Types of conflict in the modern era and their resolution options

First of all, a conflict is a confrontation between different social groups, societies, or

states that tend to achieve their own, antithetic, interests. It also can be defined as a
situation in which the coexistence of beings with incompatible and mutually exclusive
goals are impossible
The object of conflict may be any element of material world or social reality. N.
Machiavelli, M. Webber, considered that the source of all conflicts is interest. So in
order to become an object of conflict, this element has to be placed in the middle of
intersection of different interests. It means that, the conflict has his origins in the
human nature , in selfishness, egocentrism and inborn aggressiveness that are
characteristic for every human being, according to the theories of Tomas Hobbes.
The idea that just the strongest survives was implemented in the theory of
international relations, and deeply influenced the realistic worldview toward the foreign
policy. According to this point of view the conflict come out from the essence of the
nature of political relations as the relations of power, which involves the ones
supremacy and the other ones subordination, which inevitably generates clashes and
confrontations. International political conflicts are a part of international relations as
well as the international relations are a part of human history.
Currently international political conflicts are meant to determine the importance of
interests, of power that each participant can use to achieve final goals, and the
admissible sacrifices.
In order to explain the nature of international conflicts and to find appropriate means of
their regulation or warning against them, he researchers in the field of political sciences
and international relations, suggested several criteria for including them in various
typologies, which will facilitate the further investigation.
Both internal political conflicts and international ones are divided into armed conflicts
and unreinforced conflicts.
From a functional perspective we can see constructive and destructive conflicts.
Constructive conflicts are those that bring some benefits like stimulation of societys
dynamics that bring social progress, while destructive ones destabilize the internal and
external situation, having a negative, dysfunctional connotation provoking large social
distortions.
Another classification is based on the resolving perspectives. From this aspect, we can
distinguish two types of conflicts: zero-sum conflict and non zero-sum conflict. If the
interests of conflicting parties are diametrically opposed that satisfying the interests of
one party means unmet the interests of the opposite party, this kind of conflict will be
considered as zero-sum conflict. In this case, the victory of someone is the same thing
as the failure of the other one, so finally the winnings amount - is zero.

This category of conflict incudes the territorial disputes, or the disputes, which
determine the status of a territory. Generally, such conflicts are very hard to resolve,
because each involved party is directed only towards victory.
There are also, conflicts with negative winnings amount, where there are neither
winnings nor losses
The majority of political conflicts, ethnic and international ones, are the non zero-sum
conflicts. Even if the purposes and the interests are contradictory, they wont be
diametrically opposite. It means that after their realization, the sum will not be zero.
This kind of conflicts is also known as mixed interests conflicts
The most complicated conflicts are those, which are generated by the conflict of ideas.
This idea leads us to the most common used classification of international conflicts. This
one contains 5 types of international conflicts:

Ethnic

This type of conflict occurs between ethnic groups that represent a large cluster of
people who share ancestral, language, cultural or religious ties and common identity.
This feeling of identity and affiliation to the certain ethnicity form the basis for
nationalist emotions that can cause the contradiction with the other ethnic groups. The
catalyst of this kind of conflicts can be territorial control of any certain district, or just
intolerance, racism, or xenophobia. The examples of such conflicts are the Kosovo
conflict or Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Religious

We can not deny the importance of the religions, because it represents the core of
communitys value system in the biggest part of the world. So, people, or sometimes
even nations, whose religious practices differ are very easily disregarded and treated as
unworthy. This fact, fueled by the intolerance, discrimination and rights violations,
influenced the fundamentalist movements, secular political organization. The running
conflict from Yemen is one of the most typical religious conflicts.

Ideological

Ideology means a set of conscious and unconscious ideas which make up one's
goals, expectations, and motivations. It can be as powerful as, or even stronger than
religion in his force to mobilize people. This is why the ideological conflicts can be very
dangerous. One of the most relevant examples of this kind of conflict is The Cold War.

Territorial

This type of conflicts that can be considered as classic one, begins in condition when a
territory is required by the two countries or even more. For example we can take the
situation from Israel, Cyprus or Kuril Islands.

Economic

The only type of conflict that occurs without using military force, but this fact is not
making it less inhuman. The consequences of this kind of conflict can be equally
disastrous as the wars consequences. The battlefield of this antagonism cannot be seen
but it also cannot be unfelt because it strikes the financial system, banking system,
trade relation, the Gross Domestic Product , and ,generally, all the economical activities
of a country, what affect the wellbeing of the citizens. The tactics of this kind of conflicts
are embargos or the sanctions.
To sum up I would like to say that international conflicts are regular things that are
inevitable at the current stage of human evolution. In order to study the international
conflicts, the analysts of political sciences use several criteria for their classification.
Determination of the typology of conflict can help to find a way to its resolution. The
most common, liberal, solving instrument is considered to be the federalization, which
can be seen in such conflicts as Kosovo or Cyprus.