The World in "Conflict"

The World in “Conflict”

It is a known fact that conflicts are constantly occurring across the globe. From two children fighting over a toy, a couple disputing responsibility, two governments fighting over territory, or a soldier fighting for his life, it is a never-ending issue in today’s world.
Unfortunately, whereas smaller conflicts such as the two children arguing are dealt with on a personal-involvement scale, much larger conflicts brew among nations that cause conflict for the lives of millions. Yet, differentiating between such small, domestic conflicts vs. large, national conflicts used to be quite simple. Now there are names and levels for all sorts of issues and conflicts that arise. Now it is no longer “a personal issue” or a war. Now vocabulary such as “domestic disputes,” “abuse,” “uprising,” “civil disturbance,” “insurgency,” “low-intensity conflicts,” “high-intensity conflicts,” and of course, “war” are used to describe conflicts.
“In psychology, a struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, wishes, or demands. Interpersonal conflict represents such a struggle between two or more people, while internal conflict is a mental struggle” (“conflict”).
Now, this is a simple demonstration of the basic idea of conflict, when two ideas oppose each other either between people, or in ones own psyche. "The emphasis on conflict within societies is certainly in keeping with general evolutionary considerations, since, in the absence of genetic identity, all organisms have conflicts of interest. Therefore, it is not surprising that people may have conflicts of interest over the construction of culture" (MacDonald). This states nicely that before we even get to the bigger conflicts such as war, we have conflict in the basic genetic makeup of human beings. Then why do we get to such huge conflicts as war? And how do we label, or differentiate between the basic conflict and the extreme conflict?
Neither the government or the media, that are supposed to keep us so informed, make it any easier. Currently there is much debate in the US government administration about how to handle the ongoing "conflict" in Afghanistan. Within 3 sentences, the issue changes from conflict to war. "The question of whether to further escalate the conflict after adding 21,000 U.S. troops earlier this year is a major decision facing Obama and senior administration policy advisers this week....Divided on Afghanistan, Congress takes up a massive defense spending bill this week even before the president settles on a direction for the war" (Gearan). Most Americans forgot about the "war" in Afghanistan as Iraq became a more prevalent problem and the death toll in Afghanistan dropped - until recently. Now the conflict has become enough of an issue to raise interest in the American society and the government to consider it a full-fledged war, despite the hesitation the government feels in getting even more engaged in it (Gearan).
"The United Nations defines "major wars" as military conflicts inflicting 1,000 battlefield deaths per year. In 1965, there were 10 major wars under way. As of mid-2005, there were eight Major Wars under way [down from 15 at the end of 2003], with as many as two dozen "lesser" conflicts ongoing with varying degrees of intensity" (The World at War). With these parameters, half of the deaths caused by any sort of conflict are not even taken into consideration. "During World War I, civilians made up fewer than 5 percent of all casualties. Today, 75 percent or more of those killed or wounded in wars are non-combatants" (The World at War).
What these definitions of conflict forget to consider are the over-all effects of any sort of conflict. It doesn't just effect those carrying the weapons or making the administrative decisions about how much effort should be put into the battle. When any sort of conflict arises, the issue filters down to the surrounding community and people, and hundreds - thousands - of lives are lost. It is not fair to put a definitive label on "conflict" and "war" by how many people die, because more people than are even considered die due to the conflict at hand.


Works Cited

"conflict." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 05 Oct. 2009 .

Gearan, Anne. "Obama to confer with lawmakers on Afghanistan - Yahoo! News." Yahoo! News. Associated Press, 05 Oct. 2009. Web. 06 Oct. 2009. .

MacDonald, Kevin. "Conflict Theory of Culture." Evolutionary Psychology 7.2 (2009): 208-33. Abstract. Conflict Theory of Culture 7.2 (2009): 208-33. Print.

The World at War. GlobalSecurity.org, 12 July 2009. Web. 02 Oct. 2009. .