International Journal of Conflict and Violence (IJCV - Universität Bielefeld)
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Social Forces Sustaining the Israeli-Palestinian Tensions: A Dynamical Psychology Perspective
Full text linkThe Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains one of the most deeply entrenched in the world. While there is great knowledge about numerous individual factors contributing to this conflict’s persistence, much of the information is fragmented and segregated into different disciplines. This article seeks to integrate an array of literature using a dynamic systems perspective to examine how social – as opposed to political – forces contribute to ongoing tensions. The first part describes the dynamical systems perspective, focusing on how intractable conflicts emerge as a result of interlinking factors that anchor the social system in patterns that resist change. The second part explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of specific social forces contributing to the conflict’s persistence. These include leadership issues, economic inequalities poverty, youth disenfranchisement, and population distribution. Then the contribution maps how the discussed social factors interrelate to reinforce the ongoing tensions and addresses how small-scale approaches may circumvent the volatile, entrenched patterns of hostility
The Impact of Russian Intervention in Post-Soviet Secessionist Conflict in the South Caucasus on Russian Geo-energy Interests
Full text linkThe dismemberment of the Soviet Union prompted a very unstable decade of decline for Russia, and generated numerous conflicts in the post-Soviet space. Russia regained influence at global and, chiefly, regional level from 2000, after Vladimir Putin became president and the price of hydrocarbons rose. Arguably, energy policy played an essential role. The South Caucasus, where three secessionist conflicts took place, leading to Russian political, diplomatic and military intervention, was crucial for the Russian geo-energy interests. This article examines and discusses the impact of intervention on Russian geo-energy interests, in particular since Putin came to power. The working hypothesis proposes that Russia’s involvement in the three secessionist conflicts in the South Caucasus has considerably benefited the many Russian geo-energy interests
Violence: Constructing an Emerging Field of Sociology
Full text linkRecent research in the social sciences has explicitly addressed the challenge of bringing violence back into the center of attention. This has generated substantive progress in terms of both theoretical debate and methodological approaches. However, there is a significant lack of research applying non-reductionist methodological approaches that can, at the same time, be grounded in a theoretical approach to violence as a research subject in its own right. This focus section seeks to address this research gap by strengthening the dialogue between different bodies of literature that pursue disparate strategies of delineating “violence” as the subject of an emerging field of sociology. By synthesizing these literatures, the focus section aims to draw upon insights from social theory and recent developments in the sociology of violence on the one hand, and combine methodological approaches that transcend both micro- and macro-reductionist accounts on the other. In doing so, it offers analytical perspectives for coming to terms with one of the most conspicuous shortcomings in social scientific appraisals of violence: the tendency to treat it as a primarily moral or political problem, instead of conceiving violence as a social fact
The Complexity of a Murder: Situational Dynamics, Social Relations, and Historical Context
Full text linkThe aims of this article are to incorporate a historical perspective in a pragmatic description of a violent situation, through a case study of a murder in New Caledonia, and to examine the internal social and political dynamics in a situation where violence takes place. In order to understand the complexity of a singular case, I show that the interactionist study of a situation of violence is improved by a description of segmentary and antagonistic social relations, and their historicity. This research is based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, and a historical approach in political anthropology. The empirical case of a homicide is drawn from research interviews, and the analysis demonstrates the relevance of an ethnographic description of the social and historical context in order to reconstruct the complexity of the situation, beyond a strictly interactionist approach. In this case, the ambiguity on the macro-structural level of segmentary kinship created occasions for conflict, and the ambiguity of the conversational interaction on the micro-situational level multiplied the probability for violence to take place
Two violent trajectories on the micro-macro continuum: emotional tipping-point conflicts, and dispersed attrition conflicts
Full text linkMicro-sociology analyzes very short expanses of time and space, macro-sociology long expanses. There is no historical trend from micro to macro techniques of violence or vice versa; but changes result from stalemates of older technique, shifting to either a faster or a longer sequence of violent moves; advantage goes to the side which catches their opponent emotionally off balance. Prolonged stalemated struggles are destructive wars of attrition. Successful revolutions concentrate masses of people on a dramatic showdown in a central place, and can result in a rapid, low-casualty transfer of power. Comparing failed and successful revolutions, the more micro-concentration in time and place, the more likely a rapid tipping point will occur through a shift in emotional domination. But where revolutionary struggle becomes spread out, it turns into civil war, which become especially destructive when outside allies supply weapons to keep it going. Moving along the continuum towards the macro end de-emphasizes emotional turning points and motivates opponents to win by attrition. Moving towards the micro end allows the possibility of a quick and less destructive resolution
Processes of Political Violence and the Dynamics of Situational Interaction
Full text linkThis paper explores how processual approaches to political violence, which largely focus on patterns of strategic interaction at the meso-level of analysis, can be enhanced by paying closer attention to conditions, patterns, and the micro-dynamics of violence in face-to-face encounters. Discussing characteristic elements of processual and situational approaches, and drawing on brief vignettes of episodes of violence in political conflicts in Peru, Egypt, and Germany, it argues that the theoretical value of this perspective is twofold. Firstly, it allows us to capture unintended outcomes of situational interactions, which can account for the sudden emergence or escalation of violence. Secondly, it argues that situational interaction approaches can refine our understanding of meso-level violent processes because they allow us to examine how these processes shape and “produce” situational conditions and constraints that facilitate and induce violent escalation and thus offer ways to capture and conceptualize complex patterns of enchainment
Political and Ethnic Identity in Violent Conflict: The Case of Central African Republic
Full text linkThe conflict in the CAR has been ignored largely by the international media until 2013. Media and global interest rose with the presidential coup by, and then presidential appointment of, the first Muslim leader of the CAR, Michel Djotodia. Subsequently violence in the country escalated and cited to be purely sectarian – between Muslim and Christian militia and civilians. The focus of the paper is confined to the CAR and the question posed is whether the Muslim versus Christian conflict differs from the other conflicts in the CAR? The method of structured and substantive content analysis used here is the narrative paradigm and the storytelling (data) extracted from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees brief notes and news series to reveal a relatively neutral account of events. This is used to create a linear timeframe to argue that the current hostilities are part of another cycle of violence that plagues the CAR. The study and findings are limited to the period 2001-2014 although the history of political leadership is referred to from the country’s ‘independence’ in 1960, using a narrative paradigm and coherence. The results confirm that apart from a linear path of conflict, reflected in the political leadership, there are accompanying cycles of violence, representative of identity that moves along the linear path. The readings reveal that the violence currently defined as sectarian religious conflict is the start of a new cycle in the linear path of political leadership
Explaining Prejudice Toward Americans and Europeans in Egypt: Closed-mindedness and Conservatism Mediate Effects of Religious Fundamentalism
Full text linkWith an Arab-Muslim sample of 160 Egyptian citizens from the greater Cairo area, we examined the role of religion in prejudice toward U.S. Americans and Europeans. When religious fundamentalism was tested concurrently with general religiousness, results showed that only religious fundamentalism significantly predicted both prejudices. In a second step we included closed-mindedness (CM), a facet of need for cognitive closure, and conservatism (RCON), a facet of right-wing authoritarianism, to explain the religion – prejudice link. Instead of using the two variables as parallel mediators, we assumed that CM is a predictor of RCON. Hence, in a first model we applied CM and RCON as serial mediators of the religious fundamentalism – prejudice relation. In a second model, an alternative approach was introduced where fundamentalism was predicted by CM and RCON; prejudice remained the outcome variable. Results showed that RCON had stronger effects in comparison to CM across all models and that religious fundamentalism was marginal or not significant when CM and RCON served as preceding variables in the second model suggesting that they may be more decisive than religious fundamentalism in the development of prejudice. Participants distinguished between U.S. Americans and Europeans with U.S. Americans being the more relevant outgroup in the religious context
Introduction: Extremely Violent Societies
Full text linkThe five contributions ensembled in this focus section demonstrate that the concept of "extremely violent societies" (Gerlach 2006) is not a rigid framework. It allows for analyses of different scales and spaces – from cities to countries – and different types of violence and conflicts. It is a concept that has a lot of potential in reaching out to other frameworks and aligning and accommodating them. However, its main potential lies in its conceptual power to analyse contemporary mass violence beyond state-led violence, and to get to a more nuanced understanding of such violence. Such understanding will ultimately enhance our tools for intervention and prevention. Until now the concept has more stealthily than overtly entered into the field, however it is hoped that these contributions will prove its potential and value to a wider audience.