THE DEFINITION OF CONFLICT

This book is primarily concerned with international conflicts, and in particular with those which erupt or may erupt into violence. However, conflict is a general feature of human activity, and it is towards its more general aspects that we turn first.

‘Conflict’, as it is used in everyday speech, is a vague term and associated with it are many vague concepts. While in principle the issue of definition is a question of decision about how to use words, in practice definitions are already located in a linguistic context and have prior associations. Thus we need to be careful in our definitions, and take care to note where a disagreement which appears to be merely a question of linguistic taste hides some more basic division about how we should conceptualise the underlying characteristics of the discipline.

Conflict is an activity which takes place between conscious, though not necessarily rational, beings. If two astronomical bodies collide, we do not say that they are in conflict. A conflict is defined in terms of the wants, needs or obligations of the parties involved. These wants may be relatively practical, such as in a conflict over fishing limits, where one would hope negotiation would end in a settlement. It may concern fundamental beliefs and attitudes such as over the status of Jerusalem, where attitudes are not readily altered.