In this article, we suggest rethinking the conflict resolution agenda among seemingly latent intractable communal conflicts by moving toward a constructive transformation of these conflicts. We ...connect Coser's theorization on social conflict and Lederach's conflict transformational ideas to, first, offer an alternative way of reconceptualizing conflict in ways that focus on harnessing the inherent potentialities of conflicts while changing the negative relational patterns among disputants; second, we propose emancipation from the local turn in peacebuilding to a local-local turn that will create a sense of local ownership, legitimize the process and increase the likelihood of acceptable and durable outcomes. To substantialize our argument, we present phenomenologically generated evidence from the Nkonya–Alavanyo conflict, which persists for over a century despite several attempts at its resolution. The conflict revolves around two truths derived from two maps and two tales and is overshadowed by mutual accusations and historically conditioned distrust of mediators.
Pens and Swords Dunsky, Marda
2008., 20080206, 2008, 20080101
eBook
As world attention is renewed and refocused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the sixtieth anniversary of its seminal year of 1948, Marda Dunsky takes a close look at how more than two dozen ...major American print and broadcast outlets have reported the conflict in recent years. Beginning with the failed Camp David summit of July 2000 through the waning of the second Palestinian uprising in the summer of 2004, she finds that the media omit two key contextual elements: the significant impact that U.S. policy has had and continues to have on the trajectory of the conflict, and the way international law and consensus have addressed the key issues of Israeli settlement and annexation policies and Palestinian refugees. Dunsky explores how reports of the conflict routinely take on the contours of American policy and rarely challenge the premises of this "Washington consensus." She also examines the media's responses to allegations of biased coverage and gauges the effect that mainstream news reporting has on public opinion and U.S. foreign policy.
This article explores the strategic problems that arise when a state seeks to use military force to compel changes in another state's policies. Although the costs associated with military action mean ...that there generally exist compromises that both sides prefer to conflict, bargaining may fail if such deals are not enforceable in the face of temptations to renege on policy concessions. This study develops a model that shows that inefficient conflict can occur when states bargain over policies that one of them can change unilaterally and covertly. I then show that this theory is useful for understanding a common source of international conflict: conflicts that arise when one state supports rebel groups engaged in a civil war with another state. Episodes of rebel support are associated with a substantial increase in the risk of interstate militarized disputes, the lethality of these disputes, and the likelihood of repeated violence. Agreements to limit rebel support are unlikely to reduce interstate violence unless they are coupled with concessions by the target state and/or monitoring mechanisms, both of which are shown theoretically to mitigate the enforcement problem.
Sanctions are designed to reduce the amount of resources available to the targeted actor and have the potential to be an effective tool for bringing disputing sides in a civil conflict to the ...bargaining table by altering incentives for continued fighting. Thus, there is reason to believe that sanctions can shorten the duration of civil conflicts. However, once sides in a conflict have moved to the use of violence to settle their dispute, it is hard for sanctions, in isolation, to impose enough cost to convince warring factions that settling a conflict has greater value than what could be expected from continued fighting. In this article, we argue that sanctions, in isolation, are unlikely to affect the duration of civil conflicts. However, when sanctions are combined with military interventions they can contribute to conflict management strategies resulting in shorter civil conflicts. We test our expectations empirically using data on civil conflicts from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program Armed Conflict Database and data on economic sanctions from the Threat and Imposition of Economic Sanctions Database. Our results suggest that the best hope for sanctions to shorten the duration of civil conflicts is if they are used as part of a comprehensive international response that includes institutional sanctions and military interventions.
Through a systematic literature review, we assess the current state of research on intrafamily conflicts in family firms, systematize the findings, and outline avenues for future research. Based on a ...review of 88 studies, we develop an input–process–output framework to synthesize input, process, output, and context variables and identify research gaps. The review contributes to the family business literature by bridging the family business and intragroup conflict literature, considering multiple levels of analysis (the individual, family, and firm), and presenting relevant research questions.
Why do some national movements use violent protest and others nonviolent protest? Wendy Pearlman shows that much of the answer lies inside movements themselves. Nonviolent protest requires ...coordination and restraint, which only a cohesive movement can provide. When, by contrast, a movement is fragmented, factional competition generates new incentives for violence and authority structures are too weak to constrain escalation. Pearlman reveals these patterns across one hundred years in the Palestinian national movement, with comparisons to South Africa and Northern Ireland. To those who ask why there is no Palestinian Gandhi, Pearlman demonstrates that nonviolence is not simply a matter of leadership. Nor is violence attributable only to religion, emotions or stark instrumentality. Instead, a movement's organizational structure mediates the strategies that it employs. By taking readers on a journey from civil disobedience to suicide bombings, this book offers fresh insight into the dynamics of conflict and mobilization.
A burgeoning literature has emerged on the relationship between economic interdependence and political conflict. This literature is evaluated, and three issues are raised for future research. First, ...there is a need to improve the theoretical basis of claims about the influence of interdependence on conflict and to specify more clearly the causal mechanisms underlying any such relationship. Second, future research should identify the boundary conditions of the effects of interdependence on conflict. Third, much more attention must be paid to the definition and measurement of interdependence and conflict.
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