Causes of Conflict

Causes of Conflict​

Nicole Carle: Hello and welcome to this module on causes of conflict. My name is Nicole Carle and I'm a counsel for the Public International Law and Policy Group or PILPG. Today I am pleased to welcome Dr. Yvonne Dutton, who is a Senior Legal Advisor at PILPG and is here to help guide us through this topic of causes of conflict. Thank you for joining, Yvonne.

What are the root causes of conflict?

Nicole Carle: To start us off, what do peace negotiators and conflict mediators see as the root causes of conflict? 

Yvonne Dutton: Well, conflict is often context specific and multidimensional. While there are many complex causes of conflict, it can often result from a combination of the following: political and institutional factors, which would include weak state institutions, concentration of power in narrow elite groups or political parties, political exclusion and non representative governance, repression of human rights, and corruption.

Now, there are also socioeconomic factors such as economic repression, unequal access based on race, ethnicity, religion, and gender, historical grievances, and persecution of marginalized groups, and also poverty. And now also, there are resource and environmental factors. So, those would include scarcity of national resources and unjust resource exploitation. 

Now, each of these factors may constitute a cause or impact of conflict. So, identifying and understanding the interactions between various causes as well as the particular context in which the conflict arises is essential in designing approaches and methods for conflict resolution and transformation.

Now, the way in which parties to a conflict address the underlying root causes of conflict can determine whether the parties to the conflict will revert to armed conflict. Therefore, the peace process and comprehensive peace agreement must address the root causes of conflict beyond just the cessation of hostilities and laid down in addition the foundation for the political process. 

What are negotiators and mediators trying to achieve in a peace process?

Nicole Carle: Thanks for kicking us off with the root factors and you're right, it's so important to understand these at the beginning of any peace process. Sticking to the basics, what are peace negotiators and conflict mediators trying to achieve during a peace process?

Yvonne Dutton: Well, a key concern during any conflict is ensuring stability. One of the key underlying purposes of any peace process is to eliminate the security threat for all groups and individuals. At its most basic level, peace is thought of as the absence of violence, and peace negotiations are primarily or principally driven towards the creation of what we call negative peace, which is again the cessation of conflict.

However, When a peace agreement only attempts to address and resolve the issues of cessation of hostilities, it then ignores underlying causes and grievances still present in the society that really contributed to the start of the armed conflict in the first place. Therefore, peace should be thought of as a far more expansive concept.

A negative peace alone is not sufficient to escape the cycle of conflict and for peace to be lasting and sustainable. It must also, therefore, be a positive peace, which would be characterized by political, social, and economic justice. So, while negative peace is often the first step toward conflict resolution, a peace agreement that only addresses security issues will not address the underlying uncertainty and collective fears of parties to the conflict, which then can result in the resurgence of armed violence.

How are conflict drivers identified?

Nicole Carle: Really well said. We've covered the what now, even just a little bit. I want to move into the process and the how. So, how do peace negotiators and conflict mediators identify these drivers of conflict that you've been discussing? 

Yvonne Dutton: Well, conflict mapping is a key first step in addressing the root causes of conflict.

And so, that involves identifying the primary and secondary actors and influential thematic issues in a conflict. And then plotting out their linkages and relationships with one another. It also involves determining the motivations, needs, and fears of these actors. In complex conflict situations, these relationships may not be evident at first glance, or by those directly involved in the conflict themselves. So, conflict mapping helps those seeking to work towards a resolution of the conflict to step back and view the entire situation and all relevant actors, as well as the often complex interactions and relations between them. 

So, let's talk about the conflict map, a basic conflict map. To create that, there's a few steps, and I'm going to just sort of talk about those here, a little bit. So, peace builders would want to determine the scope and boundaries of the conflict to be discussed. For example, will you look only at one town or village, or are you going to look more regionally or at national levels? Another thing, while many types of tools for conflict map mapping exist, a good starting point is a basic conflict map that identifies all actors and their connections with one another.

This kind of map also identifies any broad political or ideological issues that may impact the situation. Now, we're going to consider which actors are involved and then draw circles to represent each actor. The size of the circle could represent the relative power of each group; larger circles representing more powerful groups and smaller circles less powerful. For international actors or those outside of the immediate conflict space that may still influence the conflict, you could use half circles. 

Another thing we want to do is identify broad issues, topics, or things that are not either people or organizations, but that have an impact across groups. We want to name these issues and write them inside of a square, or squares, on the map. For example, Issues may include religious beliefs, political beliefs, economic hardship, things like that.

And then also, we want to illustrate the connections between the groups and the issues, showing which groups are in conflict with one another and which are more out. So, once a map of the conflict is established and there's a clear overview of those involved in the conflict and their relationships to one another, it's useful to examine the goals and motivations of the different parties.

Now, a useful tool for this process is what we call a needs-fears map, and it examines not only what each party identifies as important ideological issues, but also what may motivate the party's actions or prevent them from acting based on basic needs and fears. So, it's important to make this distinction between ideology and actual physical needs. Parties may support one cause or seek to establish a particular type of government, but in the immediate term and on a practical level, groups will first and foremost do what is necessary to ensure the survival and well being of their members. 

So, let's talk a little bit more about positions and issues. Well, these are political or ideological beliefs or stated requests. Usually a group forms based on having these in common and is seeking a common end goal. Now, what about interests? These include needs, things like safety, security, food, water, equal representation, dignity, and protections in local structures. 

And fears, those are another kind of interest. Which would include the loss of safety, security, loss of livelihood, perceived negative impacts of a group imposing an ideology, a different ideology becomes dominant. So an issue can be one that one group wishes to keep the current government in power, but this group's need for food, shelter, and safety may in some situations supersede their ideological commitment to that current government. 

Similarly, by assessing the fears of a group and understanding what they see as the possible negative impact if an opposing group gains dominance dominance, it may be possible to address these fears and assure really both groups that what they imagine will not come to pass and to make agreements to ensure that specific issues of concern are then addressed.

So, identifying these types of gaps or areas of specific concern is a key way to move forward in any sort of negotiations or efforts to address the root causes of conflict. And in that regard, it's often useful to, one, you know, begin by discussing the basic, practical needs of the groups in conflict, and two, find ways to cooperate in addressing these problems, and then finally, you know, avoid discussion of bigger ideological issues that the groups do not agree on. So during this process, it's also useful to identify the means and options available to each group and you want to assess how the groups may seek to make progress on their stated issues and what additional options may be available to them to exercise these means. So that was a lot, but hopefully that's helpful to answer the question.

How are the root causes of conflict addressed through peace agreements?

Nicole Carle: No, very helpful and I appreciate you walking us through this really important exercise. Sticking with process, how are the root causes of conflict addressed through peace agreements themselves? 

Yvonne Dutton: Yeah, so I'll talk a little bit about comprehensive peace agreements, and they would establish the mechanisms for demilitarization, demobilization, intended to end armed violence, but also provide a framework for new structures addressing governance, elections, and legal and human rights institutions, which would then be designed to address the root causes of conflict. So most peace agreements address three main concerns: procedure, substance, and organization. So let's start with procedural components.

They set out the processes that establish and maintain peace. These would include the establishment of institutions and sequencing of processes that facilitate the implementation of substantive issues, such as elections, justice, human rights, and disarmament. Then we have substantive components. Now, they are part of the agreement that defines what is going to change after the peace agreement is concluded.

So, substantive components include political, economic, and social structural changes that are needed to remedy the root causes of conflict. So, this could include the changes that are required in issues such as the distribution of power, the management of natural resources, and the type of mechanisms to address past injustices.

And then finally, there are these organizational components, and they are usually mechanisms intended to promote peace efforts after the agreement. So, these mechanisms are either directly responsible or provide oversight and guidance to other actors to carry out the activities addressed in the substantive components of peace and then lay the foundation for sustainable peace and development.

Now, I want to say that peace agreements can vary in the degree of detail that they contain. They could contain full detail, that would be a detailed agreement, or outline principles with accompanying processes of reform, which are known more as framework agreements. So, detailed agreements basically contain lengthy and detailed provisions aimed at dealing holistically with all of the issues. And on the other hand, we have these framework agreements and they demonstrate consensus on issues principally and then provide for details and implementation processes to come later on. So, framework agreements may also be accompanied by extended negotiations that result in annexes, which contain the negotiated details on the substantive issues.

They can also be a series of subsequent agreements that collectively form the comprehensive agreement. But regardless of the amount of detail, these agreements go beyond just a ceasefire. To assist in creating an environment conducive for strong political institutions that enable protection of human rights and prevention of inequality, peace agreements can ensure the development of accountable and responsive institutions, and empower citizens to exercise control over those who hold office in government institutions. Now, how can this be done? Well, through addressing the following things in the peace agreement. 

Well, you would include components that protect human rights and fundamental freedoms and mechanisms that oversee and then monitor their implementation, you would, in the agreement, call for reforming repressive laws and restructuring political and judicial institutions. Also, we would include anti-corruption initiatives and developing mechanisms to prevent and monitor political institutions.

In addition, we would establish processes that lead to free and fair elections. Another thing we would do in a peace agreement is ensure representative governance both during and after the transition. Another thing that would be included is prosecution initiatives that ensure that those responsible for committing any crimes during the conflict are held accountable. Another thing to be included is to establish mechanisms for power sharing and devolution structures. In addition, we would discuss in such an agreement, management of wealth, resource sharing, and management of national resources. Another thing to be included would be something like establishing truth and reconciliation commissions to deal with past human rights abuses and to fulfill the right to truth.

And then finally, another thing that might be included, and this is not to say that you might not include other things, but you would also think about establishing mechanisms for reparations for conflict affected groups and individuals. So, I know that was a lot, but again I think that gives an idea of what we're talking about here.

Nicole Carle: You're right, there are so many ways these root conflicts are addressed in peace agreements, and I appreciate you taking the time to walk us through. This concludes our overview of conflict prevention. Thank you so much, Dr. Dutton, for your time, and thank you to our audience for watching this video.