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“When Conflict Resolution Fails: Anatomy of Conflict Recurrence?”
Dennis J.D. Sandole
The multidisciplinary field of Conflict and Conflict Resolution has seen impressive growth and institutionalization during the last half century or so. Indeed, "conflict resolution" has become an integral part of the global narrative, primarily in the developed world, but, through postconflict development and peacebuilding efforts, in the developing world as well. One apparent consequence has been a reduction in the frequency and intensity of deadly conflict, as documented compellingly by Stephen Pinker, Joshua Goldstein, and in The Human Security Report. Given that third-party efforts to address protracted social conflicts have been increasingly impacted by theories and practices of collaborative conflict resolution, why has there also been an increase in recurrent conflicts? Depending upon the metrics used, between 40-80 percent of the "new wars" in any year are conflicts that had previously been "settled", but whose agreements have broken down. In addition, research conducted by, among others, Séverine Autesserre, Charles Call, and Jasmine-Kim Westendorf has documented failure in one of the most audacious expressions of conflict resolution, postconflict peacebuilding. The paper explores why this failure at multiple levels occurs and what can be done about it.