Understanding Conflict Resolution

by Peter Wallensteen

Overview

This fully revised and updated sixth edition is a contemporary and applied introduction to negotiating an end to large-scale organized political violence. It provides a framework for thinking about settlements of conflict, demonstrates trends in peace-making, investigates contemporary examples, addresses particular complexities, discusses the role of international action, and considers the aftermath of conflicts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529774436
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	05/23/2023
Edition description:	Sixth Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.53(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Peter Wallensteen is Senior Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, since 2012. He held the Dag Hammarskjöld Chair of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University (1985–2012). He is also the Richard G. Starmann, Senior Research Professor of Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA (since 2006). He directs the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) and the Special Program on International Targeted Sanctions (SPITS). His Understanding Conflict Resolution: War, Peace and the Global System (Sage, earlier edition, available also in an Arabic translation) is used in teaching around the world. His book Peace Research: Theory and Practice (Routledge 2011) demonstrates his range of research interests and has recently been translated into Chinese. Recently he also edited together with Ambassador Anders Bjurner Regional Organizations and Peacemaking: Challengers to the UN? (Routledge 2015). In 2010, he and Isak Svensson published The Go-Between (United States Institute of Peace Press), a study of mediation efforts by the renowned Swedish diplomat Jan Eliasson. Wallensteen has published widely on conflict trends, conflict resolution, mediation, prevention, sanctions and the United Nations.

Table of Contents

	List of Figures	xi
	List of Tables	xiii
	Preface	xv
Part 1	The Problem and How to Approach It
1	Understanding Conflict Resolution	3
1.1	Peacemaking as a New Experience	3
1.2	Peace Research and Conflict Resolution	5
1.3	Defining Conflict Resolution	8
1.4	Limits of Conflict Resolution	10
1.5	Outlining this Book	12
2	Armed Conflicts and Peace Agreements	13
2.1	The Concept of Conflict	13
2.2	Identifying Armed Conflict	17
	Three projects	17
	The Michigan and Hamburg projects	20
2.3	Trends in Armed Conflicts	23
	The Uppsala Conflict Data Project	23
	Patterns of armed conflict	26
2.4	Outcomes of Armed Conflict	28
3	Approaching Conflict Resolution	33
3.1	The Evolution of Conflict Analysis	33
3.2	Focusing on Conflict Dynamics	34
3.3	Focusing on Basic Needs	39
3.4	Focusing on Rational Calculations	44
3.5	Synthesizing Conflict Resolution	50
	Refining the definition	50
	Transcending incompatibility: seven mechanisms	53
3.6	Identifying Key Elements in Conflict Analysis	57
4	Analysing Conflict Resolution	61
4.1	Basic and Complex Levels of Analysis	61
4.2	The Role of the State	62
	Actors in conflict	62
	The special roles of the state	63
	The global system	66
4.3	Introducing the Trichotomy of Conflict	70
	Locating conflicts in the trichotomy	74
4.4	Applying the Trichotomy of Conflict and Peace	76
	Armed conflict since the Cold War	76
	Peace agreements since the Cold War	79
Part 2	Basics of Conflict Resolution
5	The Resolution of Conflicts between States	87
5.1	Armed Conflict and Peace Accords between States	87
	The last decades of the Cold War	87
	The post-Cold War period	90
	Geopolitik, Realpolitik, Idealpolitik and Kapitalpolitik	93
5.2	Conflict Resolution: Geopolitik and Realpolitik	96
	Status quo or status quo ante bellum?	97
	Punitive or integrative solutions?	102
	The seven mechanisms	107
5.3	Conflict Resolution: Idealpolitik and Kapitalpolitik	113
	Idealpolitik and the settlement of conflicts	114
	Peacemaking and Kapitalpolitik	119
	The seven mechanisms	123
5.4	Conclusions for Interstate Conflict Resolution	127
6	Conflict Resolution in Civil Wars	131
6.1	Armed Conflicts and Peace Accords within States	131
	Civil wars during and after the Cold War	131
	Peace agreements in civil wars	134
6.2	Dealing with Incompatibilities over State Power	139
6.3	Democracy and the Settlement of Civil Wars	144
6.4	Dealing with the Internal Security Dilemma	148
6.5	State Failure and State Reconstruction	156
6.6	Civil Society in Internal Conflict Resolution	159
7	Conflict Resolution in State Formation Conflicts	163
7.1	State Formation Conflicts	163
	State formation conflicts during the Cold War	164
	State formation conflicts after the Cold War	168
	Peace agreements in the post-Cold War era	171
7.2	Identity Discrimination and Conflict Resolution	175
7.3	Autonomy and Federalism: Territorial Solutions within a State	181
7.4	Independence with or without Integration	190
7.5	State Formation Conflicts and Democracy	196
Part 3	Complexities in Conflict Resolution
8	Conflict Complexes and Conflict Resolution	203
8.1	Identifying Regional Conflict Complexes	203
	Regional conflicts since the Cold War	204
	Approaching regional conflicts	206
8.2	Regional Conflict and the Organizing of Regions	210
	Regional frameworks	210
	The limits of intra-regional frameworks	214
	Extra-regional approaches to regional conflicts	215
	Regional security after war	216
8.3	Major Powers and Conflict Complexes	218
	Major powers in regional conflicts	218
	Armed conflicts in major powers	221
	Major powers and global conflict	222
8.4	Global Dimensions of Conflict Resolution	227
9	The United Nations in Conflict Resolution	231
9.1	The UN in Peace Agreements	231
9.2	Collective Security	233
	The UN Charter	233
	UN institutions	236
9.3	The Security Council in Conflict Resolution	239
	Agenda setting	242
	World regions	246
	The permanent members	248
9.4	UN Action and Peace Agreements	252
	Sanctions	252
	Peacekeeping operations	255
	Peace enforcement	258
10	International Communities in Conflict Resolution	263
10.1	The New Communities	263
	UN-focused communities	264
	Value- and power-focused communities	266
10.2	Early Action and Conflict Prevention	271
	Examples of conflict prevention	272
	Predicting escalation	275
10.3	Third Parties and Mediation	280
	Entering a conflict	281
	Approaches to mediation	283
10.4	Structural Changes and Peaceful Conflict	286
	Undoing the effects of war	286
	Reducing access to arms	287
	Tackling the territorial issues	288
	Developing democratic institutions	289
	Finding new state structures	291
	Assessing the role of power	292
10.5	Between the International Community and Pax Americana	293
	Notes	297
	References	301
	Index	311

Editorial Reviews

Wallensteen (peace and conflict research, Uppsala U., Sweden) presents a model for successful conflict resolution between warring parties. Conflict resolution, he argues, must go beyond the structures of existing peace agreements. After exploring some of the theoretical underpinnings of contemporary conflict theory, he outlines three types of prevalent conflict and discusses the different types of agreements needed for resolution. The effects of regional organization and major power politics are examined and the role of the United Nations is analyzed. Finally, recommendations are made for new structures of conflict resolution bodies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Understanding Conflict Resolution is valuable as a systematic and comprehensive introduction to the topic and as a volume that encapsulates the wisdom and experience of one of peace research’s most influential figures. It will assist instructors to transmit the progress and values of scholarly research into conflict resolution to a new generation of students in the field.

Charles Butcher

Wallensteen's updated version of Understanding Conflict Resolution keeps true to its form of providing students and scholars a way to think about managing conflicts from a systematic perspective. He develops not only the historical roots of the study of conflict management, but also provides the contemporary stetting where these core ideas apply. Knowing the development of the field also allows us to view the intellectual progress we have made over 50+ years, progress which he has been so much a part of. A book like this makes teaching a course in conflict management easy because the ideas and material are systematically organized and presented.

Professor Patrick Regan

This Fifth Edition of Understanding Conflict Resolution continues to analyse how to understand, manage and transform violent conflict non violently in the 21st century. In addition to its excellent diagnostic tools it has a completely new section on climate change and conflict. This chapter focuses particular attention on nuclear winter and the probable impacts of unchecked climate change on conflict dynamics. Understanding Conflict Resolution will continue to be a leading text in the field for many years to come,

Professor Kevin P Clements,

Director, Toda Peace Institute, Tokyo, Japan,

Chair and Foundation Director, The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand

Professor Kevin P Clements

In this new edition, Peter Wallensteen has updated his powerful argument that pairing applicable norms with appropriate techniques yields optimal results in conflict resolution. It is an argument every student, scholar, and person concerned with peace should know and engage.

Mary Ellen O’Connell, Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame

Mary Ellen O'Connell

This book shows the possibilities to solve conflicts within and between states in ways that are both academically qualified and useful for practice in diplomacy and mediation. It also convincingly demonstrates the potential for international organizations in peace making.

Jan Eliasson, Ambassador, former Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Secretary General of the UN 2012-2016.

Jan Eliasson

There is no better introduction to the empirically based study of conflict resolution than Wallensteen's. This new edition builds upon the strengths of the earlier editions and in clear and engaging language analyses conflict theory and the myriad of tools available to states, regional and global organizations to confront and address the challenges of resolving conflicts.

Professor Michael Stohl