ConflictConflict

Key Terms:Key Terms:

• Nation State: an independent nation of people, who have a common identity and live together under 1 government in a defined geographical area.

• Sovereignty: the authority of 1 state is not subject to control by other states.

• Ideology: a set of ideas and beliefs that a nation uses as the basis for its way of life, its political and economic systems, and its social goals.

• E.g. democracy v. authoritarianism (absolute monarchies, one-party nation states, military authoritarianism, religious nation state) v. communism

•

Name That War!Name That War!

• Identify the war, or other conflict, that could be associated with each of the following comments:

• “We are fighting to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction from this country to others.” WMD include nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Answer:Answer:

• War in Iraq (2003)

• “We are fighting to protect the sanctity of our religion from non-believers”

Answer:Answer:

• Crusades 1095 – 1291

• Also repeated in War in Iraq (2003)

• “We are fighting to remove a dictator from power who has killed many thousands of his own people.”

Answer:Answer:

• Allies in World War II• Also repeated in War

in Iraq (2003)

• “We are fighting to protect our culture from the immoral culture of the Western world.”

Answer:Answer:

• Taliban in war in Afghanistan

• Also repeated in war in Iraq (2003)

Causes of Conflict:Causes of Conflict:

1. Natural Resources:1. Natural Resources:

• The combination of global industrial development and population growth increases the demand for finite resources.

• E.g. most contentious resource is oil but in the years to come water will likely take over.

2. Territorial Conflict:2. Territorial Conflict:

• When two or more groups wish to control the same territory.

• E.g. Israeli-Palestinian conflict

3. Cultural Conflict:3. Cultural Conflict:

• Conflict between majority and minority cultures within the same nation.

• E.g. Canadian government and Aboriginal peoples over ownership of land and control of resources.

4. Religious Conflict:4. Religious Conflict:

• Conflicts between two different religions within the same state or between different states.

• E.g. Ireland: Catholics v. Protestants

5. Global Geopolitical Conflict:5. Global Geopolitical Conflict:

• Often conflicts within a particular country are little more than localized versions of global rivalries.

• Often takes place through Proxy Wars (acting on behalf of another)

• E.g. Cold War (Vietnam and Korean Wars were proxy wars fought by the USA and the Soviet Union)

Costs of Conflict:Costs of Conflict:

• Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and not clothed.

• - President and former General, Dwight D. Eisenhower