On the Escalation and De-Escalation of Conflict
In: IZA Discussion Paper No. 7492
In: IZA Discussion Paper No. 7492
SSRN
Working paper
In: Civil wars
ISSN: 1743-968X
When we study civil wars and conflicts we tend to conceptualise them as occurring in stages: starting from domestic political disagreements, to demonstrations and protests escalating into violence and war. How armed conflicts end is often seen as the reverse process, moving from high intensity armed interaction, to a drawing down, war weariness, negotiations and termination, followed by a transition to peace. This contribution argues that this is a faulty understanding of conflict, which obscures rather than illuminates. More attention to the processes of aggravation of conflict and the many leaps and bounds of the use of pressure and coercion is warranted. Similarly, the drawing down of conflict is not necessarily linked to a linear progression of de-escalation. Sometimes armed conflicts end at the pinnacle of violence. This article focuses on the state of the art in the field of escalation and de-escalation in the study of civil war and conflict. Moreover, it will offer an invitation to scholars to focus more on these phenomena by outlining where our present knowledge and insights fall short.
World Affairs Online
In: Mathematics and Politics; Textbooks in Mathematical Sciences, S. 1-20
In: The journal of strategic studies, Band 35, Heft 5, S. 601-742
ISSN: 0140-2390
World Affairs Online
In: Dynamics of asymmetric conflict, Band 2, Heft 1, S. 23-31
ISSN: 1746-7594
In: Conflict management and peace science: the official journal of the Peace Science Society (International), Band 28, Heft 2, S. 111-123
ISSN: 1549-9219
Past studies vary widely in how they measure conflict escalation. The use of different measures of escalation is understandable because theories about escalation do not specify how the concept should be measured. But the use of different measures of escalation hinders cumulation. We contribute to the literature on conflict escalation by comparing a variety of measures of escalation. We demonstrate how few robust relationships there are across different measures of escalation. Importantly, though, we find a consistent influence of territory on escalatory processes which is insensitive to how escalation is measured.
In: The journal of strategic studies, Band 35, Heft 5, S. 735-742
ISSN: 1743-937X
In: Civil wars, Band 25, Heft 2-3, S. 229-248
ISSN: 1743-968X
In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies
"Conflict Escalation" published on by Oxford University Press.
World Affairs Online
In: Polish political science: yearbook, Band 34, S. 161-180
ISSN: 0208-7375