ABSTRACT

The literature on conflicts and conflict resolution, including the extent to which they can be resolved, offers two similar analytical categories that traverse two continuums. First, the literature distinguishes a “simple” conflict from a “protracted” conflict. In the former, the matter of contention is control of a defined domain of resources, which may be territorial, symbolic, religious, material or other. A protracted conflict, by contrast, addresses control of multiple domains at one and the same time. Material, territorial, symbolic, religious, psychological and other resources are essential elements of the conflict, and the battle is waged concerning all of them. Each side attempts to overwhelm the other regarding all of them, and the solution is a zero-sum solution of profit and loss (see Coleman, 2003, 2006).