Understanding and Analysing Armed Conflicts
There are three different criteria to define a conflict as a war, one of them being size. How many deaths, at least, must occur as a result of the armed battle to meet this criterion?
1000
To what does a civil war turn into if it has very strong regional and global connections?
Internationalized civil war
What is the main cause of total civil wars in regions such as in the former Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Rwanda, Sudan (Darfur) and Sri
Lanka?
Ethnic tension/violence
What are the major social/economic factors of armed conflicts?
Poverty, inequality, political system
What is the practical process of investigation and examination of how conflicts come about in terms of their root causes, dynamics, and manifestations?
Conflict analysis
The ABC Triangle is a relatively more complex conflict analysis tool that is based on three premises, abbreviated as A, B, and C. What do the A, B, and C stand for in this definition?
Attitude
Behavior
Context
What famous peace scholar did develop an extensive Typology of Violence?
Johan Galtung
What is the difference between manifest violence and latent violence?
While manifest violence refers to forms of violence that are observable, latent violence denotes potential violence that may not yet be apparent
Which regional and international organizations have played a role during the first Liberian civil war (1989-1996) which culminated in the signing of five sets of peace agreements that preceded the 1996 Abuja II Accord?
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Organization for African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations (UN)
What are the levels used in the Pyramid tool to identify the key parties to the conflict?
Level 1 – Top (i.e. national and
international actors, government officials, etc.),
Level 2 – Middle (i.e. religious and ethnic leaders NGOs, academics, professional organisations, etc.),
Level 3 - Grassroots (i.e. local agencies, youth and women groups, community
Why is identifying the sources and forms of targeted violence in a conflict analysis considered extremely important for the success of a peace process?
Because these factors limit the methods that can be employed in peace-supporting programmes aimed at tackling/eradicating violence.
What are the major terms used interchangeably to describe contemporary armed conflict due to lack of a universal definition of civil war?
intra-state conflict, internal conflict, insurgencies, small wars, and low-intensity conflicts
How may a resource war be defined?
It is a war that results from the power dynamics over the control, use, and exploitation of natural resources such as oil, timber, minerals, and water
What are the cultural factors/sources of armed conflict?
Ethnicity, religion, legacies of colonialism
What are the contemporary issues that contribute to the worsening of the violent conflicts?
The proliferation of small arms and light weapons, and environmental degradation
Based on whether a form of violence affects the body or mind is a fundamental criterion for categorising the type of violence. What category does this criterion refer to?
Physical and Psychological Violence
Galtung devised a comprehensive categorisation of the forms of violence that are commonly observed in society (direct violence, structural violence and cultural violence). According to this categorisation, what is direct violence?
Direct violence is an armed hostile action that can be traced to
a perpetrator.
What are some of the most commonly used conflict analysis tools (name five)?
Stages of conflict
Timelines
Conflict mapping
The ABC (Attitude, Behaviour, Context)
Triangle
The Onion
The Conflict Tree
Force-Field Analysis
Pillars
The Pyramid
What layers does the onion tool of conflict analysis rely on?
Needs, Interests and Positions