Peace Development: Resolving Intrastate Conflict Through Leadership

Introduction

Conflict is an ingredient of the human condition. The current complex and uncertain geo-political and socio-economic environments face a growing range of challenges fueled by ideological discourse, self-interests, violent extremism, intrastate conflict, and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. An argument can be made that these challenges threaten human security, human rights, and international peace and stability. The growing global connective issues of technological and socio-economic disparities, political tension, and ethnic discourse frequently creates intrastate conflict and instability. In an interconnective world, resolving conflict in a volatile, uncertain, and complex environment cannot be accomplished by a singular state leader (Campbell, 2020). Conflict resolution requires leadership at every stratum of society to address the root cause of intrastate conflict. Campbell (2018) argues that “intentional or not, we have designed a world in which much of what we do and how we do it simply cannot continue. Whole system change in the pattern of human activities is required” (p. 278). Thus, given the role non-state actors play in intrastate discourse, there is an urgency to investigate how leaders from different sectors may prevent instability as well as resolve the interconnected issues resulting from conflict

Much of the literature points out that without addressing and solving the root cause of intrastate conflict, the expectation management towards sustainable resolution that brings peace is unrealistic (Annan, 2004; Cederman & Pengl, 2019). As conflict between state and belligerent actors with deep grievances shared by other socio-ethnic groups and external support are addressed, it will be impossible to create the confidence building measures necessary for conflict resolution. That said, we need leaders with the courage not only to let go of past historical grievances, seek revenge for human rights abuse, and gaining political power but transform one’s mindset, perception, and perspective of one’s adversary and move from position centered to person centered during the conflict resolution process. In today’s environment, there is an urgency for character-based leaders with the inner courage to objectively look at a situation and admit power politics, personal agenda, and intergroup conflict contribute to the violent conflict. In essence, as leaders navigate across different sectors addressing the underlying root cause of intrastate conflict, resolving conflict requires transforming the structural and ideological narrative and recognize each other’s perspectives to decide whether or how to proceed toward a resolution effort (Cederman & Pengl, 2019).

Existing global leadership research suggests that developing one’s conflict management skill is an important organizational leadership competence (Runde & Flanagan, 2018). However, research revealed there are limited understanding linking conflict management and conflict resolution as a global leadership competence (Schareth, Ensari, & Christian, 2013). This chapter is a theoretical examination of the underlying root causes of intrastate conflict. Next, we argue that peace development leaders with well-developed conflict management competencies possess the strategic capability to enhance the execution of conflict prevention, conflict management, and conflict resolution processes. It is important to note that resolving conflict in a highly charged and stressful environment requires leaders with specialized conflict management competencies to deal with the adversarial relationship. More importantly, during tense confrontations between parties, a dysfunctional strategy in resolving conflict by a leader frequently causes irreversible damage. This research contributes both to leadership and conflict management fields of study by reconceptualizing and integrating tenets of both disciples as a foundation for leading conflict resolution activities. Essentially, the aim is to open the aperture and investigate the relationship between the application of conflict management skills and leadership competencies in resolving discord among adversaries.