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Conflict And Conflict Resolution In International Relations
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Power conflict occurs when each party wishes to maintain or maximize the
amount of influence that it exerts in the relationship and the social
setting. It is impossible for one party to be stronger without the other
being weaker in terms of influence over each other. Power conflict
ensures which party usually end in a defeat. It can occur between
individuals, between groups or nations, whenever one or both parties
choose to take a power approach to the relationship. Power also enters
into all conflict since the parties are attempting to control each
other. Also, it must be noted that most conflicts are not of a pure
type, but involve a mixture of sources. For example, union-management
conflict often involves different ideologies or political values in
addition to the economic competition at the background. The more sources
that are involved, the more intense and intractable the conflict
usually is.
Miscommunication and misunderstanding can create conflict
even when there are no basic incompabilities. In addition, parties may
have different perceptions as to what the facts are in a situation and
until they share information and clarify their perceptions, resolution
is impossible. Self-conteredness, secretive perception, emotional,
prejudices are all forces that lead one to perceived situations very
differently from the other party. Lack of skill in communicating what we
really in a clear and respective fashion often result in confusion,
hurt and anger, all of which simply feed the conflict process by making
it more complex.
Conflict have a definite tendency to escalate that
is, to be come more intense and hostile and to develop more issues on
what the parties say the conflict is about. Escalating conflicts becomes
more difficult to manage. The process of escalation feed on fear and
defensiveness. Threat leads to counter threat and the self-fulfilling
prophecy comes into play:
Each party believes in the evil intentions
of the other and inevitability of disagreement, and therefore taken
precautionary actions which signal mistrust and competitiveness. When
the other party then responds with a counter action, this is perceived
as justifying the initial precautionary measure, and a new spiral of
action and counter-action begins through the norm of reciprocity,
stronger attempts to control are met only with stronger resistance, but
more contentious attempts to gain the upper hand.
With each
succeeding spiral of conflict, polarization grows and the parties
becomes more adamant and intransigent in their approach to the
situation. Even though the intensity of the conflict may moderate for
the periods of time, the issues remain, and triggering events induces
conflictual behaviour with negative consequences, and the conflicts make
one more step up the escalation staircase. When party becomes locked in
a conflict they are usually unable to get out by themselves, and the
intervention of a third party to play the role of arbitrator, mediator
or consultant may be required.
Supranational conflicts are conflicts
that involved states or in which one of the parties is a state. There
are three common types of supranational disputes: disputes involving
maritime boundaries, disputes involving land and investor-state dispute
also known as investment treaty disputes. These disputes are different
from commercial disputes in many ways.
First, supranational disputes
are likely to be death with by special tribunals that deal with
international conflict resolution and settlement such as the
International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Permanent Court of Arbitration
(FCA), The International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) or the
International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Pure
Commercial dispute, on the other hand, are likely to be death with in
national courts or by international commercial arbitral bodies such as
the International Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes
(ICSED) and the New York Convention on Commercial disputes.
In
resolving supranational conflicts, it is important to bear in mind that,
unlike other conflicts, it is likely to arise out of a treaty. For
example, a maritime delimitation disputes may be governed by the 1982
law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS III) or an investor-state dispute by
the international settlement of investment dispute convention and the
court is to apply international conventions, international customs and
the general principles of laws recognized by the nations in question.
Anthony Connerty summarized the special characteristics that make supranational dispute different from commercial dispute:
…they
are likely to be heard by one of the supranational dispute resolution
bodies such as the ICJ: the issues may require to be decided in
accordance with the provisions of a treaty; the principles of
international law are likely to be applied, and, in the case of an ICSID
award, the provision of the New York Convention are not relevant to
enforcement.
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