An Argument for Constructing a Resolution Strategy for Ethnic Conflict

Global conflict refers to the disputes between different nations or states. It also refers to the conflicts between organizations and people in various nation-states. Furthermore, it applies to inter-group conflicts within a country in cases where one group is fighting for increased political, economic, or social power, as well as independence. Bilateral conflicts refer to the affecting either two or both sides, parties, factions or the like. Multi-national conflicts, on the other hand, applies to the conflicts occurring in multinational corporations and usually cuts across cross-management countries or organizations.

When discussing the global conflict, many people often find themselves asking the question; why should I care about what is happening in this other country? Shouldn’t I be concerned about what is happening in my own country? The truth is, we need to care. This is because we are connected globally and what happens in one part of the world will also affect us, either directly or indirectly. We, therefore, need to care, not just for the shared humanity, but for our self-interest as well. By so doing, we can protect the core values of the world. These values include environmental protection, human rights, poverty reduction, religious pluralism, digital access, good governance, gender equity and global peace and justice among others. Looking at the case of human rights, they ought to work for all of us hence universal. If they are denied in one country, then they can quickly be dismissed in any other country. We, as individuals, should, therefore, defend human rights (Nye & Welch, 2014). On environmental protection, we need to be concerned about what other countries are doing concerning the global emission targets because if they go contrary, the effect is felt on a worldwide scale.

Ethnic conflict refers to any occurrence of a sustained violent conflict in which ethnic, religious, national, or minor communities challenge their governments in pursuit of significant status changes. I will look at the ethnic conflicts in Iraq. Iraq, a country in the Middle East, has, for many years, been in the news because of the constant fighting. This fights started in 2003 when the US and British troops went to remove Saddam Hussein, their leader, from power. This mission had been approved by the leaders of these countries since they believed he was, not only hiding dangerous weapons, but he was a dangerous person himself. Although this mission was supposed to be simple, it ended up lasting eight years. However, the fighting did not stop after this mission. Despite most of Iraq people being Muslim, they are of different religious types, i.e., Shia and Sunni. These two groups disagree on the country’s leadership. While Shias and Sunnis fought over who should lead, IS fighters, who are very violent, also wanted power and started capturing and gaining control over some parts of the country. IS has made most of the chaos, has captured and killed the religious group of the Yazidis and still fighting to gain control over the city of Mosul (Weber, 2015). We should be concerned about these constant wars in Iraq because it poses a global threat of nuclear war. The war's effects on political reforms, ethnic activism, and sectarianism have shaped future terrorist ideology, tactics, and strategy, an impact that has been branded the Iraq effect. This conflict has not only affected Iraq, but it also spread to the neighboring regions of Syria. It has also seen people from other parts of the world such as the UK coming in to join IS.

The ethnic conflicts existing in the above groups can be dealt with an appropriate conflict resolution strategy. The steps of conflict resolution are: clarifying what the conflict is, establishing a common goal for the parties in conflict, discussing ways of meeting the common goal, establishing the barriers to the common goal, discussing and agreeing on the most appropriate way of resolving the conflict and finally acknowledging the agreed upon solution and clarifying each parties responsibility towards the resolution.

These steps are essential in are realistic way of solving the conflict since they give the conflicting parties an opportunity for win-win situation. It gives them a chance to present their side of the story listening and understanding one another thus making it possible to clear out their common grounds and areas of disagreement. With a clear picture of areas of disagreement it is easy to establish how each needs to compromise to accommodate the other. This however needs a mediator since it is seldom easy to get two conflicting parties to talk and agree without the intervention of a neutral person.

Conflict resolution strategy is applicable to everyone; siblings, coworkers and marriage partners and friends. Without the knowledge of the conflict resolution process, the two parties in disagreement may not reach a point of agreement since both will hold on to their ideas strongly with no will to compromise. If approached wrongly, the process can lead to worsening of the relationship as the two can drift apart further with no hope of reconciliation.