Types of Internal Conflict

Types of internal conflict

We need to distinguish between the various types of internal conflict which generally result in serious or violent hostilities. From the data available on conflicts we may make the following classification with regard to internal conflicts:

1. ideological conflicts between the state and insurgent movements, where the social inequality between classes is dominant
2. governance and authority conflicts concerning the distribution of power and authority in society. Demands from the opposition are regime changes and popular participation
3. racial conflicts, evident in South Africa, the USA, Western Europe, and elsewhere
4. identity conflicts, where the dominant aspect is ethnic, religious, tribal, or linguistic differences. Often these conflicts involve a mixture of identity and the search for security. In the latter case, the main contention often concerns the devolution of power and such conflicts are likely to increase. Identity conflicts can be subdivided into territorial conflicts, ethnic and minority conflicts, religious assertions, and struggles for self determination
5. inter state conflicts, which are typically cases of traditional interstate wars.

Various linkages may exist between the conflicts so defined, or we may find a mixture of several. The above classification is, however, static. What is required is to conceptualize the various interrelations between them. A typology is a way of grouping instances of conflict so that common characteristics and systematic differences are revealed. But this is only a statement of purpose. Similarity and difference are cultural constructs. Typologies derive from theories. They are tools rather than verities.

Identity conflicts are the most pervasive and the most violent of conflicts. Identity has been defined as an abiding sense of selfhood, the core of which makes life predictable to an individual. To have no ability to anticipate events is essentially to experience terror. Identity is coenceived oa as more than a psychological sense of self; it encompasses a sense that one is safe in the world physically, psychologically, socially, even spiritually. (hal: 20)

Ethnicity is a variant of identity. Ethnicity is not a static concept but a dynamic one, in that ethnicity and ethnic boundaries can be continously redefined, given certain factors.

(Book: The Culture of Violance, edited by Kumar Rupesinghe and Marcial Rubio C, United Nations University Press, Tokyo New York Paris, 1994, page 19-20)