ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the disjuncture between the nature of conflicts and the prevailing theories and methods of conflict resolution is too big, and may even be widening, in particular, in the zone of turmoil. It suggests that most approaches to conflict resolution have not adequately taken into account the important differences between the core and peripheral conflicts. The distinction between the political conditions in the core and the periphery should have major implications for the feasibility of conflict resolution and approaches to it. In the instrumental approach, conflict resolution is a mode of prescriptive, but also disinterested managerial action, conducted by a ‘guild’ of professional practitioners. The instrumental approach is premised on the manageability of conflicts. The development of conflict resolution techniques has made much progress in recent years and mitigated some of the most obvious problems of the technical approaches.
