United Nations’ Approaches To Conflict Resolution

Ansh Khosla, Amity Law School, Noida

Conflict is omnipresent in human life. It plays both a positive and negative role. While conflict has been an essential driving force behind human development,it has also brought intolerable misery to the human race. This makes the role of conflict in human life complicated. For this reason, thinkers have tried to understand the causes of conflict and the ways to manage or mitigate its negative impact on human life. As one glances through the extensive literature on this topic, there is a general consensus on the causes of conflict and the methods of managing or resolving it. Theoreticians also agree on the fact that conflict can never be eliminated from the human life. Perhaps we can only learn to mitigate it. In short, conflict is an endemic feature of the society (Mitchell 1981: 7). “Conflict is inevitable because it can originate in individual and group reactions to situations of scarce resources” (Mitchell 1981:70). Quincy Wright reiterates this point when he says that “society in which there was no internal conflict would be one in which no individual or sub-group could formulate its own purposes and act to achieve them...A society of that character would be an entity guided by a single purpose and single method” (Wright 1951: 199).

The universal nature of conflict makes it a relevant topic for all fields of study. In the sphere of political science also, scholars have been intrigued by the causes, manifestations and methods of mitigation of conflict. “Political theory is, quite simply, man’s attempts to consciously understand and solve the problems of his group and life and organization” opines Sabine (Sabine 1973: 3). The machinery of government itself, according to certain thinkers, is an instrument to manage and mitigate the conflict within the state. The state and the sovereign are seen as regulatory agents who can influence, and to certain extent control, the behaviour of the subjects or citizens in a way so thatviolent manifestations of conflict are avoided.