MEANING OF CONFLICT AND WAR

• Conflict is defined as a clash between individuals arising out of a

difference in thought, process, attitudes, understanding, interests,
requirements and even sometimes perceptions.
• Eg.”UEW final year students protest , accuse school of not updating
GPA for three years.”
• War is generally defined as violent conflict between states or nations.
• Eg “The Russia – Ukraine War.”
 HOW IS IT A PROBLEM?

• A conflict results in heated arguments, physical abuses and definitely loss

of peace and harmony. A conflict can actually change relationships.
Friends, institutions can become foes as a result of conflict.
• Conflict has negative effect on individuals in a conflict zone and even
surrounding towns and countries.
• Conflict causes physical damage such as loss of life and properties and
social problems such as destruction or disintegration of family, friendship
and even affect the economic life of individual .
 HOW IS IT A PROBLEM?(CONT.)

Examples of these social problems are

 Displacement of people: where individuals are relocated in their comfort zone to areas where they
become strangers and to start life afresh.
 It also leads to the restriction of movement of people: due to the insecurity that conflict creates,
individuals in the conflict zone are afraid to visit distance relations, friends, and even go to work in
fulfilment of economic life.
 HOW IS IT A PROBLEM?(CONT.)
• Conflict on more intense cases such as war affects the general well being of a state or a nation.
Individual mostly women and children are abuse, infrastructure are destroyed, lives and
properties are lost, lost of professionals, destruction of agriculture lands etc. This makes a country
goes through retrogression and even affects the standard of leaving for the people.
• With the above stated effect, conflict and war is a social problem and needs to be solved.
 HOW IS IT A PROBLEM? (CONT.)
From the structural functionalist perspective, they argue that a major function of war is that it
produces unity among societal members. Societal members feel a sense of cohesion and they work
together to defeat the enemy
From the conflict perspective, war advances the interest of the military – industrial complex. It also
states that tension and conflict arise when resources, status and power are unevenly distributed
between group in society and that, these conflicts become the engine for societal change.
Symbolic interactionism emphasizes the importance of symbol in support for war and terrorism and
the experience of civilians and veterans as victims of war.
 WHO IS AFFECTED BY THE PROBLEM?

•All individuals are affected when there is war and

conflict. The vulnerable ones especially women and
children are the most affected. Example the Ivorian
war lead to the displacement of about 2000 women.
Some of them were raped, others gave birth by the
road side.
WHO IS AFFECTED BY THE
PROBLEM?
WHO ARE YOU BRINGING ON BOARD

• To elevate or solve this social problem of conflict and wars, women and children
who are seen as most vulnerable when these situations occur should be educated
about the effect these problems bring to them in the long run through peer
mediation program in school and neighborhood watch programs to equip them with
relevant information about the consequences of conflict and war in their
communities and countries. NGO’s and other civil society organization can come on
board to sensitive the communities about the causes and effect of conflict on them
and introduce them to alternative dispute resolution strategies so as to kill issues
when they start so they do not fester to become gigantic ones to cause havoc in
their communities
 HOW DO WE KNOW THE CONFLICT IS
RESOLVED?
• Evaluating whether a problem has been solved requires the following;
- There should be an exchange of mutual respect.
- Reduced incidents of violence.
- There should be improvement in stability and security.
• There should be an improvement in economic development.
THANK YOU.