Conceptualizing Civil War Complexity

IF 2.2 2区社会学 Q1 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Security Studies Pub Date : 2023-01-01 DOI:10.1080/09636412.2023.2178964

Johan Brosché, Desirée Nilsson, Ralph Sundberg

引用次数: 1

Abstract

Abstract Civil wars that appear to observers to be the most complex—even using a colloquial understanding of the concept—are also those that seem to register the most intense fighting, the most prolonged spells of war, and the most resistance to durable conflict resolution. But what does it really mean for a civil war to be complex? We currently lack a concept of “civil war complexity” that can help us better understand the most important variations in civil wars across time and space. To address this gap we develop a conceptualization of “civil war complexity” consisting of three dimensions—“actor complexity,” “behavior complexity,” and “issue complexity”—and demonstrate how they manifest empirically. We also highlight this conceptualization’s utility—and the danger of overlooking it—through the case of Darfur. This conceptualization paves the way for a new research agenda that explores how civil wars differ in terms of their complexity, the causes and consequences of civil war complexity, and how to refine conflict resolution techniques and strategies.

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概念化内战的复杂性

在观察家看来，最复杂的内战——即使使用通俗的概念理解——似乎也记录了最激烈的战斗，最持久的战争，以及对持久冲突解决的最大阻力。但是内战复杂到底意味着什么呢?我们目前缺乏一个“内战复杂性”的概念，这个概念可以帮助我们更好地理解内战在时间和空间上最重要的变化。为了解决这一差距，我们发展了一个由三个维度组成的“内战复杂性”的概念化——“行动者复杂性”、“行为复杂性”和“问题复杂性”——并演示了它们是如何在经验上表现出来的。我们还通过达尔富尔的案例强调了这种概念化的效用——以及忽视它的危险。这种概念化为新的研究议程铺平了道路，探索内战在复杂性方面的差异，内战复杂性的原因和后果，以及如何改进解决冲突的技术和策略。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Security Studies INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS-

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

16.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： Security Studies publishes innovative scholarly manuscripts that make a significant contribution – whether theoretical, empirical, or both – to our understanding of international security. Studies that do not emphasize the causes and consequences of war or the sources and conditions of peace fall outside the journal’s domain. Security Studies features articles that develop, test, and debate theories of international security – that is, articles that address an important research question, display innovation in research, contribute in a novel way to a body of knowledge, and (as appropriate) demonstrate theoretical development with state-of-the art use of appropriate methodological tools. While we encourage authors to discuss the policy implications of their work, articles that are primarily policy-oriented do not fit the journal’s mission. The journal publishes articles that challenge the conventional wisdom in the area of international security studies. Security Studies includes a wide range of topics ranging from nuclear proliferation and deterrence, civil-military relations, strategic culture, ethnic conflicts and their resolution, epidemics and national security, democracy and foreign-policy decision making, developments in qualitative and multi-method research, and the future of security studies.

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