Maire Dugan's Nested Theory Of Conflict Analysis

Leary, Chulmari P.|2013057836|4POL1|October 10, 2016

Over the time of the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union built up a comprehension of deterrence and its role in preventing war with each other. With the end of the Cold War and the spread of weapon of mass destruction, deterrence goes up against multinational dimension whilst many advocated the idea of nuclear disarmament. The post-Cold War era adopted liberal ideas in dealing with conflicts which makes international environment different for it adjusts with the evolving society. As condition tends to shift, the significance and role of deterrence today has also changed whereby academicians assert that deterrence may no longer be a feasible strategy. Hence, this paper aims

The theory encapsulates the idea that local conflicts are often embedded in larger conflicts, but that it may be possible to address larger conflicts by dealing with their manifestations at the local level (Dugan, 2015). Likewise, it explores the connection between issues and the larger system where those concerns or issues take place which is comparable to looking at problems within the level of war. According to Dugan (2015), a particular dispute between individual and states may be the manifestation of an older, longer, and deeper social conflict. In her model, she created different types of conflicts and identified the first one as Issues-Specific Conflict. In here, it describes that disagreement may occur over information, differing interpretations of agreed-upon information, or divergent interests over the items of concern. However, the issues themselves are not the real source of the conflict but the relational problems

In light with this, the strength of the theory is that it offers a framework for the actors to step back and possibly link issues with larger structural problems within a society before an intervention or operation. Once these links are identified, it is easier to create a vision for the future that will make all the smaller issues irrelevant. Another way to look at the model is to see that fixing all the issues-specific conflict that manifest themselves within a society will not bring about progress in the strategic arena if the fundamental or systemic problems are not dealt with. Hence, in contrast to deterrence theory, this paper contends that nested theory is relevant as it accentuated that states should not simply focus on building armed forces and forming diverse alliances since this would simply bother the international order and would just hasten threats and clashes to conflicting parties. Or maybe, conflicts must be resolved at local level in order to avert bigger and more decimating