Preview
IB DP Global Politics — Thematic study: Peace and conflict | SL | Nature, practice and study of peace and conflict
📋 What You Will Learn
- Define conflict and distinguish its forms, including direct, structural and cultural violence
- Describe how conflicts escalate, de-escalate and transform over time
- Explain key frameworks for analysing conflict dynamics: Galtung's conflict triangle, the conflict cycle and spoiler theory
- Analyse the roles of state and non-state actors in initiating, sustaining and resolving conflict
- Compare how different theoretical perspectives (realism, liberalism, critical theories) interpret the causes and dynamics of conflict
- Evaluate the claim that contemporary conflicts are fundamentally different in character from those of the twentieth century
🔍 Guiding Question Are contemporary conflicts driven primarily by the interests of states and rational actors, or by deeper structural inequalities, identity and the legacies of historical injustice — and does the answer change what it takes to achieve lasting peace?
🌍 Why This Matters Since 2011, the Syrian civil war has drawn in dozens of state and non-state actors — the Assad government, Kurdish militias, jihadist groups, Russia, Turkey, Iran and the United States — each with different interests, grievances and goals. More than half a million people have died and over twelve million have been displaced. Understanding why conflicts like this begin, why they persist, and why they are so hard to end is the central challenge of peace and conflict studies.
🔑 Key Concept Link Conflict dynamics engage all four key concepts. Power is at the heart of most conflicts — who holds it, who is excluded from it, and how it is contested. Sovereignty is challenged when non-state actors, foreign powers or international institutions intervene. Legitimacy shapes whether violence is seen as justified resistance or terrorism, and whether a peace settlement will hold. Interdependence explains why conflicts rarely stay local — economic ties, refugee flows and arms transfers spread their effects across borders. Return to these links throughout.
What Is Conflict?
Before analysing how conflicts move and change, we need a precise understanding of what conflict is — and what it is not. The word is used loosely in everyday speech, but in global politics it carries specific analytical weight.
📖 Definition — Conflict In global politics, conflict refers to a situation in which two or more actors pursue incompatible goals, interests or values, and in which at least one actor uses or threatens to use coercion — including violence — to advance its position. Conflict is not synonymous with war: it ranges from non-violent political competition to armed interstate or intrastate warfare.
Distinguishing types of conflict
- Interstate conflict: armed conflict between two or more recognised states (e.g. the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan).
- Intrastate (civil) conflict: armed conflict within a state's borders, often between the government and one or more non-state armed groups (e.g. the Ethiopian civil war in Tigray, 2020–2022).
- Internationalised intrastate conflict: a civil conflict in which external states intervene on one or more sides — the most common form today (e.g. Yemen, Syria, Libya).
- Non-violent conflict: political, economic or