Identity Dilemmas: The Consequence of Identity in Protracted Conflict

This work contends that fear, interest, and honor-the Thucydidean triad-are the primary, underlying causal factors present in most human conflicts. While more than one of these motives may be at work in any given contest, a single motive can and often does outweigh the others. This principal motive must be identified and addressed to truly resolve the conflict in question. The examination advances a security-prosperity-identity framework for analyzing the behavior of states in conflict. It applies the analytic framework to three of the world's most intractable disputes-Israel-Palestine, India-Pakistan, and China-Taiwan-to highlight the weight of the motives at work. The analysis indicates that identity eventually outweighs security and prosperity in the prolongation of conflict. The study concludes that an identity dilemma, in which conflicting identities reinforce one another, develops over time. Based on these findings, it recommends that identity play a more central role in the examination as well as the termination of conflict.

Author: U. S. Army War College

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: Jul 18, 2014

Number of Pages: 30 pages

Binding: Paperback or Softback

ISBN-10: 1500568287

ISBN-13: 9781500568283