Addressing Underlying Causes of Conflict: Additional Resources

These references supplement the Knowledge Base Essay, Addressing Underlying Causes of Conflict.

Additional Explanations of the Underlying Concepts:

Online (Web) Sources

Glaser, Tanya. "Conflict: Practices in Management, Settlement and Resolution - Book Summary." University of Colorado: Conflict Research Consortium.
Available at: Link

This summary outlines John Buron and Frank Dukes' book, Conflict: Practices in Management, Settlement and Resolution. The work describes different types of conflicts and different approaches to conflict management, matching the different types of conflict with the most appropriate management process.

Glaser, Tanya. "Conflict: Readings in Management and Resolution--Book Summary." University of Colorado: Conflict Research Consortium, 1900.
Available at: Link

This summary of Conflict: Readings in Management and Resolution, edited by John Burton and Frank Dukes, provides an overview of the essays that make up the work. The essays include both classic texts and contemporary contributions to the field of conflict resolution. The book is intended to provide the general reader with a "start-up library" on the subject of conflict and conflict resolution.

Conflict: Resolution and Provention--Book Summary. Centre for Conflict Resolution, Univ of Cape Town, South Africa.
Available at: Link
This summary of Conflict: Resolution and Provention, by John Burton, gives a good overview of the book. The book offers an historical and theoretical overview of approaches to conflict resolution, emphasizing a problem-solving approach to conflict resolution and the need for conflict prevention (provention).

Hansen, Silke. Confronting Group Differences and Commonalities in a Diverse Society.
Available at: Primary Link [Backup Link]
This paper is an edited transcript of a talk given by Silke Hansen for the Intractable Conflict/Constructive Confrontation Project on November 6, 1993. It addresses issues involved in mediating multi-ethnic community conflicts. Hansen suggests that diverse groups typically have things in common that can be used to hold the larger community together and limit destructive confrontations.

Glaser, Tanya and Conflict Research Consortium Staff. "From Confrontation to Cooperation: Resolving Ethnic and Regional Conflict--Book Summary." University of Colorado: Conflict Research Consortium.
Available at: Link

This summary of From Confrontation to Cooperation, by Jay Rothman, provides a good overview of the book, which presents a new conceptual framework for understanding and resolving protracted ethnic conflicts.

Conflict Research Consortium Staff. International Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice--Book Summary. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado.
Available at: Link
This summary of International Conflict Resolution, edited by Edward Azar and John Burton, provides a good overview of the book. The book discusses alternative approaches to the realist view of international relations, particularly the problem solving approach to international conflicts.

Offline (Print) Sources

Agnew, John. "Beyond Reason: Spatial and Temporal Sources of Ethnic Conflicts." In Intractable Conflicts and their Transformation. Edited by Northrup, Terrell A. and Louis Kriesberg, eds. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1989.
This essay presents the author's theory about what the root sources of intractable conflict are. Specifically, he argues that intractability is caused by the dynamics of a conflict, not the reasoning processes of the parties to it. The suggestion is that intractability is social constructed by parties as they objectify their conflict in terms of intersts, stakes etc. and that one must go beyond reason alone to resolve this type of conflict.

Lederach, John Paul. Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies. Herndon, VA: USIP Press, December 1997.
Marrying wisdom, insight, and passion, Lederach explains why we need to move beyond "traditional" diplomacy, which often emphasizes top-level leaders and short-term objectives, toward a holistic approach that stresses the multiplicity of peacemakers, long-term perspectives, and the need to create an infrastructure that empowers resources within a society and maximizes contributions from outside. Primary Link [Backup Link]

Burton, John W. and E. Frank Dukes. Conflict: Practices in Management, Settlement, and Resolution . New York: St. Martin's Press, October 1990.
Conflict: Practices in Management, Settlement, and Resolution describes different types of conflicts and different approaches to conflict management. It attempts to match the different types of conflict with the most appropriate management process. This work includes some very influential definitions of key terms in the field of conflict resolution . Primary Link

Dukes, E. Frank and John W. Burton, eds. Conflict: Readings in Management and Resolution. New York: St. Martin's Press, October 1990.
This book is a collection of essays intended to provide an introduction to and overview of the theoretical foundations of the field of conflict resolution. These essays include both classic texts and contemporary human needs theories. Primary Link

Burton, John W. Conflict: Resolution and Provention. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, Inc., July 1990.
The author suggests that protracted conflict often arises out of unmet human needs. Conflict provention seeks to address the underlying systemic causes of conflict rather than merely dealing with its symptoms. It suggests that the best way to deal with serious social problems is to alter the structures of the social environments that give rise to these problems. Primary Link [Backup Link]

Azar, Edward E. and John W. Burton, eds. International Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, April 1986.
International Conflict Resolution discusses alternative approaches to the realist view of international relations. It discusses the problem solving approach to international conflicts in particular. Primary Link

Fisher, Ronald J. "Social-Psychological Processes in Interactive Conflict Analysis and Reconciliation." In Conflict Resolution: Dynamics, Process and Structure. Edited by Jeong, Ho-Won, ed. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1999.
This article discusses the notion that many intractable are resistant to conflict because traditional approaches to resolving them do not address basic human needs. The author argues that the frustration of things like the need for security, identity, recogntition, participation, and equity, are key underlying causes of protrated conflict. The author goes on to discuss new and innovative ways of approaching difficult ethnopolitical conflicts.

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Examples Illustrating this Topic:

Online (Web) Sources

Prendergast, John. Building for Peace in the Horn of Africa: Diplomacy and Beyond.
Available at: http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr990628.html  [Backup Link]
This USIP report reviews thematically the causes of conflicts in the Horn of Africa region, analyzes current efforts at resolving these wars, and provides an alternative framework of engagement that goes beyond diplomacy and is aimed at building the institutional basis for future peace.

Nathan, Laurie. "Crisis Resolution and Conflict Management in Africa." ,
Available at: http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/archive/staff-papers/laurie-bank.html  [Backup Link]

The main argument of this paper runs as follows: Violence may be the predominant concern from a humanitarian perspective, but from an analytical perspective it should be viewed as a symptom of intra-state crises. The crises arise from four structural conditions in particular: authoritarian rule; the exclusion of minority or majority groups from governance; socio-economic deprivation combined with inequity; and weak states which lack the institutional capacity to manage political and social conflict. As these conditions are the primary causes of mass violence in Africa, sustainable peace is possible only if they are addressed satisfactorily.

United States Institute of Peace. Responding to War and State Collapse in West Africa.
Available at: http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr81.html  [Backup Link]
This report discusses some of the key problems facing West Africa, particularly the phenomena of state collapse and violent conflict in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. The report considers strategies for addressing the causes of these critical issues, especially the role the United States can play.

Lewer, Nick and Joe William. "Sri Lanka: Finding a Negotiated End to Twenty-Five Years of Violence." , 2002
Available at: Primary Link  [Backup Link]

This article examines the attempted peace processes in Sri Lanka, which aimed to bring an end to violence between the state and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Offline (Print) Sources

Rothman, Jay. From Confrontation to Cooperation: Resolving Ethnic and Regional Conflict. London: Sage Publications, November 1992.
From Confrontation to Cooperation presents a new conceptual framework for understanding and resolving protracted ethnic conflicts. Primary Link

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