UDOFIA BENEDICT

CSS, CSP, HRP 1

MNIIS, MIIPS, ACIPM, MASIS

UNDERSTANDING CONFLICT
Sources, Escalation and Mapping

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UNDERSTANDING
CONFLICT
 Introduction
 What is Conflict
 Sources of Conflict
 Conflict Dynamic
 Conflict Analysis
 Conflict Mapping
 Conflict Escalation

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 INTRODUCTION

Conflict is as old as mankind. It is a salient feature of the human society. Generally, when we as
human beings come together and in our daily interactions, disagreement may occur, arising from
our various differences and conflicting views and opinions which might degenerate into a
violent/nonviolent conflict.

Morgenthau (1948) posits, when there are no arms to fight, men will fight even with their bare
fists. From birth, a baby begins the journey of conflict by crying, which is a flash of conflict. As
he grows up, he bites with his teeth or scratches with the nails on his tiny fingers when he is
upset.
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 What is Conflict?
 Conflict is said to exist when two or more groups engage in a struggle over values
and claims to status, power and resources in which the aims of the opponents are to
neutralize, injure or eliminate the rivals (Jeong, 2000).
 Coser (1967) defines conflict as a struggle over values and claims to scarce status,
power and resources in which the aims of the opponents are to neutralize, injure or
eliminate the rivals
 Cross, Names and Beck (1979) defined conflict as “differences between and among
individuals. These differences are created by the conflict, for example, values, goals,
motives, resources and ideas.

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 What is Conflict?
 Hocker and Wilmot (1985) defines conflict as “an expressed struggle between at
least two interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scarce rewards
and interference from the other party in achieving their goals”.
 Thomas (2005) defines conflict as a “disagreement in opinions between people or
groups, due to differences in attitudes, beliefs, values or needs”.
 Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK 2005: 2) defines
conflicts as: “the clashing of interests (positional differences) on national values of
some duration and magnitude between at least two parties (organized groups,
states, groups of states, organizations) that are determined to pursue their interests
and win their cases.
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What is Conflict?

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 SOURCES OF CONFLICT

 Limited Resources/Economic Conflict

 Difference in Goal/Objectives

 Communication

 Value, Attitude and Perception

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Limited Resources/Economic Conflict
This form of conflict involves competing
motives to attain scarce resources. Each party
wants to get the most that it can, and the
behavior and emotions of each party are
directed toward maximizing its gain. Union
and management conflict often has as one of
its sources the incompatible goals of how to
slice up the “economic pie”. There are always
limited facilities, food, water, land space, job
slots, money etc.
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 Goals and Objectives
Goals/objectives is another source
of conflict between individuals and
groups. There are always
conflicting goals and objectives of
individual. What each person seeks
to achieve varies and how to
achieve these aims conflicts with
that of the next individual.
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 Communication
Miscommunication and misunderstanding can
create conflict even where there are no basic
incompatibilities. Parties may have different
perceptions as to what are the facts in a
situation, and until they share information and
clarify their perceptions, resolution is
impossible.

Lack of skill in communicating what we really mean in a clear and respectful fashion
often results in confusion, hurt and anger, all of which simply feed the conflict
process. Whether the conflict has objective sources or is due only to perceptual or
communication problems, it is experienced as very real by the parties involved. 11
 Values, Perception and Attitude
Many conflicts are the result of differences in attitudes, values, and
perceptions. Sometimes, without even realizing it, we bring feelings or
concerns into an interaction that predisposes us to react in a certain
way. It involves incompatibility in ways of life, ideologies – the
preferences, principles and practices that people believe in.
Conflicting values are a common and difficult-to-resolve source of
conflict between parties. Differences in religious beliefs, tribal and
ethnic inclinations, attitudes towards diverse others, clashes in family
values, or in work ethic might result in interpersonal differences.
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DYNAMICS OF CONFLICT

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 CONFLICT ANALYSIS
A conflict analysis examines open conflict (conflict that is
very visible and deep-rooted), surface conflict (visible but
shallow or with no roots), and also latent conflict (below the
surface with potential to emerge) (Fisher et al., 2000). In
analyzing a conflict, you are simply taking steps to answer
the: who, what, when, why, where, and how in other to build
a picture and have a grasp of the whole conflict situation.

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 Some Conflict Analysis Tools
 Conflict Wheel: Introduces six important dimensions of conflict analysis (dynamics,
actors, causation, structures, issues and options/strategies
 Conflict Tree: The conflict tree deals with the difference between structural and
dynamic factors, visualizing how conflict issues link these two aspects.
 Conflict Mapping which focuses on actors and their interrelationships.
 Glasl’s Escalation Model: The model aims to fit our conflict intervention strategy to
the conflict parties’ escalation level.
 INMEDIO’s Conflict Perspective Analysis (CPA): The Conflict Perspective Analysis
(CPA) focuses on the different perspectives of the various parties.
 Needs-Fears Mapping which focuses on actors and their issues, interests, needs, fears,
means and options. 15
 Actors
Who are the actors that influence conflict?
 Who are the main actors? (e.g. the military, leaders and commanders of non-state armed
groups, criminal groups)
 What are their interests, concerns, goals, hopes, fears, strategies, positions, preferences,
worldviews, expectations and motivations? (e.g. autonomy, inequality between groups
(‘horizontal inequality’), political power, ethno-nationalist, reparations)
 What power do they have, how do they exert power, what resources or support do they
have, are they vulnerable? (e.g. local legitimacy through provision of security, power over
corrupt justice institutions, weapons and capacity to damage infrastructure)
 What capacities do they have to affect the context?
 Who could be considered spoilers? What divides people? Who exercises leadership and
how? (e.g. economic beneficiaries of conflict, criminal groups, opposition leader) 16
 Causes
What caused the conflict?
 What are the structural causes of conflict? (e.g. unequal land
distribution, political exclusion, poor governance and bad
leadership, impunity, lack of state authority, perceived inequality and
social injustice)
 What are the proximate causes of conflict? (e.g. arms proliferation,
illicit criminal networks, emergence of self-defence non-state armed
actors, overspill of conflict from a neighbouring country, natural
resource discoveries)
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 Dynamics
What are the current conflict dynamics/trends?
 What are the current conflict trends? What are the recent changes in behaviour?
 Which factors of the conflict profile, actors and causes reinforce or undermine each
other? (e.g. economic and political inequalities can increase the risk of conflict;
uncertainty about succession of the president)
 What triggers conflict? (e.g., elections, economic and environmental shocks,
economic crash, an assassination, food price increases, a corruption scandal, hike in
the price of commodities)
 What scenarios can be developed? (e.g., best-case scenario: a peace agreement is
signed quickly and the conflict parties implement a ceasefire; worst-case scenario:
local politicians mobilize along ethnic lines in the run-up to elections and political
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violence and riots increase where groups meet)
 CONFLICT MAPPING

Mapping is an approach to analyzing a conflict

situation. You represent the conflict graphically,
placing the parties in relation to the problem, and
conveying graphically the relations between them.

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 CONFLICT ESCALATION
Escalation is broad concept, which refers to several different meanings, ranging
from non-violent crisis to total nuclear war (Brecher 1996). Most often however, it
is linked to an increase in intensity of a crisis or a conflict.
Brecher has identified three distinct processes which each provide a definition of
escalation:
 Change from incipient to full-scale crisis, which automatically implicates an
increase in stress, from low to peak
 Change from non-violent to violent crisis
 Change from no or low violence to severe violence.

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THANK YOU

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