ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a useful way of analyzing some dynamic aspects by viewing them as the result of a sequence of interrelated choices made by the contesting parties: choices about means of confrontation, conciliation, escalation and repression, and withdrawal. Conflict dynamics needs to be linked systematically to mobilization theory. Because protracted conflict keeps creating derivative issues, factionalizes opponents, destroys trust, invites outside intervention, and brings to power hard-liners and extremists, the conclusion from analysis is that the chances of conciliation diminish with the duration of the conflict. A fully articulated, dynamic analysis of social movements and of social conflict will have to specify the most important resources—material, psychological, and structural—that are assembled for, and used up in, organizational and collective action. A complete theory will have to specify the sources of conflict in the larger social and cultural environment, and spell out the impact of social movements upon the larger societal environment.
