Key stages and actors in international conflict study

Conflict on various levels is part and parcel of human life. The study of conflict is important to optimize human interaction and development. Furthermore, the increasing complexity of interpersonal and global interaction has necessitated the need for conflict investigation. According to authors such as Austin et al. (2004, p. 28), human relationships and international interaction have change profoundly from a simple, rural-based nationalism. Indeed, today Nazism is globally recognized for the human rights atrocity it was. At the time, however, it was allowed to perpetuated based on the manifestation of German nationalism on a variety of levels. It is therefore vitally important to study conflict and its causes in order to maintain a world order by means of which each individual and group is allowed to fully develop itself without interfering with the rights of others.

According to Barak (2004, p. 158), violence and non-violence occurs within three spheres, but can also overlap within these spheres. Using the example of Nazi Germany, the author notes that the perpetual violence against the Jews was not only supported at the primary level by those involved in the torture itself, but also by the bureaucrats performing their duties and the average German people who loved their families and fought for their survival. At the heart of this violence and its perpetuation, according to Barak, was a sense of denial and disassociation. Not being directly involved in the torture, the average German probably closed his or her eyes to the atrocities committed by the heads of state who at the same time ensured that each German national could maintain his or her way of life within a family unit.

The same type of denial and dissociation can be seen in the prison system. The online document "The Stanford Prison Experiment" exemplifies the current prison system, where violence against prisoners is used to subordinate prisoners on a daily basis. However, the interesting outcome of this paradigm is that the prison system does not serve any rehabilitation purpose. Instead, by violence, it perpetuates the violence that brought the prisoners to this environment in the first place.

The study of this type of violence can therefore also serve to improve the prison system to become a center of rehabilitation rather of humiliation and further violence. Ironically, prison guards who perpetuate the violence have widely different roles in the home environment, where they are generally caring and loving individuals. The same might be said for those who committed torture in the Nazi camps.

Importantly, Austin et al. (2004, p. 161) note that both violence and non-violence are cumulative in nature. It is therefore important to recognize that the existence of violence perpetuates further violence, while the same is true for non-violence. This is also an important recognition in the international sphere.

Schelling (1960, p. 53) notes that international violence an also be manifest in terms of the concept of "limited war." This means that short conflicts could result when agreements cannot be reached within a certain amount of time. On the other hand, the limited war also requires some degree of mutual recognition or acquiescence. Once war begins, negotiation and communication among adversaries become difficult. The recent situation and Egypt and the current situation in Libya appear to be cases in point for this assertion.