Deep-Rooted Core Differences

3. Factors That Make Conflict Intractable

In Brief

As we explained in the article introducing the distinction between core conflict issues and overlaying (or overlay) issues, core issues are the things that the conflict is fundamentally about: factors such as interests, needs, rights, values, stakes — particularly high stakes — and identity issues — including status issues, or power, respect, oppression, inequality, and inequity. The articles linked below explore the nature of several of these typical core issues.

As we explained in the article introducing the distinction between core conflict issues and overlaying (or overlay) issues, core issues are the things that the conflict is fundamentally about: factors such as interests, needs, rights, values, stakes — particularly high stakes — and identity issues — including status issues, or power, respect, oppression, inequality, and inequity. As Michelle Maiese wrote in our BI essay on core causes,

They typically involve many parties and concern an intricate set of historical, religious, cultural, political, and economic issues. ¹These matters are central to human social existence and typically resist any attempts at resolution. In fact, parties often refuse to negotiate or compromise with respect to such issues. As a result, each side views the rigid position of the other as a threat to its very existence. They may develop a mutual fear of each other and a profound desire to inflict as much physical and psychological harm on each other as possible.²This sense of threat and hostility often pervades the everyday lives of the parties involved and overrides their ability to recognize any shared concerns they might have.

Maiese went on to say:

What is common to all intractable conflicts is that they involve interests or values that the disputants regard as critical to their survival. These underlying causes include parties' moral values, identities, and fundamental human needs. Because conflicts grounded in these issues involve the basic molds for thought and action within given communities and culture, they are usually not resolvable by negotiation or compromise.³ This is because the problem in question is one that cannot be resolved in a win-win way. If one value system is followed, another is threatened. If one nation controls a piece of land, another does not. If one group is dominant, another is subordinate.

While sharing is possible in theory, contending sides usually regard compromise as a loss. This is especially true in societies where natural fear and hatred is so ingrained that opposing groups cannot imagine living with or working cooperatively with the other side. Instead, they are often willing to take whatever means necessary to ensure group survival and protect their way of life.

The articles linked below explore the nature of several of these typical core issues.

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¹Peter Coleman, "Intractable Conflict," in The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice, eds. Morton Deutsch and Peter Coleman, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 2000), 428. Updated (2011) edition available here.

²Ibid, 430.

³Peter Coleman, "Characteristics of Protracted, Intractable Conflict: Towards the Development of a Meta-Framework," Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2003. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15327949PAC0901_01>., 20.