Perpetuation

Abstract

In the previous chapter I discussed the whole matter of classifying the various types of conflict that would be encountered in a study of CAR, with some attention being paid to the various kinds of “intractable” conflict that had been waged in the past and which were continuing to afflict the world of the early twenty-first century. Summarizing the argument so far, I found that social conflicts could be “intractable” in a number of ways and for a variety of reasons. An “intractable” conflict could

• focus on scarcities and appear to involve a limited number of possible solutions, all of a zero-sum nature;

• involve goals or aspirations that are practically unobtainable, at least for the time being;

• involve goals and aspirations that are logically incompatible and non-substitutable;

• involve goods that are indivisible and which defy compromise or substitution;

• involve goals that concern the continued existence of one or both of the main adversaries.