ABSTRACT
The idea that social structures often played a role in generating conflict was not foreign to analysts and resolvers of the ‘second wave.’ Many acute observers saw violent identity group struggles as engendered, in part, by political systems too rigid, authoritarian, or majority-group dominated to satisfy the basic needs of discontented people. Even so, their strong focus on group identities made psychological states and political arrangements seem more germane than socioeconomic factors to an understanding of these conflicts.1 Moreover, the theorists seldom offered any general account of the relationship of social systems to violent conflict. The introduction of conflict-generating social structures as an idea of critical importance to the field was largely the work of one scholar/activist: the pioneering Norwegian peace theorist and practitioner, Johan Galtung.
