Chapter Abstract
Can we move beyond conflict? This chapter examines one of the oldest and most difficult political problems: how to deal with conflicts that are so deeply entrenched that they seem virtually inevitable. It considers how societies that have been torn apart by war become peaceful again. The chapter suggests that the nature of a conflict can only be understood in the context of its unique environment, and that no general theory can ever do justice to these complexities. At the same time, it suggests that we can still learn from how particular societies have dealt with their political challenges. Given the uniqueness of each conflict, this chapter examines the issues at stake not in an abstract manner, but in a concrete political setting: the deeply entrenched conflict on the divided Korean peninsula, where hatred and constant tension continue to dominate politics even more than half a century after the Korean War. This chapter illuminates the patterns of progress and regress, conflict and co-operation, hatred and empathy to better understand whether it is possible to move beyond conflict.
Additional web content and audio-visual materials
1. The Korean War (1950-53): Produced by Simple History, this animated video provides a short introduction to the Korean War. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxaegqvl4aE
2. TED Talk - To solve mass violence, look to locals: In this video, Séverine Autesserre talks about the advantages of a local-based approach to conflict resolution based on the example of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Instead of focussing on the national level, Autesserre finds that a focus on, for instance, the individual, the family or the community is a better way to help solve conflicts. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHdYaMyR5-8
3. The historic Koreas summit, in three minutes: This video produced by the Washington post shows the highlights of the 2018 meeting of South Korean president Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. It was the third inter-Korean summit after 2000 and 2007. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oECuyIWb2K4
4. When Trump met Kim: what happened at the Singapore summit: A summary produced by The Guardian of the first-ever summit between the leaders of the United States and North Korea. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD-XESk-ZTM
5. Take On Me by a-ha, North Korean Style: A video of North Korean accordion players, who perform the song “Take On Me” from the Norwegian pop band a-ha. Challenging generic assumptions about North Koreans as dull and rigid, the video went viral when it was uploaded 2012. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBgMeunuviE
Global Politics Film Club
Joint Security Area (2000), dir. Park Chan-wook
One of South Korea’s most popular films about North-South relations and important in terms of challenging stereotypical representations of cold and vicious North Koreans. Coinciding at a time when North and South Korea’s rapprochement reached a (momentary) peak after the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, Joint Security Area tells a story of amity among soldiers from both sides. The film shows how the soldiers must navigate between choosing their own country or their friendship.
Seminar room activities
Activity – How do images shape what we know of conflicts? It is common to say that we live in an age of images. Film, photographs, social media and television, among others, influence what we know of and how we respond to political phenomena including war and conflict. The purpose of the exercise is to help students develop an awareness of how images are deeply involved in shaping our understanding of conflicts and at the same time how the relative lack of images reflect a lack of knowledge.
Students should be asked to search during class for images of one particular conflict (e.g. the civil war in Syria) and to reflect on how different perspectives from war party A and B (or even C, etc.) construct different kinds of knowledges about the conflict (e.g. war of resistance vs. war against terror).
In addition, ask group of students to search and compare images of ‘visible’ (e.g. the wars in Afghanistan or Syria) and ‘invisible’ (e.g. the civil war in Somalia or the insurgency in the Mindanao region of the Philippines) conflicts. Relative in/visibility relates to the level of photojournalistic coverage of these conflicts by global new agencies such as Agence France-Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP) and Reuters. Ask students to reflect on how the abundance or lack of images of particular conflicts contributes to our political and ethical responses to these conflicts.
Let the seminar jointly reflect on this exercise to address the politics of images.
Assessment Questions
- How can conflicts be resolved?
- What are the opportunities and challenges of confrontation and engagement as strategies of conflict resolution?
- How can existing approaches to conflict resolution be improved?
- Do you think that the conflicts of today resemble or differ from conflicts of the past?
- To what extent can conflicts, past or present, be compared? What can be learned from them?