship, not issues of interest. Quantitative asymmetric = dissimilar in resources. Qualitative asymmetric = dissimilar in type (state vs rebel). Goal is to change structure, cannot be in favour of the top dog.

Question 4

Intrastate conflict

Answer 4

A conflict between a government and a non-governmental party, with no interference from other countries.

Question 5

Internationalized conflict

Answer 5

An armed conflict between a government and a non-government party where the government side, the opposing side, or both sides, receive troop support from other governments that actively participate in the conflict.

Question 6

With armed conflicts that are non-interstate, three types are predominant in relation to motivations:

Answer 6

a) Revolution / ideology conflict.

b) Identity / secessionist conflict.

c) Economic / resource conflict.

Question 7

Revolution / ideology conflict

Answer 7

The aim of changing the nature of government in a state.

Question 8

Identity / secessionist conflict

Answer 8

Involves the relative status of communities or ‘communal groups’, however defined, in relation to the state. Depending on the nature of the group and the contextual situation, this includes struggles for access, for autonomy, for secession or for control.

Question 9

Economic / resource conflict

Answer 9

To seize or retain state power or state resources merely to further economic and other interests.

Question 10

Azar’s theory on protracted social conflict focuses on four main preconditions:

Answer 10

Communal content of identity groups: groups with a common identity in religion, racce, ethnicity, etc. are best to analyse. The link between state and society is often at the colonial history.

Deprivation of human needs: needs are ontological and non-negotiable, so if conflict comes, it will be intense.

Governance and the state’s role: the government and her role are critical factors in the satisfaction or frustration of her subjects, because the role of the government is big.

International linkages: political-economic dependency and political-military links constitute regional and global patterns of clientage and cross-border interest.

Question 11

Five levels of conflict

Answer 11

1. Global
2. Regional
3. State
4. Identity group
5. Elite/individual

Question 12

Global drivers of conflict

Answer 12

1. Geopolitical transition
2. North-South economic divide
3. Discrepancy between state system and distribution of peoples
4. Global ideological contestation

Question 13

Transnational connectors in conflict global level

Answer 13

Movement and exchange of people, weapons, capital, criminal and terrorist networks, economic resources, and ideas that connect global/local via intermediate levels.

Question 14

Intra-regional dynamics in conflict

Answer 14

1. Regional rivalries
2. Spillover
3. Cross-border demography
4. Contagion
5. Diaspora
   etc.

Question 15

Measures of fragility state level

Answer 15

1. Weak society: cultural divisions, ethnic imbalance
2. Weak economy: poor resource base, relative deprivation
3. Weak polity: partisan government, regime illegitimacy, levels of repression
4. Weak central control

Question 16

Leadership roles in conflict elite/individual level

Answer 16

1. Exclusionist policies
2. Factional interest
3. Greed

Question 17

3 groups of process dynamics (which determine if a conflict will break out)

Answer 17

Communal actions and strategies: various processes of identity-group formation, organization and mobilization, the emergence and nature of leadership, the choice of political goals and tactics, and the scope and nature of externalities.

State actions and strategies: governing individuals and elites at any one time theoretically facing an array of policy choices running from different forms of political accommodation to ‘coercive repression’ or ‘instrumental co-option’. Repression is easier than accommodation.

Built-in mechanisms of conflict: antagonistic group histories, exclusionist myths, demonizing propaganda and dehumanizing ideologies serve to justify discriminatory policies and legitimize atrocities. Actions are mutually interpreted in the most threatening light.

Question 18

2 influential alternative ways of characterizig contemporary conflict:

Answer 18

Greed vs grievance & old wars vs new wars.

Question 19

New wars

Answer 19

Aren’t about the political interests of states anymore, but about new power bases based on ethnical homogeneity. Are about tribal and common identities. Mobilization happens through fear, corruption, religion, magic and media. External help comes from criminality, regional powers and mercenaries. The war is fought on a small scale with criminals, child soldiers, light weapons and things like diseases and rape. The economy of war is fed through the illegal exportation of wood and diamonds, drugs and plundering.

Question 20

In the state-level analysis of conflicts there are several sectors that can be researched:

Answer 20

The social sector: concerned with types of social divisions around which conflict fault lines may develop.

The economic sector: concerned with protracted conflict which is associated with underdevelopment/uneven development

The government sector: a key area:
1. Conflict can regurarly occur even in established liberal democratic states when party politics become ascriptively based, and one community perceives that state power has been permanently ‘captured’ by another and is driven to challenge the legitimacy of the state to change something.
2. Conflict is likely when authoritarian regimes successfully manipulate the state apparatus to cling to power and block political access to all those not part of their own narrow patronage network (= kleptocracies).
3.No adequate means for keeping order or raising revenues –> endemic and chaotic violence.

Geography: center-periphery cleavage is important.

Law and order sector: conflict can happen when legal system + police are no longer impartial.

Security sector: conflict can happen when civil unrest can no longer be controlled by non-military means and armed militia emerge.

Question 21

Terrorism =

Answer 21

A set of actions/strategies adopted by groups for certain purposes, not the identity of these groups or the nature of those purposes.

Question 22

Bottom billion:

Answer 22

1 billion people in 58 state who were poorer and worse off in 2000 than in 1970.

Question 23

Battle deaths include:

Answer 23

Fatalities of both combatants and civilians that are directly attributed to conflict.
Battle deaths aren’t the same as war deaths, because battle deaths doesn’t take into account secondary deaths and excludes fight between non-state armed groups.