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2LecturePPLE - Causes of Violent Conflict 2024 Students

The lecture discusses various theories regarding the causes of violent conflict, including the Greed vs. Grievances debate, political ecology of war, identity wars, globalization, and state failure. It emphasizes the complexity of these causes, triggers, and dynamics, highlighting the interplay between socio-economic factors, political inclusion, and historical contexts. The session concludes with a preview of the next class focusing on the dynamics of civil war.

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5 views15 pages

2LecturePPLE - Causes of Violent Conflict 2024 Students

The lecture discusses various theories regarding the causes of violent conflict, including the Greed vs. Grievances debate, political ecology of war, identity wars, globalization, and state failure. It emphasizes the complexity of these causes, triggers, and dynamics, highlighting the interplay between socio-economic factors, political inclusion, and historical contexts. The session concludes with a preview of the next class focusing on the dynamics of civil war.

Uploaded by

pplestudent24
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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You are on page 1/ 15

CONFLICT AND COOPERATION IN

GLOBAL POLITICS
LECTURE 2: CAUSES OF VIOLENT CONFLICT

Dr. Nel Vandekerckhove


Agenda: Causes of violent
2
conflict
 Theories
 Greed vs. Grievances debate
 Political ecology of war
 Identity wars
 Globalization
 State failure
 Causes, trigger & dynamics of war
Greed vs. grievances
3
debate
 Collier & Hoeffler (2001):
 What is their theory?
 Greed-driven:
 Opportunity to rebel
 Economic agendas dominate

 Perceived grievances
 vs. objective indicators of grievance
 Keen (2000)
 War is a ‘continuation of economics by other means’
 Resource wars
 Against the greed vision – nuance/complexity
Greed vs. grievances
4
debate
 Stewart et al. (2008):
 Grievances
 Horizontal inequalities
 Socio-economic
 Political mediation, co-optation & inclusion
 Perceived injustice
 Lack of cultural recognition

 Keen (2012):
 No C&H supporter
 Proxy for greed or grievances?
 Grand policy conclusions from which data?
Greed vs. grievances
5
debate
“Even in the presence of quite sharp socioeconomic
HIs, people are unlikely to take to violent conflict if
their own group leaders are politically included, and
even less so if they are dominant politically…

…political cooption of the leadership of


disadvantaged minorities by the dominant group is
often sufficient to prevent conflict without the
necessity of undertaking policies to improve the
socioeconomic position of these group” (Stewart et
al., 2013, 290-291)
Greed vs. grievances
6
debate
 Richards (2005):
 War is ‘socially organized just as much as
peace is’
 Social action
 Long struggle organized for political ends
 Againstcriminalization of militia
 Requires to look at history

 Fieldwork & historical accounts


 Example Sierra Leone
Political ecology of war
7

 Le Billon (2001):
 Natural resources & civil war
 Resource scarcity vs. resource abundance
 Resource curse?

 How does he explain it?


 Dependency
 ‘Brutalpatterns of resource extraction & predation’
 Globalisation

 Typology
 Differs from Collier & Hoeffler (2001)?
 Climate change & civil wars
Political ecology of war
8
Identity wars
9

 Kaldor’s (2003) new war vision


 Huntington (1997) on ‘clash of civilizations’
 End of Cold War = wars no longer about
ideology
 Free world vs. Communism
 Ethnic & religious wars
 Rwanda
 Syria, Afghanistan
 Problem of de-politicizing violent
conflict
Identity wars
10

 von Clausewitz: ‘war is mere a continuation of


politics with other means’
 Ethnic diversity no effect – depends on
politicization of ethnic identity
 Sons of the soil conflicts: territorialisation of

identity
 Hierarchies of belonging
 ‘I was here before you’
 Vandekerckhove (2011)
 Exclusion of the ‘Other’
 Minorities
 Alternative means exhausted
 Deaf man’ ear politics
Identity wars
11

 Religious identity politics: ‘in the name of’


 Adam et al. (2007) on religious violence in Uganda,
Indonesia & India
 Intra-religious dimension
 Polarisation & politics:
 ‘who controls electoral seats, military &
social-economic power’
 Scape-goat politics
 Extreme right politics
 Dehumanisation of the ‘Other’
 Fear, anger & revenge
 Example: (Neo)-fascism
 Race, religion & sexual orientation
 NSU German History x
Globalization
12

 Economic deregulation/fiscal destabilization (see


Berdal, 2003)
 Increase of inequality
 Increase of criminal opportunity
 Reno (1999) on warlordism:
 Foreign opportunities & weak states
 Crumbling bureaucracies
 States act like warlords
 Example: DRC
 Is globalization new? More or less problematic?
 Problems with governing?
 Still politics
State failure
13

 Collapsing, failing & failed states (Milliken &


Krause, 2002)
 Problem of governance
 Health care, education, etc.
 Justice & electoral system
 Military
 Banking system
 Bureaucracies no longer function
 Legitimacy of the state
 Post-colonial states vs. European states (Tilly, 1985)
 External sovereignty & internal sovereignty
 Direction?
 Rotberg (2003): high level of violence -> failing state
 Howard (2009): failed state -> terrorist violence
Causes, trigger & dynamics of war
14

 Causes
 The roots of violent conflict
 Often long-term tensions
 Historical approach & social embedded focus
 Trigger
 Spark that lit the violence conflict
 Often a conscious strategy
 Assassination/symbolic attack
 Example. Killing of three girls in traditional dresses
 Dynamics
 Patterns of civil war not necessarily in line with the onset of
war
 Adds to complexity of violent conflicts
 Mix of reinforcing & de-escalating dynamics
 Requires REPEATED conflict mapping!
Next class
15

 Dynamics of civil war


 Please prepare:
 Beneduce, R., Jourdan, L., Raeymaekers, T., &
Vlassenroot, K. (2006). Violence with a purpose:
exploring the functions and meaning of violence in
the Democratic Republic of
Congo. Intervention, 4(1), 32-46.
 Shepler, S. (2011). The real and symbolic
importance of food in war: hunger pains and big
men's bellies in Sierra Leone. Africa Today, 58(2),
42-56.

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