Intrastate armed conflicts: from discontentment to actualisation

Abstract

Intrastate armed conflicts belong to the realm of international relations despite being contained within the territorial boundaries of a given state. Longstanding examples illustrate the destruction and suffering caused by intrastate armed conflicts. In this paper, we study the tipping of balance from inaction to actual collective violence, hoping to apply a political process approach that necessitates several conditions before fighters filled with manifested grievances take up arms. Nationalism, then, approaches the subject with a constructivist lens. The construction of nationalism and concepts of nationhood provide an alternative ideological frame that legitimises violence undertaken by culturally repressed social groups. This paper also explores the intricacies of conflict resurgence, bargaining failures, and peace processes.