Essay Sample on Navigating Conflict: Causes and Strategies for Lasting Peace

Introduction

A conflict may be defined as a confrontation between two or more parties who have opposing ideas, opinions, or interests in something. The war has got different phases. Among them is prelude conflict, which comprises all the factors that may cause a conflict, for example, different cultures and interests. The second phase includes triggering events where there must be something that can trigger a conflict between parties. Thirdly, the initiation phase comes after the beginning of the match, followed by the differentiation phase, where individuals speak out their differences against themselves. Lastly, there is a solution phase where the conflicting parties come up with a solution to their differences.

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On the other hand, peacemaking is a practical solution to a conflict that includes an agreement between the conflicting parties. The main agenda for peacemaking is the achievement of peace and reconciliation between conflicting parties and a correlative understanding. This essay analyzes the cause of conflicts and how peace can be achieved after conflicts.

Causes of Conflicts

While competition is essential and beneficial, sometimes, it can be a significant cause\active agent for realistic group conflict. For instance, when athletes injure each other in the name of winning or when people get involved in a frustrating education fight or fighting for employment. It is easier for such conflict to occur since when people are working in groups, the losing group will always find it easier to blame the other group for everything. Competition may result from strong in-group cohesion among the group members. Group cohesion refers to the power and energy that the group members are willing and ready to work with for the group's success. Therefore, strong in-group cohesion increases the chances and the ability of a group to continue winning.

Furthermore, groups with inbuilt cohesiveness have effective ways of communication, leading to the satisfaction of all the group members, which may increase the rate of competition and, hence, conflicts. Pride is also another factor that may cause disputes. For instance, when the winning team develops pride, the losing team might react towards it. This would, in turn, result in conflict between the groups.

COVID-19 has also been a major causative agent of political conflicts all over the world. Before the pandemic outbreak, many conflict-affected countries had agreed to cease fire and embrace peace. Still, the pandemic outbreak made it difficult even for the peacemakers to be able to mobilize the countries to prevent conflicts (Woods & Idris 2020). Therefore the countries must consider health issues as health issues and separate them from other political policies to avoid conflict.

Peace-Making

The media can be very significant when it comes to peacemaking or the prevention of conflict. However, this process requires introducing many additional programs to media communications and peacebuilding, such as upcoming Training journalists and the establishment of pro-peace programs (Kundu 2016). Nevertheless, the process of establishing, initiating, and evaluating such programs has its cons too. The media has diverse ways of peacebuilding, including improving governance, providing a warning before conflicts by examining issues that are potential causative agents of conflicts, increasing awareness about the effects of conflict, and building bridges between conflicting parties and groups. The media can also be a passage to air one's emotions as a motivator to inspire them to promote peace.

However, whether these measures can be carried depends on the willingness and the readiness of the media owners, most people would refer to or view content that contains conflicts between parties and individuals, rather than content that contains peacemaking.

Religion is also an important aspect of peacemaking. For starters, most religions are against the promotion of conflicts among individuals or parties (Argensky 2019). Besides, their holy scriptures only promote peace and dare ultimately against conflicts. Therefore, religious leaders and institutions should increase awareness about the importance of peace-making and conflict risk factors. By doing this, many people would adhere to these regulations of making peace and avoiding conflicts.

Conclusion

A conflict may be defined as a confrontation between two or more parties who have opposing ideas, opinions, or interests in something. On the other hand, peacemaking is a practical solution to a conflict that includes an agreement between the conflicting parties. Many factors lead to conflicts. For instance, while competition is important and beneficial, it can sometimes be a major causative agent for realistic group conflict. COVID-19 has been a major causative agent of political conflicts all over the world.

On the other hand, the media can be very significant in peace-making or prevention of conflict. However, this process requires introducing many additional programs to media communications and peacebuilding, such as upcoming Training journalists and pro-peace programs. Religion is also one of the aspects that can easily help the world in peacemaking.

References

Agensky, J. C. (2019). Religion, Governance, and the 'Peace–Humanitarian–Development Nexus' in South Sudan. In United Nations Peace Operations in a Changing Global Order (pp. 277-295). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/22919/1007242.pdf?sequence=1#page=289

Woods, E. T., Schertzer, R., Greenfeld, L., Hughes, C., & MillerIdriss, C. (2020). COVID19, nationalism, and the politics of crisis: A scholarly exchange. Nations and Nationalism.

Kundu, V. Developing Media and Information Literacy Skills to harness the power of Social Media to promote Peace.