Definitions Flashcards
Conflict (Wallensteen)
a social situation in which a minimum of two actors strive to aquire at the same moment in time with an available set of scarce resources
Armed conflict (COW)
sustained combat, involving organized armed forces, resulting in a minimum of 1000 battle-related deaths
Armed conflict (UCDP)
a state-based armed conflcit is a contested incompatibility that concerns government and/or territory were 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.
Social conflict (Kriesberg and Dayton)
Social conflicts occur when two or more persons or groups manifest that they have incompatible objectives
Minor armed conflict
More than 25 less then 1000 b.r.d i.o.c.y
War
More than 1000 b.r.d i.o.c.y
Incompatibility (Wallensteen)
a state based armed conflict is a contested incompatibility that concerns government and/or territory …
Incompatibility over government (who controls the state and how?)
Overthrowing government, changing the type or composition of a government
Incompatibility over territory (who controls the territory and how?)
Seizing certain territory, gain independance or political autonomy
Wallensteen trichotomy of a conflict, give empirical examples and solution: Interstate - territory
Russia - Ukraine
ex. Shifting priorities/horse trading - Russia leaves Ukraine –> Ukraine doesn’t join NATO
Wallensteen trichotomy of a conflict, give empirical examples and solution: Intra-state over territory
Turkey - PKK
Wants their own Kurdish state that the government does not accept
ex. Share control - Coalition government
Shift priorities - PKK accept autonomy instead of sovereignty
Wallensteen trichotomy of a conflict, give empirical examples and solution: Intra-state over government
Nepal government - Maoist rebel group
ex. Conflict resolution mechanisms - ordering arbitration or referendums on who should lead the state and how
Wallensteen trichotomy of a conflict, give empirical examples and solution: Intra-state over government B
Syria: Government of Hafez vs. Muslim brotherhood
Muslimbrotherhood was crushed through a bloody assault when being in the occupied Hama. Hama was leveled to the ground and they were defeated.
Incompatibility was the autocratic government, a solution could’ve been share control - coalition government.
7 conflict resolution mechanisms
- Shifting priorities - from overthrowing government to wanting influence over it or accepting autonomy instead of sovereignty
- Dividing resources - splitting and in half or natural resources
- Horse-trading - You support me on A, I support you on policy B or prisoner trading over countries
- Share control - coalition government
- Leave control to other - both agree not to rule on a resource themselves
- Conflict resolution mechanisms - arbitration, referendum, elections
- Leave for later or oblivion - losing symbolic value, not solving all problems at once. Not good for rebel group because of arming up, but could be good if trust is built during that time.
Stages of negotiation
- Pre-negotiation
- Planning
- Intital meeting and analysis
- Inventing options and constructing formulas
- Drafting an agreement
- Signing and ratifying
- Implementing
Negative peace
Absence of direct violence; absence of armed conflict and physical force between individuals or groups.
Is not very likely to be long-lasting sine the grounds for conflict still exist ex. ceasefire.
Absence of positive peace leads to conflcit and then negative peace
Positive peace
Absence of indirect violence; absence of any social injustice (poverty, discrimination, unequal opportunities etc).
Positive peace is more difficult to achieve but longer lasting if successful. Linkages to quality peace.
What levels of analysis are there?
Individual, Nation-sate/society, international/systemic
What belongs to the individual level of analysis
- Human emotions and nature (anger, greed, fear, empathy)
- belief system, cognitive bias (political socialization, education, former experiences).
- Personalities (loving, aggressive, rational)
- Misperceptions/asymmetries (military strength, resources, wiliness to continue, cost willing to bear for the sake of winning)
What belongs to nation-state/societal level of analysis?
Governmental factors:
- Structure of political system
- bureaucracies
Societal factos:
- Class structure
- Politial, economic, political inequalities
- Ethnic fragmentation, nationalism
What belongs to international/systemic level of analysis?
- Anarchic structure of the international system
- Number of major powers
- Distribution of military and economic power between the international system
What is causal theory and what does it answer?
Logical arguments about how different phenomena in the world are related. It answers HOW and WHY a cause has a certain effect.
Definition of social conflict (Pruitt and Kim)
A perceived divergence of interest
Three components of a conflict?
- Actors
- Incompatible issues
- Actions (making claims overt)
Why do conflicts occur according to Kriesberg and Dayton?
- Internal factors - human nature, social psychological responses, group processes
- Relational factors (intergroup) - inequalities (relative depravation), differences in values and beliefs
- Systemic factors - resource scarcities - rational choice approach
- Social identity theory - Group identities based on diverse factors
(ethnicity, religion, politics) etc. - Realistic conflict theory - Competition over scarce resources,
Strategic choice - what are the four strategies
- Contending
- Accommodating
- Problem-solving
- Avoiding
What are the main components of conflcit according to Wallensteen?
Actors, incompatibility, action
What are the three types of violence according to the UCDP?
- State-based armed conflicts
- Non-state armed conflicts
- One-sided violence
What are the differences between inter-state and intrastate conflict (over government and territory)?
Inter-state conflict: Conflict between two parties
Intra-state conflict: Conflict between a non-state actor (rebel group, militia etc) and the government of country.
What dimensions can escalation take place along?
- The level of coercion (severity of acts)
- The scope of it (number of participants mobilized
- The number issues that the conflict is fought over.
What are the three waves identified in the literature on peacekeeping? (match the descriptions to the waves)
First: This wave focuses mainly on peacekeeping in wars between states
Second: This wave is driven by the boom in peacekeeping and reflects critically on failed and dysfunctional peacekeeping missions
Third:
Under what conditions is a party to the conflict most likely to change their tactics toward tactics that lead to de-escalation?
- The contentious tactics used are not perceived to be successful.
- The necessary resources are exhausted.
- The costs of continuing with contentious strategies outweigh the benefits
- There is a loss of support for the cause.
- The economic situation changes for the worse.
What are the purposes of (traditional) peacekeeping?
- Guarantee protection during demobilisation.
- Verify compliance with the terms of the demobilisation process.
- Organise demobilisation.
How can we define nonviolent resistance?
Nonviolent resistance can be defined “as the application of unarmed civilian power using nonviolent methods such as protests, strikes, boycotts, demonstrations without using or threatening physical harm against the opponent
What types of non-state violence exist?
- Ethnic riots
- Communal conflict
- Intergang violence
- Herder-farmer conflicts
Why are groups that forcibly recruit more likely to perpetrate gang rape according to Cohen?
They perpetrate performative violence to make up for low cohesion.
True or false: Countries with no history of civil wars are more likely to witness an escalation of conflict into armed conflict.
False
Which armed groups are more likely to commit one-sided violence according to Balcells and Stanton?
Armed groups that seek to expel a civilian population from a territory
What are the differences between peacekeeping and peace enforcement?
Peacekeeping missions:
1. Deployment after at least a ceasefire is reached
2. Keeping already existing peace
3. The use of force is only allowed in self-defense
4. Require the consent of the conflict parties (or at least the government of the country of deployment)
Peace enforcement missions:
1. Do not require consent
2. Deployment before a ceasefire or peace agreement is reached
3. Force can be employed as strategic tool
4. Enforcing peace
Select the correct types of conflict termination (employing UCDP’s definition of armed conflict)
- Ceasefire agreement (i.e. an agreement that affects the conflict behaviour of the warring parties but does not address the underlying incompatibility.)
- Peace agreement
- No activity
- Low activity (i.e. casualties do not exceed the 25 battle-related deaths threshold.)
- Victory
Which arguments are commonly stated for and against using mediation “with power”
- May lead to agreements that are short-lived
- May lead to less ownership over the agreement
Which arguments are commonly stated for using mediation “with power”
- Agreements may be reached faster to take advantage of a small window of opportunity
- Reluctant groups may be convinced to stay in negotiations
Defitnion of civil war
Civil war is armed fighting between the government of a state and one or more opposition groups concerning the government and/or territory of the state. Civil wars are distinct from interstate wars, i.e., wars between two or more states.
What are the three main components of a state?
- Physical base (territory and population)
- Institutional expression of a state (government, armed forces, police)
- The idea of the state (what binds it together)
How are civil wars usually fought? What are som of its characteristics?
They are typically fought as insurgencies (uppror) with the rebel groups using guerilla tactics and hiding among the population (might lead to strategic ceasing of a territory)
Looting and criminal activities may be primary objectives and frequently occur when warring parties have trouble supplying the war.
Both governments and rebel groups tend to use child soldiers and commit sexual violence.
What are guerrilla tactics?
Guerrilla tactics focus on avoiding head-on confrontations with enemy armies, typically due to inferior arms or forces, and instead engage in limited attacks.
What did Mary Kaldor say about modern warfare (New Wars)?
She argued that globalization and the end of the Cold War resulted in a weakening of the state –> increasing the importance/sailence of identity in conflict and changing war economies so that the adversaries are forced to depend on looting, arms smuggling etc –> it then led to that more civilians are being killed than actual military.
What is the balance of power theory?
- All strive to aquire power in the national system.
- You want to avoid hedgemonies
- States form different alliances intruder to counter threat
Power transition theory/hedgemonic stability theory?
Entails that even in anarchic systems some degree of order exists due to the existence of hegemonies
so: war will commence when a hedgemon is on decline and another one is on the rise.
Realistic conflict theory?
- It’s competition over scarce resources
- Group identities and intergroup biases serve to help groups obtain resources
What does strategic choice look at when analyzing/planning decisions on conflict?
- Partisans goals (internal)
- Partisans characteristics (gender, ideology)
- Relations ( dependencies, attitudes, power relations).
- Social context (norms, audience, costs):
What is the dual concern model and why do you use it when analyzing/predicting a conflict?
It’s a model used for analyzing parties behavior when it comes to decsion-making in conflict. Consist of concern for self and concern for others.
Also correlates to framing things as gains and losses: When
something is framed as a win
people prefer safe options,
whereas when it’s a loss/risk
people prefer loss bc. losses hurt more.
What is the rational choice theory?
It’s a cost-benefit analysis of strategy - what outcome yields the most utility.
- Is used for calculating both your own and your enemies next moves!
What may cause a conflict to escalate?
- Overreaction to provocation
- Impulsivness - Reduced inhibitions
- Autonomic arosual (substances ,adrenaline)
- Inhbitions-reducing substances (alcohol,
- Agressive role models - Social contexts
- Linkages to other issues
- Outside involvement (third-parties escalating).
How can escalation be inhibited?
- Blocking aggression (good moods, calmness etc)
- Personality - self control
- Relationships (social bonds, the dual concern model)
- Blance of power and threats (escalation means mutual destruction, end to all of us!).
woman are more likely to experience
sexual violence
Talk about the dangers of gender when studying war
When studying who the perpetrators of violence are the use of biological gender can be useful, however when looking at who the victims are it becomes and oversimplification which can be dangerous.
Genders are socially constructed roles that may very throughout time and space, such are femininity and masculinity. Societies with more gender equality tends to be less violent. A person who fails to uphold certain gender roles like being a though man can result in social outcasts, in war this might mean sexual violence against men who are more feminine.
You can say that women are the audience, unmanly men are shamed and ridiculed and warlike men gain emotional and materialistic support.
What’s the essentialists explanation/argument?
That women are more peaceful (nurturing, altruistic, caring), so if women are more empowered there will be more peace in the world.
What’s the constructivist explanation?
Societes permeated by militarized masculinity manage conflicts more violently. Women help upholding unequal and violent structures in society.
Norms matter. Demilitarized masculinity → peace
What are som theories of negotiation?
- Maximizing one side’s advantage (intensify struggle to empower your bargaining power/leverage.
- Maximizing mutual benefit
- Reframing from zero sum to joint… Israel + Egypt
- Combining one-sided maximizing and problem-solving
- Cultural considerations
What is BATNA?
Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement
Can be shaped by;
- change in external factors
- change in framing of conflict
Whats a third party?
Any person or group that is external to the conflict and its parties
- A third party doesn’t have to be unbiased, but cannot directly be part of the conflict.
How can third parties intervene in conflict?
Encouraging settlement or stalemate
What’s a rule of thumb in negotiation?
The more escalated the conflict, the more forceful intervention!
What does the dynamic approach point to?
Establishing dialogue
- Confidence-building measures (CBMs) → military, cultural, economic etc - Injection of mediators, facilitators carried out by third parties
- Conflict resolution mechanisms: courts, democratic procedures, elections (e.g. parliamentary stalemate)
- Parties with non-violent methods as important and efficient
- Innovation will be fostered by the fruitful, trade-off-promoting engagement of as many actors as possible
What is special about democracies in conflict resolution?
All societies have conflicts, but democracy gives the tools to resolve them peacefully and a beneficial, non-violent base. Through regulation.
- Thus, “democracy can be a fruitful safeguard for the post-conflict societies” - Because democracy normalizes the management of incompatibilities in a non-violent way
What are some contributing factors to escalation (persistence of escalation)
- Individual psychological factors
◦ Rationalization (of our behaviour to suit or own self-image even if the behavior was out of order in the first place) and cognitive dissonance
◦ Selective information processing
◦ Self-serving bias - Groups and escalation
◦ Norms and social pressure – norms can change due to social pressure.
◦ Vested/engna interests in conflict
- Militant leadership rises - Conflict entrapment
◦ The dollar auction – bidding for more than a dollar for a dollar. Using resources against each other in order to obtain the same goal.
◦ Sunk cost in conflict
◦ The game of Chicken – car-example.
What is structural change, what dimensions are there to it?
The structural change model entails an interaction between two parties
Individual structural change:
◦ Emotions such as anger, blame or fear that leads to a structural change of the conflict ex. Argument to physical fight.
◦ Hostile attitudes, perceptions and goals (changes when the structure of the conflict changes).
Group structural change:
◦ Polarization of groups
◦ Contentious goals
◦ A change in norms
◦ Group cohesion increases
◦ Militant leadership rises
What’s an incompatibility?
It’s an issue that sparked a debate between parties. It’s a severe disagreement were demands can not be met by the same resources at the same moment in time.
Destructive vs. constructive settlements
A conflict ending with great joint damages is destructive meanwhile conflicts ending with mutual benefits is constructive.
A conflict ends like it begins..
.. as a social construct
What is Wallensteens dynamic approach?
A conflict ending with great joint damages is destructive meanwhile conflicts ending with mutual benefits is constructive
What is game theory?
a way of illustrating how parties act within the confines set up by the game itself - if the parties follow the rules the outcome is predictable, if not the dynamics may change due to “broken rules”.
What can be efficient in changing the dynamics in a conflict?
Parties with non-violent methods are potentially efficient in changing the dynamics. This gives a role to peace movements but also other groups, nongovernmental organizations and civil society at large that work for conciliation and understanding across divides. Such parties can be involved in conflicts and take sides but pursue their goals with peaceful means.
What is basic needs?
Social frustration. When basic needs are out of reach for a group they become frustrated → the conflicts either originates or feeds of this frustration.
What is rational calculation approach?
- Rational approach assumes that the parties (states, groups, movements) initiate wars to win them - you must assume that at least the initiator have made calculations that resulted in benefits outweighing the losses when escalating to a conflict - calculations need to be revised as the conflicts drags out.
— The potential benefits from victory are reduced as costs increase (energy, resources, human lives).
— If there comes a realization of stalemate, it could be the golden moment/ripe moment for resolution.
— Rational calculation are hard to see from the outside, the information is kept secret, therefore it is hard to distinguish these ripe moments.
What is the differences in the dynamic and the rational approach?
In dynamic approach, the incorporation of as many actors as possible is important → more fruitful, more likely for trade-offs and innovative solutions.
In rational calculation, larger meetings and intensive dialogue appear as a waste of time and resources → that “ripe” moments will be lost → timing is very important!
How can the security dilemma be managed?
a) a general demilitarization and creation of a unified army
b) specific guarantees for leaders
c) an international presence ex. peacekeeping forces
d) transitory power sharing
e) an amnesty for leaders, officers and agents.
In the case of victory, these five measures are likely to be used un a one-sided manner.
Key question is what happens to the armed forces
- Demilitarization
What is mediation?
mediation is ‘a process of conflict management where the disputants seek the assis- tance of, or accept an offer of help from, an individual, group, state or organization to settle their conflict or resolve their differences without resorting to physical violence or invoking the authority of the law’
Rebel groups 2 goals
- Maximize the political concessions that they can obtain (where defeating the government, for some groups, would yield the most optimal outcome)
- Maximize the material spoils that can be distributed among those who participate in the rebellion.
Why is rebel on rebels puzzling?
Rebels on rebels is therefore puzzling since they are operating on scarce resources it must decide if they put hem on the government or other rebel groups.
Whats a communal conflict?
violent conflict between non-state groups that are organized along a shared communal identity
Action, reaction and escalation belongs to what approach?
Dynamic Approach (Wallensteen)
ABC stands for
Attitudes, behavior and contradiction
Non-state conflict definition?
“The use of armed force between two organized armed groups, neither of which is the government of a state, which results in at least 25 battle- related deaths in a year.”
Definition electoral violence
“A strategy used by political actors to influence the course and outcome of electoral contests.”
- Used by political actors to purposefully influence the process and outcome of elections, and it involves coercive acts against humans, property, and infrastructure (voting-stations or the roads to voting-stations).
- It can happen in all parts of the electoral cycle, including at the announcement of elections, party primaries, and voter registration.
- It can be promoted by both state and non-state actors
ex. trump-supporters invading the thing
Definition one-sided violence
“The deliberate use of armed force by the government of a state or by a formally organised group against civilians which results in at least 25 deaths in a year.”
Conflict-related sexual violence can be divided into:
Policy –> Weapon of war
Practice –> opportunism or combatant socialization
Give examples of multidimensional peacekeeping
- Human right monotoring
- Montoring and running elections
- Provide security sector reform (both police and military, they are given new training, weapons, uniforms etc.)
- Providding huminatiruan aid, food, medicale care etc.
- Demining
- Rebuild jucdial institutions
- Disamrent, demobilization and reintgration
Examples of non-UN peacekeeping organizations
- African union
- ECOWAS
- NATO
