1. Conflict

2. Defining conflict

3. HIIK Conflict Barometer
University of Heidelberg- Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK)
Describes recent trends in global conflict developments, escalations, de-escalations, settlements
Attempted coup d’etats
Five world regions
Conflict definition + conflict intensity

4. Defining Political Conflict
Political conflict = positional difference between 2+ assertive, directly involved actors
Individual or collective (states, international organizations and non-state actors
Perceived incompatibility of ideas/ beliefs relevant to soviety
Conflict measures lie outside established procedures
Threaten core state functions and/or international order

6. Intensity
Definition
Dispute
A political conflict is classified as a dispute if it meets all elements of the basic concept.
Non-violent crisis
A political conflict is classified as a non-violent crisis if physical violence is being implicitly or explicitly threatened to persons or property by at least one of the actors, or if one actor uses physical violence against property, without regarding the injury of people as acceptable. A threat of force is understood as a verbally or non-verbally communicated prospect of violent measures that is based on the conflict item. An acceptance of the injury of persons is present when the use of force against property includes the possibility of the injury of people but the violator is indifferent to this possibility.
Violent crisis
A political conflict is classified as a violent crisis when at least one actor uses force sporadically against persons - or things in case that physical violence against people is considered acceptable. The applied means and consequences altogether are limited.
Limited war
A political conflict is classified as a limited war when at least one actor uses force against persons and maybe things in a distinctive way. The applied means and consequences altogether are serious.
War
A political conflict is classified as a war when at least one actor uses force massively against persons and maybe things. The applied means and consequences altogether need to be framed as extensive.

7. 2015 Conflict Barometer Report
pdf

8. Application
Find a contemporary example (in your lifetimes) to explain/ illustrate each of the 5 categories in the scale of conflict.
For each conflict, write down a brief background for context (1 paragraph max) and a brief explanation (2 sentences max) of how this particular event illustrates the specific category.

9. Violence

10. Defining violence

11. Direct Violence & Cultural Violence
Direct violence: war, murder, rape, assault, verbal attacks – kind that we physically perceive
Roots in cultural & structural violence; feeds back & strengthens them
Cultural violence: symbolic violence ---> prevailing attitudes/ beliefs that justify & legitimize structural violence--- feelings of superiority/ inferiority based on class, race, sex, religion, nationality
Feelings instilled as children- shape assumptions about ourselves/ the world
Convince us that this is the way things are and have to be

12. Structural Violence
Systematic ways in which social structures harm/ disadvantage individuals
Subtle, often invisible, no one person can/will be held responsible
Injustice & exploitation are built into social system- wealth for few, poverty for many- privileging some classes/ ethnicities/ genders/ etc. over others
Institutionalizes unequal opportunities for education, resources, repect****
“Structural violence is one way of describing social arrangements that put individuals and populations in harm’s way… The arrangements are structural because they are embedded in the political and economic organization of our social world; they are violent because they cause injury to people … neither culture nor pure individual will is at fault; rather, historically given (and often economically driven) processes and forces conspire to constrain individual agency. Structural violence is visited upon all those whose social status denies them access to the fruits of scientific and social progress.”
-Dr. Paul Farmer (anthropologist, physician)