NCJ Number
142343
Journal
Studies in Conflict and Terrorism Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Dated: (January- March 1993) Pages: 25-50
Date Published
1993
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This article analyzes the sources and nature of disputes/conflicts and develops a model that allows a disputant to assess his status in the development of a conflict.
Abstract
The discussion of this model is attentive to hostilities and the termination of a conflict on favorable terms. The key concept is incompatible national objectives. This incompatibility may lead to hostilities in which the aim is to apply military, economic, and political power in such a manner as to cause one opponent to change his political objectives to accommodate the others. The thrust of this report is the need to determine how to induce either the leader or some chosen political group in the opponent's government to want to change that nation's objectives, so that the source of the conflict is eliminated. Also, actions would be taken that will cause that faction to have both the desire and ability to influence that change in objectives to occur. The analysis suggests that dispute settlement will result from the successful defense on one's own political and military centers of gravity, combined with action that, at least indirectly, threatens the opponent's centers of gravity, with the result being a change in objectives. The report examines the constraints that inhibited U.S. activities in the international arena prior to the end of the Cold War. It concludes with a rational decisionmaking strategy that establishes and then seeks to achieve "victory criteria." 5 figures and 23 notes