INTERNATIONALRELATIONS2013–2014 UpdateTenth Edition

Joshua S. Goldstein Jon C. Pevehouse

Chapter Five: International Conflict

Anti-Indian protester and Indian security forces in Kashmir, 2010.

5.1 The Wars of the World

Types of War

Theories of the Causes of War

Types of War

HegemonicTotalLimitedRaids, low-intensity conflictCivilGuerrillaViolence of WarTransition from war to peace

Theories of the Causes of War

Individual level of analysis

Domestic level of analysis

Interstate level of analysis

Global level of analysis

Competing Theories on all levels of analysis

Once armed groups stop shooting, a long process of postwar transition ensues. Disarming and demobilizing militias is the most critical aspect of this transition, but also the most difficult because it leaves disarmed groups vulnerable. Here, a major armed group turns in weapons under an amnesty in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, 2009.

GIVING UP THE GUNS

Political scientists do not agree on a theory of why great wars like World War II occur and cannot predict whether they could happen again. The city of Stalingrad (Volgograd) was decimated during Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, 1943.

WHY WAR?

5.1 The Wars of the WorldQ: The goal of which type of war is to force the surrender of the enemy’s government and replace it with one of the victor’s choosing?

A) Total

B) Limited

C) Guerrilla

D) Civil

Answer:

A) Total

True-False:

A war over control of the rules of the international system as a whole is a hegemonic war.

Answer:

True

5.2 Conflicts of IdeasNationalism

Ethnic Conflict

Genocide

Religious Conflict

Ideological Conflict

Nationalism

Identity-based sources of international conflict

Nationalism

May be most important forces in world politics

Nation

Around 1500 countries began to bring entire nations together

Self-determination

Ethnic Conflict

Ethnic groups

In ethnic conflicts, there is often pressure to redraw borders by force.

When ethnic populations are minorities in territories controlled by rival ethnic groups, they may be driven from their land (ethnic cleansing) or systematically exterminated (genocide).

Causes of ethnic hostility

Ethnic conflicts play a role in many international conflicts. Ethnocentrism based on an in-group bias can promote intolerance and ultimately dehumanization of an out-group, as evidenced by genocides in Darfur (Sudan), Rwanda, and Bosnia; South African apartheid; the persecution of Jews and other minorities in Nazi Germany; and slavery in the United States. In 2008, after decades of peace and tolerance, Kenya erupted in bloody ethnic violence after a disputed presidential election. Here, a mob from one ethnic group attacks and drives away all members of a rival ethnic group from a formerly mixed town.

DRIVING OUT THE OUT-GROUP

President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

Genocide

In extreme cases, governments use genocide try to destroy scapegoated groups or political rivals.

Rwanda

Sudan

Religious ConflictReligion is the core of the community’s value system in much of the world.

When overlaid on ethnic and territorial conflicts, religion often surfaces as the central and most visible division between groups.

There is nothing inherent in religion that mandates conflicts.

Fundamentalist movements

Islamist movements

Armed Islamist groups

Religious intolerance can exacerbate tensions between groups, sometimes increasing violence, with international implications. The most salient religious conflict today is between Shi’ite and Sunni branches of Islam, centered in Iran and Saudi Arabia. The split played out in devastating violence in Iraq around 2007 and now helps fuel the Syrian civil war (2013).

RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES

In some Muslim-populated countries, Islam is a political rallying point—especially in authoritarian countries in which the mosque is a rare permissible gathering point. Islamist politicians are developing new models of government, mixing democracy and Islamic tradition, especially in the countries most affected by the Arab Spring protests, which frequently peaked after Friday prayers. Here, Egyptians pray during a Friday protest against the authoritarian president early in 2011.

THE POLITICS OF ISLAM

Ideological Conflict

Like religion, ideology symbolizes and intensifies conflicts between groups and states more than it causes them.

Revolutionary governments typically turn to the pursuit of national interests above ideological interests.

Ideologies can help to mobilize national populations to support a state in its international dealings.

Ideology plays only a limited role in most international conflicts. After revolutions, ideologies such as Marxism may affect foreign policy, but over the following decades, countries such as China or the Soviet Union typically revert to a foreign policy based more on national interests than ideology. Nonetheless, ideological clashes still occur, as between the freedom-loving United States and authoritarian North Korea. Here the different styles of the two countries are on display as the New York Philharmonic performs a rare concert in North Korea, 2008.

IDEOLOGICAL SPLIT

5.2 Conflicts of IdeasQ: Ethnic groups do which of the following?

A) Share ancestral, language, cultural, or religious ties and a common identity

B) Want a state of their own

C) Have a state of their own

D) Resist ethnocentrism to keep tensions low

Answer:

A) Share ancestral, language, cultural, or religious ties and a common identity

True-False:

A current example of ethnic conflict is the use of force by the Sri Lankan government against Tibetans.

Answer:

False

5.3 Conflicts of Interest

Territorial Disputes

Control of Governments

Economic Conflict

Territorial Disputes

Conflicts about territory have special importance because of the territorial nature of the state

Border disputes

Means of controlling territory

Secession

Interstate borders

Lingering disputes

South American leaders discuss trade, not war, in Argentina, 2010.

Efforts by a region to secede from a state are a frequent source of international conflict, but international norms generally treat such conflicts as internal matters unless they spill over borders. Increasingly, autonomy agreements are resolving secession conflicts. Here, a million and a half citizens in Barcelona demand independence from recession-wracked Spain for the region of Catalonia, 2012. Leaders of the region promise a referendum in 2014.

WE WANT OUT

Control of islands, and of the large exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that surrounds them under the law of the sea, has created a number of complicated interstate conflicts. Japan claims Okinotori, shown here in 2005, as an island with an EEZ, but China calls it merely a “rock” without surrounding economic rights.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Economic Conflict

Economic competition is the most pervasive form of conflict in IR

Economic transactions also contain strong element of mutual economic gain

Use of violence would for the most part interrupt and diminish profits

Economic conflicts do still bear on international securityDrug trafficking

Because drug trafficking crosses national borders and involves lots of guns and money, it is a source of interstate conflict. Afghanistan supplies most of the opium used to make heroin worldwide, and this illicit trade funds the Taliban in its fight against NATO and the Afghan government. Here, a poor Afghan farmer, dependent on opium poppies to make a living, checks his crop, 2007.

DRUG WARS

5.3 Conflicts of InterestQ: Islam has played a role in many recent conflicts because it is __________.

A) inherently warlike

B) less peaceful than other religions

C) predominant in an area of the world where geographical and historical circumstances encourage conflict

D) moving into traditionally secular areas

Answer:

C) Predominant in an area of the world where geographical and historical circumstances encourage conflict

True-False:

Because positive gains from economic activities are more effective inducements than negative threats of violence, economic conflicts lead to violence much less often.

Answer:

True

Chapter Discussion Question

How does nationalism influence IR? Why do demands for statehood or for the adjustment of state borders so often lead to conflict? What role does ethnicity play in context of nationalism and conflict?