Contemporary Theories of Conflict and their Social and Political Implications (original) (raw)

Introduction: Objectives and General Issues Africa's Great Lakes region has been known in the past four decades or so-as an area of violent conflict. An advanced research project on this region has to start with some reflections on theories of conflicts, as some parts of this region have been characterised by a devastating disease which has resulted in loss of human lives, degradation of the environment, pillage, banditry, rape of women and girls, and a general political instability of high magnitude. To explain what has happened, we need to build a good explanatory tool. The beginning of wisdom is to be aware of one's limits of knowledge and be certain of one's areas of strength. For easy understanding, this chapter is divided into several sections. The first section describes the main objectives, clarifies the term 'contemporary' and raises general issues regarding the relevance or irrelevance of theories in this research project. The second section discusses the approaches used in the work; while the third, elaborates on theories of conflict, as well as their claims, assumptions and possible social and political implications. The study ends with some brief recommendations about these theories. Let me start by saying that we cannot change all the phenomena around us or those things that are far from us-things we do not know about, or understand. We cannot explain social phenomena effectively without building some systematic and testable tools of explanations. Empiricism is central to building a critical theory. The contemporary world system (or global system) has produced more conflicts because many of its malfunctioned infrastructures and institutions were built on neo-colonial values, practices related to transAtlantic slavery, outcomes