theories of war and conflict

on September 24 | in Uncategorized | by | with No Comments

Conflict theory assumes that the elite will set up systems of laws, traditions, and other societal structures in order to further support their own dominance while preventing others from joining their ranks.

Rather, it comes about as the symptom of conflict between these groups. Also, the offensive knows the terrain of the land better than the defensive, so they are often better prepared for battle.

The proletariat is the other group: it includes those considered working class or poor. September 7, 2013 by justpeace | 0 comments. Over the next few days, we’ll be excerpting parts of his thesis as we look at the past theories of war in comparison to the new paradigm of Just Peace.

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Also, they can act preemptively if they sense that their aggressor is weak.

Conflict theory is highly influential in modern and post-modern theories of sexual and racial inequality, peace and conflict studies, and the many varieties of identity studies that have arisen across Western academia in the past several decades. In this study, I will first summarize the various theories of general war, and show that existing lists of general wars are not always consistent

3-78. When this happened, those who opposed nationalist parties became violent. Furthermore, according to Petersen, when fear of another way of life, in this case a religious one. Some grievances include, “ethnic or religious hatred, political repression, political exclusion, and economic inequality.”. He said, “We didn’t have the luxury of fighting a conventional war. Theories of War and Conflict – Part 2 Criticisms of Just War Theory September 7, 2013 by justpeace | 0 comments Just Peacemaking is a new philosophical paradigm, and as with anything new, the greatest understanding comes from comparison to what is currently known and accepted. Here, private individuals are unrestrained in determining where to invest, what to produce, and at which prices to exchange goods and services. Uneven distribution within society was predicted to be maintained through ideological coercion; the bourgeoisie would force acceptance of the current conditions by the proletariat. 2 Theories of Conflict and the Iraq War Table 1: Summary of Explanatory Perspectives on the Iraq Invasion Theory Causal/explanatory focus Realism Unipolarity, maintain hegemony and avoid post-9/11 decline by demonstrating U.S. willingness to use force Avoid nuclear proliferation, eliminate Iraqi WMD threat against the U.S. and its allies Ultimately, conflict theorists see this dynamic as one of conflict over these resources. Basically, Posen is arguing that military advantage in geography and technology can be key tools in anarchic civil war.
Lastly, in his essay, “Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe,” Roger D. Petersen argues that emotions motivate people to act violently in ethnic conflicts. Thus, many factors of emotions play a key roles in instances of ethnic conflict. The idea is that change in a power dynamic between groups does not happen as the result of a gradual adaptation. Collier, Paul and Anke Hoeffler, “Greed and Grievance in Civil War,” Oxford Economic Papers 56, No.

, Mary Kaldor argues that the ethnic violence stemmed from fear and hate.

For example, if a bunch of people with their ethnic identity join the rebel cause, then more people of that ethnic identity will also join that cause. In the context of war, a society may become unified in some ways, but conflict still remains between multiple societies.

Marx theorized about the bourgeoisie, a group of people that represented members of society who hold the majority of the wealth and means. Capitalism is an economic system whereby monetary goods are owned by individuals or companies. Please subscribe or login to access full text content. Your email address will not be published. Personal Conflict IR Resource 1D 4. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Because laborers have little control or power in the economic system (because they don’t own factories or materials), their worth can be devalued over time.

More specifically, he explains that the feeling of resentment, anger, fear, and rage all build up in the mind and cause urges of violence. Nation to Nation Conflict IR Resource 1D 5. International Relations Theories 6. Many types of societal conflicts throughout history can be explained using the central tenets of conflict theory. Sociologists usually apply the term to such conflicts only if they are initiated and conducted in accordance with socially recognized forms. They believe that they are defined by getting whatever resources they can from each other. That is, the Catholic Croats murdered a village of Muslims in Bosnia because they could not get passed their ethnic and religious differences. In this way, changes to a power dynamic are often abrupt and large in scale, rather than gradual and evolutionary. Therefore, the increase in ethnic tensions after the election led to the start of the all-out war between Croatia and Serbia. Some of these representations may be of a very negative nature.” That is, the innate nature of hatred within an ethnic group can be the underlying cause for resentment and anger among feuding ethnic groups.