scholarly journals Conflict resolution: Understanding concepts and issues in conflict prevention, management and transformation

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeola Adams ◽  
Chux Gervase Iwu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Conflict Transformation ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Social Reconstruction ◽  
Per Se

Conflicts are inevitable. They can be prevented on some occasions, managed on others, but resolved only if the term conflict is taken to mean the satisfaction of apparent demands rather than the total eradication of underlying sentiments. Within the context of South Africa and Nigeria, two nations characterised by a mix of reputations, the understanding of the concepts of conflict prevention, conflict management and conflict transformation is pertinent to courting peace and harmony among the different groups of people. For one, conflict resolution opportunities restore our humanness and avowed commitment to the larger society. This is premised against the backdrop that conflict is both an intrinsic and inevitable part of human existence involving the pursuit of incompatible interests and goals by parties. This paper attempts the development of a general framework for understanding the different concepts of conflict. The paper concludes by admitting that conflict resolution has less to do with removing conflict per se, but evolving an appropriate option for nipping it in the bud before it degenerates into a crisis. Conflict resolution therefore becomes the harbinger of our social reconstruction and the criterion for measuring the sanity and conformity of social systems

scholarly journals To Manage, Resolve or Transform? The Way Forward for the EU in the Middle East Peace Process

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Persson
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Conflict Transformation ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Just Peace ◽  
The Eu ◽  
The Way

This article argues that 40 years of EU peacebuilding in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have produced few significant results with a possible exception to this being the parameters provided by the EU for a just peace in the conflict. In any case, it is difficult to characterise these past four decades of EU involvement as anything other than a failure. Consequently, the main argument of this article is that a new strategy for the EU’s peacebuilding in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is urgently needed. As both the approaches of conflict management and conflict resolution have been tried and have failed, this article argues that the EU has far better potential in transforming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than in managing or resolving it. An EU strategy more clearly based on the principles of conflict transformation is therefore the best way forward for the EU in the Middle East peace process.

scholarly journals Elicitive Conflict Transformation and New Media: In Search for a Common Ground

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Suetzl
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
New Media ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Conflict Transformation ◽  
Important Resource ◽  
The Common ◽  
Communicative Processes

Advocates of elicitive conflict transformation (ECT) maintain that the parties to a conflict are the most important resource in efforts to render that conflict less violent. According to them, the transformation of the conflict is immanent to the conflict itself. The claim of ECT theorists is that classical conflict resolution has mostly aimed at overcoming a conflict by means of neutral mediation, while conflict transformation is not primarily concerned with terminating a conflict and considers the conflict worker as part of the conflict system. Although ECT is a communication-based model of conflict management and relies on human media, its media-theoretical aspects are not made explicit, raising the question of what role technological media play in the communicative processes that make up ECT techniques. Through an examination of the claimed differences between conflict resolution and conflict transformation, and focusing on the common roots of new media and the elicitive model in systems and cybernetic theory, this paper asks whether any peacebuilding potential of new media could be found in a specific anti-propagandistic quality of distributed technological media. It concludes by looking at any such potential in social media.

Participation of Persons Belonging to National Minorities – Cases of Samtskhe-Javakheti and Gali

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Frichova
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
International Community ◽  
Conflict Transformation ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
South Ossetia ◽  
Minority Participation ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Transformation Activity ◽  
Open Dialogue

This article explores inter-ethnic and minority participation issues in conflict prevention and ongoing conflict settings. Its focus is on two cases: Georgia's Armenian-inhabited Samtskhe-Javakheti and the Georgian-inhabited Gali district under Abkhaz control. Conflict prevention and resolution contexts have been deeply intertwined in Georgia. Tbilisi's approach to Armenian and Azeri minorities has been affected by ongoing conflict in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and it has in turn had an impact on Abkhaz and Ossetian perceptions of Georgian conflict resolution policies. Some progress with integration of Azeri and Armenian minorities has been achieved, but much is yet to be accomplished: among others, a genuinely open dialogue and a change in the spirit of majority-minority relations are needed. Gali Georgians are trapped between Tbilisi and Sukhumi in increasingly precarious conditions after the 2008 war. Their community has a great potential for conflict transformation activity; the parties to the conflict and the international community should support them to apply it.

Fostering relations with a host country: A case study of the OSCE and Tadjikistan

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Management ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Post Conflict

AbstractThe OSCE's mandate for early warning, conflict prevention, conflict management and post-conflict rehabilitation based on its approach to comprehensive security through its network of field offices is implemented on a daily basis. Constructive relations with a host country are an important factor in their success, yet not always easy to achieve. This article provides a case study of one endeavour to strengthen these relations.

Preventing War and Providing the Peace?

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Shannon
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Causal Relationship ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Claims Data ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Trust Building ◽  
Territorial Claims ◽  
Bilateral Negotiations

I explore whether international organizations (IOs) promote peaceful conflict management. Using territorial claims data, I find that organizations with interventionist capabilities encourage disputing members to attempt peaceful conflict resolution. Then, to more fully uncover the causal relationship between IOs and conflict management, I investigate the influence of IOs on bilateral dispute settlement separately from third party settlement.The analyses reveal that institutions do not promote bilateral negotiations between members, indicating that the socialization and trust-building capabilities of IOs are limited. However, institutions foster multilateral talks, demonstrating that IOs broker bargaining with third party diplomatic intervention.

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