Conflict, Violence, and Non-Violence

General Vocabulary

• Strikes: A period when workers deliberately stop working due to disagreements about pay or working conditions.
• Interstate: Between states.
• Insurgency: An attempt to take control of a government using force and violence.
• Guerrilla: A member of a small, unofficial military group that fights in small groups.
• Sanctions: Official orders or laws stopping trade or communication with another state to force political changes.
• Austerity: A government policy to reduce spending.
• Assembly: Government.
• Autonomy: Independence.
• Referendum: A vote on a specific subject rather than for a person or party.
• Separatist: Someone who wants to create a new state by separating from an existing one.
• Contradictions: Statements that disagree with or deny something.
• Fled: Left quickly.
• Reinforces: Strengthens.
• Harden: Become less sympathetic.
• Annexed: Took control of an area, especially by force.
• Manifest: Obvious.
• Latent: Hidden.
• Caliphate: A single Islamic state uniting many Muslim countries.
• Ideology: A set of opinions or beliefs, often linked to a political system or culture.
• Intrastate: Within one state.
• Degrade: Break down.
• Asymmetric Conflict: When one party has superior resources.
• Regime Change: Forcing a country's government out of power.
• Cartels: Groups agreeing to sell at a fixed price to prevent competition.
• Trafficking: Buying and selling illegal goods, especially drugs.
• Secession: Officially stopping being part of another country.
• Geopolitical: Relating to the influence of a state's position and population on its political development and relationships with other states.
• Dynamics: The ways in which things or people behave and affect each other.
• Uprisings: Attempts to change the government or laws.
• Escalate: Increase in scale.
• Coexistence: Living together.
• Elite Peacemaking: Attempts to stop violence led by senior leaders.
• Peace Enforcement: Using military force to end violent conflict.
• Revoke: Reverse.
• Systematic: Organized carefully and thoroughly.
• Held to Account: Made or shown to be responsible.
• Fundamental: Basic.
• Hoards: Keeps.
• Inferior: Not as important.
• Driven: Strongly influenced.
• Undermines: Gradually makes something less strong.
• Well-being: A feeling of being comfortable, healthy, and happy.
• Embedded: Put firmly and deeply.
• Mindset: Someone's general attitude.
• Grass-roots: Ordinary people, not the leaders.
• Intent: The intention to do something illegal.
• Honour-Based Violence: Violence to protect family or community honour.
• Pacifism: The belief that war and violence are always wrong.
• Coerce: Force someone to do something by threatening them.
• Freedom Fighter: Someone who fights against an unfair government.
• Victimhood: Suffering due to bad treatment.
• Mobilize: Encourage.
• Perspective: A way of thinking influenced by personal experiences.
• Proportionate: Correct in relation to something else.
• Exhausted: Having no more possibilities.
• No-Fly Zone: An area where planes may be attacked.
• Ethnic Cleansing: Forcing people from an ethnic group to leave an area.
• Responsible Sovereignty: Governing in a way that respects the population's best interests and human rights.
• Customary: Normal because it's usually done.
• Asphyxiating: Preventing breathing.
• Landmines: Bombs hidden underground.
• Munitions: Military supplies.
• Cluster Bombs: Bombs containing smaller bombs.
• Invoked: Used as a justification.
• Doctrine: Belief.
• Treaties: Agreements.
• Conduct: Behavior.
• Binding: To be obeyed.
• Opt Out: Choose not to accept.

Key Concept: Conflict

• Key Idea: Conflict arises when parties disagree or compete over ideas, resources, or territory. Conflict can be violent or non-violent.

What is Conflict?

• Conflict is fundamentally about disagreement and competition over power, ideas, identity, resources, or territory.
• The definition of conflict covers a wide range, from peaceful disagreement (strikes) to violent conflict involving state and non-state groups (Syria since 2011).

Non-Violent Conflict

• Examples:
  • Peaceful demonstrations
  • Strikes
  • Civil disobedience
  • Political campaigns
  • Diplomacy

Violent Conflict

• Examples:
  • Terrorist attacks
  • Civil war
  • Interstate war
  • Insurgency or guerrilla war
  • Genocide
• Articulation Sentence: Conflict is a disagreement, which can be either peaceful or violent.

Non-Violent Conflict

• Not all conflict involves violence. Groups often disagree peacefully in global politics.
• Reasons for non-violent conflict:
  • A legitimate structure or process for dialogue is in place and utilized.
  • Democratic structures allow the population to be consulted, and the results are considered legitimate.
  • Parties are dependent on each other and would be harmed by violent conflict.
  • Violent solutions are against the core interests of all parties.

Iran Nuclear Weapons Programme

• Conflict of ideas and security interests between nation states resolved through diplomacy and negotiation.
• In 2015, Iran and the P5+1 (UN Security Council permanent members plus Germany) disagreed over Iran's nuclear weapons program.
• Diplomacy and negotiation were used instead of violent conflict.
• Economic sanctions were relaxed in exchange for weapons inspections.
• The threat of military action by the United States at times endangered the progress of the process.

European Union and the Eurozone Crisis

• The European Union was founded to resolve differences peacefully through regional institutions.
• Integration deepened with the launch of the Euro in 2002.
• The 2008 financial crisis led to disagreements between Greece and other Eurozone countries on austerity measures.
• Common institutions and interests allow disputes to be resolved non-violently through discussion.

Scottish Independence

• In 2011, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won a majority in the Scottish Parliament, promising a referendum on independence.
• The dispute between pro-independence nationalists and anti-independence Unionists was resolved through a democratic referendum.
• In September 2014, a majority rejected independence, and Scotland remained part of the United Kingdom.
• Articulation Sentence: Conflicts can be non-violent, often because states or groups are able to resolve their problems without violence and because they are dependent on one another.

Violent Conflict

• Much conflict results in violence, with direct violence measured by deaths, injuries, and physical damage.
• This type of violence often occurs during war.
• Reasons for violent conflict:
  • Lack of trust between sides.
  • No structure for peaceful dispute resolution.
  • Grievance and trauma sustaining and deepening the conflict.
  • Violent approaches seen as the only way to secure core interests.

Kurdistan and Turkey

• Kurdish separatist forces have been fighting an insurgency against the Turkish Army in south-eastern Turkey.
• The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) seeks to create a separate Kurdish state.
• Violent conflict has caused approximately 45,000 deaths since the late 1970s.

Ukraine

• Violent conflict is frequent due to tensions between closer relations with the European Union/NATO and Russia.
• In February 2014, violent protests occurred in Kiev against President Viktor Yanukovych's pro-Russian stance.
• Security forces clashed with protesters, resulting in about 100 deaths.
• President Yanukovych fled to Russia and was replaced by pro-EU President Petro Poroshenko.
• In September 2014, Russian troops invaded eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea.
• An armed insurgency developed between pro-Russian rebels, Russian forces, and Ukrainian nationalist forces in eastern Ukraine.

Syria

• Civil war began in 2011 after peaceful protesters were shot at by government forces.
• By the end of 2015, 250,000 people had been killed, and much of Syria's infrastructure was destroyed.
• Government forces used chemical weapons in an attack on Damascus in August 2013.
• The Islamic State executed Western aid workers and journalists.
• Articulation Sentence: Conflict can become violent when states or groups have no other means of resolving their disputes or because the conflict has been progressively getting worse.

Causes of Conflict

• Societies in conflict have specific causes and general conditions that make conflict likely.
• Different sides in a conflict will not agree on the causes.
• Political analysts must analyze the possible causes in a balanced manner.
• Galtung (1996) suggests that attitudes, behaviors, and contradictions encourage violent conflict.
• All three factors must be present for conflict to exist and need to be stopped to end the conflict.
• Violent behavior will deepen contradiction, harden attitudes, and deepen grievance or injustice.
• Peacekeeping can reduce behaviors that encourage conflict.
• Peacebuilding can help reduce contradictions.
• Peacemaking can change the attitudes that fuel conflict.

Galtung's Conflict Triangle

• Violent conflict can be analyzed at the manifest and latent levels.
• Manifest Level: Obvious evidence of violent conflict (e.g., deaths, injuries).
• Latent Level: Deeper causes and conditions of conflict.
• Galtung's conflict triangle applies to both violent and non-violent conflict.

$Figure 4.3 Galtung's conflict triangle$

• Behaviour: Violence, genocide, insurgency attacks, discriminatory acts (Reduced through peacekeeping).

• Attitudes/Assumptions: Racism, discriminatory attitudes, sexism, victimhood, trauma (Reduced through peacemaking).

• Contradiction: Inequality, dispute over territory or resources (Reduced through peacebuilding).

Conditions Making Violent Conflict More Likely

• Little or no democratic means of dispute resolution; minorities excluded from political representation.
• Wealth, territory, or resources shared unequally and controlled by powerful elites.
• Poverty.
• Government is above the law, making arbitrary and illegitimate decisions.
• Judicial system is absent or interfered with, not independent or fair.
• Human rights are abused.

Conditions Making Violent Conflict Less Likely

• Democratic institutions exist, with full political equality and participation.
• Equal sharing of wealth and resources.
• Equality of opportunity for all.
• Government respects the rule of law.
• Disputes can be resolved fairly through a fair and independent judicial system.
• Respect for human rights (especially of minorities).

Galtung's Conflict Triangle for Syria

• Using Galtung's methodology, a conflict triangle can be created for contemporary conflicts to analyze what is encouraging the conflict.

$Figure 4.4 Galtung's conflict triangle for Syria$

• Behaviour: Assad government military campaign, chemical weapon attacks. Sunni rebel forces violent insurgency. Islamic State military campaign to establish caliphate, execution of journalists.
• Attitudes/Assumptions: Assad government believes it should stay in power; Sunni rebels feel Assad government is not legitimate.
• Contradiction: Sunni majority in conflict with Shia Alawite sect. Islamic State claims legitimacy to create a Sunni Muslim caliphate.
• Articulation Sentences: It is possible to identify both specific causes and more general conditions that make conflict more likely. Galtung's triangle is a method for analyzing the causes of a conflict.

Types of Conflict and Groups Involved

• Different types of conflict exist depending on:
  • The nature of the groups involved (e.g., nation states or non-state groups).
  • The contradiction causing the conflict (e.g., ideology, revolution, violent organized crime).
• Intrastate war has increased since 1946 and is now the most common form of violent conflict.
• Interstate war has decreased steadily since 1946.

Examples of Conflict

• Articulation Sentences: Interstate war happens between states, but it has been decreasing since 1946. Intrastate war happens within one nation and is increasing.

How is Conflict Changing?

• Analysts have observed changes in the nature of violent conflict, particularly since the end of the Cold War.
• A key method of analysis is to observe the differences between 'old wars' (interstate) and 'new wars' (globalized conflicts between civilian and non-state groups), as proposed by Mary Kaldor (1999).

Old Wars

• Principal groups were regular armed forces of nation states.
• Fought for ideology or geopolitical interests.
• Violence directed against and between national armed forces.
• Financed by states (taxation or outside support).
• Emphasis on battles to capture territory.

New Wars

• Principal groups are non-state groups, rebel groups, and independent militia.
• Fought for identity - religious, ethnic, tribal.
• Violence directed against civilians.
• Financed by non-state groups exploiting local economies and by violent organized crime.
• Emphasis on controlling populations and displacing minorities.
• Articulation Sentence: The nature of conflicts has been steadily changing from wars based on geopolitical interests between states to wars based on identity issues between non-state groups.

Conflict Dynamics

• Conflicts usually escalate and de-escalate through several phases.
• Ramsbotham and Woodhouse (1999) formulated a model of conflict dynamics which helps policymakers identify the best responses for conflict resolution at each stage.

Stages of Conflict

$Figure 4.5 Stages of conflict and conflict resolution$

• Articulation Sentence: Ramsbotham and Woodhouse created a model of conflict dynamics that helps policymakers understand the stages through which conflict escalates and de-escalates, and the ideal responses for resolving conflict at each stage.

Key Concept: Violence and Non-Violence

• Key Idea: Violence is when physical, mental, or other harm is caused by an individual or group to another.

Types of Violence

Direct Violence

• When an individual or group is physically or mentally harmed through direct action.
• Includes crimes against humanity and genocide.
• Genocide is defined by the UN as the attempt to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
• Characteristics:
  • Straightforward to identify.
  • Possible to investigate and establish responsibility.
  • Possible to measure.
  • Possible to hold those responsible accountable.

Structural Violence

• When a government or other forms of power function in a way that results in harm to individuals or groups.
• May be through inequalities that deny people fundamental rights, leading to physical harm such as illness or death through hunger or disease.
• A government commits structural violence when it consciously limits human development or undermines well-being.
• Violence of any kind must contain some form of intent
• Characteristics:
  • A conscious choice.
  • Leads to preventable suffering.
  • Causes harm through lack of basic necessities.
  • Widespread, but often unchallenged and unacknowledged.
  • Harder to measure and assign responsibility.

Cultural Violence

• Responsibility is embedded within all levels of a society.
• Cultural violence can be identified in the mindset, beliefs, and values of a society.
• Examples: Beliefs about women's inferiority leading to direct violence against women.
• Characteristics:
  • May be government-driven or society-driven.
  • Any aspect of a culture that legitimizes violence in its direct or structural forms.
  • May be harder to eliminate, being embedded in the mindset of a society and linked to cultural or religious values.
• Articulation Sentences: Violence can be direct, structural, or cultural. Structural and cultural violence are forms of violence embedded in either the government or culture of a society.

Non-Violence

• Many political causes are pursued through an active policy of non-violence.

• The strongest commitment to non-violence is seen in pacifism.

• Pacifism emphasizes peaceful and non-violent solutions to all disputes.

• Pacifists place importance on developing human rights, the rule of law, and strengthening international organizations such as the UN.

• It is important to distinguish between groups who use non-violent means and groups who use violent means to achieve a similar final political objective.

• Articulation Sentence: Some states and groups are pacifist and aim to solve conflicts without the use of violence.

Terrorism

• A form of violence that has gained significant international attention since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

• There is no agreed definition of terrorism.

• One definition: 'the threat of violence and the use of fear to coerce, persuade and gain public attention'.

• To define a group as terrorist, the legitimacy of that group's actions and objectives must be assessed.

• There is often debate about whether such groups are terrorists or freedom fighters.

• Such debates center on questions including:

  • Does the violent group have any non-violent alternatives to violence?
  • Is there a legitimate grievance that makes the threat and use of violence necessary?
  • Are civilians deliberately targeted to create a climate of fear?

State Terrorism

• Nation states that abuse their powers may terrorize their populations through violence and the threat of violence.

Sub-State Terrorism

• Non-state terrorist groups carry out attacks against national governments and civilians.

Internationalized Terrorism

• Since 9/11, terrorist groups have become increasingly globalized.
• Key objectives include mobilizing other militants and terrorizing communities through attacks on public places.
• Articulation Sentence: Since 11 September 2001, terrorism as a form of violence has been increasing and becoming more globalized.

Justifying Violence

• While pacifists believe violence can never be justified, others believe it can be morally and legally justified.

Just War Theory

• Christian religious thinkers (St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas) attempted to identify criteria for justifying violence.
• Key themes:
  • Right Authority: Those starting conflict should have legitimate authority, follow international law, and the UN Security Council plays a key role.
  • Just Cause: Must have the objective of restoring peace, not material gain.
  • Probability of Success: Must be achievable.
  • Proportionality: Any action must be proportionate to the initial act of aggression.
  • Last Resort: Peaceful efforts must have been exhausted.
• Articulation Sentences: Just war theory governs the decision to begin a conflict. It is a philosophical, not political, consensus. States are not obliged to follow it.

Justifications in International Law and Norms

• Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter authorizes the UN Security Council to take military and non-military action to restore international peace and security.
• Request for Help: Military action is seen as legitimate if a nation state requests help from others.
• Responsibility to Protect: The UN General Assembly agreed to the principle of states having a responsibility to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.
• Jus in bello - conduct during violent conflict
  • International law and treaties govern the conduct of armed conflict.
  • Agreements by treaty are only binding for states that have signed those treaties and are certainly not binding for non-state groups.
  • Such treaties include:
    • Geneva and Hague Conventions - under international humanitarian law, these conventions govern the conduct of armed conflict, including protection of civilians, hospitals, the injured and the proper treatment of prisoners. All member states of the UN are subject to the conventions and the UN Security Council may act in response to any breaches (this is the principle of customary international law, where laws are 'a general practice accepted as law' and exist independent of treaty law. States cannot opt out.)
    • The Geneva Protocol - a treaty prohibiting the use of asphyxiating or poisonous gases.
    • Ottawa Treaty (1997) - prohibits the use of landmines by treaty.
    • Convention on Cluster Munitions (2008) - a treaty applicable in international law only to those states that have signed it, prohibiting the use of cluster bombs.
• Articulation Sentence: There are international laws and conventions governing the reasons why a state can enter into a violent conflict as well as how it must behave during the conflict.