Intense Conflict Research Articles

Conflicts with Friends and Romantic Partners: Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses of the Experiences of Girls in Care

ABSTRACTConflicts are common in adolescent friendships and romantic relationships. The ways girls in care navigate conflicts in close relationships have implications for their resilience, since their family relationships are compromised. We employed qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore the conflicts in the friend and romantic relationships of 37 girls in care. They completed an interview about the conflicts with their best friend and boyfriend and a measure on the positive and negative quality of the friendship and romantic relationship within which the conflicts took place. Thematic analysis indicated the girls experienced more intense and volatile conflicts with their boyfriend than best friend. However, the intensity of these conflicts was mitigated by their positive perceptions in their quantitative reports. Despite conflicts, the girls reported significantly higher levels of positive than negative relationship quality within their romantic relationships and similar levels of negative quality between the two relationships. Findings highlight the girls' struggles with their romantic relationship compared to their friendship and especially their attempts to interpret conflict within a more global assessment of relationship quality. The findings provide a nuanced understanding of the girls' relational patterns, which can be used to inform interventions to support their development of healthy relationships.

Accounting for spatial coupling to assess the interactions between human well-being and environmental performance

Understanding the spatio-temporal interactions between ecosystem services (ESs) and the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is crucial in arid regions due to the more intense conflicts between human well-being and environmental performance. However, the interactions over distance and their spatial connectivity network among regions are often neglected, influencing the advancements in policy making especially in arid basin. Here a comprehensive framework that integrated ESs and SDGs was proposed to assess the spatial coupling between human well-being and environmental performance within and across regions in the Heihe River Basin (HRB), the second largest inland river basin in China. Then the Random Forests method was employed to identify the key driving factors of the interactions. The results are as follows: (1) The coupling that accounts for both local and distant effects was higher than that only considers local effects. The interactions of all regions that considered both were more balanced, suggesting that spatial interactions among regions promoted the supplies of ES and the progress of SDGs. (2) The midstream of HRB formed a stronger spatial connectivity network. (3) Land use intensity, population density, and water scarcity showed a strong influence on the interactions. This study provides targeted suggestions to guide sustainable development for better human well-being while maintaining ecosystem health for better environmental performance.

The Influence of Parental Conflict on Primary School Students' Academic Self-Efficacy

Parental conflict refers to the disputes and conflicts caused by the difference of parents' views in a family environment. This will have a negative influence on the child's psychology and behavior. Academic Self-efficacy (ASE) refers to students' overall belief in their capacity to cope with many different types of academic challenges in school and is an important prerequisite for well-being and academic performance. Parental conflict not only affects children's emotional development, but also their behavior and sense of academic self-efficacy. This experiment uses the method of questionnaire to study the effect of parental conflict on the academic self-efficacy of primary school children, hoping to provide some enlightenment and suggestions for educators and parents. The average score of academic self-efficacy was 70.95. The average parental conflict was 109.33. The intensity dimension was 15.57 and the frequency dimension was 14.04. The mean value of academic self-efficacy is slightly lower than the median, the mean value of parental conflict, the mean value of intensity and the mean value of frequency are much higher than the median. The results show that parental conflict frequency has a significant negative linear relationship with academic self-efficacy, there is no significant relationship between parental conflict intensity and academic self-efficacy. And there is a significant negative linear relationship between parental conflict and academic self-efficacy. The more parental conflict occurs, the lower children's academic self-efficacy will be. Parents should reduce conflict and ensure that children have a high sense of academic self-efficacy.

Coparenting, parent-adolescent conflict and internalizing symptoms in Brazilian adolescents

Coparenting might impact on child development, on the intensity of parent-child con-flict, and on the manifestation of internalizing symptoms. Children's perception of coparenting and gender specificities are important to understand this phenomenon. The direct relationship mediated by the intensity of the parent-adolescent conflict in symptom manifestation and the effects of the moderation of the adolescent's gender were investigated. The study included 357 adolescents, 53.2% female, aged 11 to 18 years (M = 14.42; SD = 1.84). The results indicated that the relationship between coparenting and the internalizing symptoms presented by the adolescents are mediated by the intensity of parent-adolescent conflicts. The findings contribute to the identifi-cation of the coparenting reflexes and direct clinical strategies to adolescents and fam-ilies.

Achieving relationship satisfaction: household gender equality and mattering

This study delves into the dynamics of relationship satisfaction (RS) among married couples and its crucial significance for mental health and psychological well-being. Survey data encompassing variables such as the general mattering scale, gender inequality in Household Chores scale, kansas marital conflict scale, and relationship assessment scale were gathered from 128 married individuals aged 18 to 65 in urban areas of Malaysia and Indonesia. Participants furnished demographic information including age, gender, and marriage duration. The study variables were assessed through the scales mentioned earlier. The findings, derived from bootstrap analysis involving 5,000 samples at a 95% confidence interval, revealed that the extent of partners' involvement in household chores significantly predicted their perception of gender equality in domestic responsibilities. This perception, in turn, fostered an elevated sense of mattering, thereby contributing to heightened relationship satisfaction. Importantly, the general mattering scale served as a significant mediator in the relationship between partner's household involvement and relationship satisfaction. In summary, couples benefit from partners engaging in domestic chores, resulting in an enhanced sense of mutual significance, greater relationship satisfaction, and improved mental well-being. Marital conflict frequency and intensity did not emerge as significant factors in this relationship.

Sudan's healthcare crisis: The struggle of kidney patients amidst conflict.

Conflicts, akin to other crises, disrupt lives and healthcare infrastructure, disproportionately affecting vulnerable individuals. The ongoing Sudanese conflict, initiated on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Force (RSF), triggers significant population displacement, healthcare facility closures, and a scarcity of medical resources. Amid the intense conflict in Khartoum, reports of deceased individuals in the streets heighten concerns about public health, emphasizing the gravity of the situation. This crisis compounds the challenges faced by Sudan's already fragile healthcare system, impacting over 5 million displaced individuals, including those reliant on life-saving hemodialysis sessions. This commentary aims to illuminate the challenges confronting kidney dialysis patients in war-torn Sudan, emphasizing the impact on the Al-Goled hemodialysis center. This commentary relies on reports from the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), European Renal Association (ERA), and The International Society of Nephrology (ISN), along with recent journal articles discussing the consequences of ongoing conflicts. Personal observations in Al-Goled contribute to the insights, and data from the Al-Goled hemodialysis center in Sudan illuminate the struggles faced by kidney dialysis patients during the conflict, presented as a case study. Kidney dialysis patients, crucial for regular hemodialysis sessions, confront severe challenges due to the overwhelming conflict. With an estimated 8000 kidney failure patients in Sudan, disruptions in healthcare services, targeted attacks on medical staff, and a shortage of resources exacerbate their plight. The Al-Goled hemodialysis center, initially designed for 30 daily sessions, experiences a surge in demand, accommodating 85 patients daily-an alarming 183% increase. Limited resources, machine malfunctions, and a shortage of medications contribute to the loss of 13 patients' lives. The conflict in Sudan disproportionately impacts kidney dialysis patients, causing disruptions in essential healthcare services. The surge in demand at the Al-Goled center underscores the broader impact on healthcare institutions nationwide. Local efforts to source medical supplies face bureaucratic hurdles and complex exportation procedures, impeding support for kidney patients. Patients, once receiving 3 weekly sessions, now struggle to secure even one, jeopardizing their well-being. Urgent international intervention is needed to cease the conflict and ensure the safety of healthcare facilities, especially for vulnerable populations like kidney dialysis patients.

Monitoring Indicators of Economic Activities in Sudan Amidst Ongoing Conflict Using Satellite Data

ABSTRACT Political tensions in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) escalated into an armed conflict on 15 April 2023, and continues to unfold to date. Besides the severe humanitarian catastrophe, the war disrupted access to basic public services and constrained access to markets and continued to trigger considerable scarcity of life-saving goods and services. In this paper, we utilize satellite data (nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentration and nightlight intensity) and spatial mapping tools to provide a swift analysis of how the conflict has changed the patterns on economic activity, which are bound to have severe implications on food security in Sudan. We show that immediately after the outbreak of the armed conflict, NO2 concentration and nightlight intensity reduced in those areas affected by the conflict while remaining stable in those areas not directly affected by the conflict. We also demonstrate how these types of remote sensing and remote data collection methods can be deployed to monitor economic activities amidst armed conflicts and similar abrupt crises and guide economic, development and environmental policies.

Human-wildlife conflict and the likelihood of reporting losses in Nepal

All development indices are changing due to increased exploitation of nature and growing economies in developing countries. This situation may increase the intensity of conflict between humans and wild species, such as large carnivores. Despite the increasing intensity of human-wildlife conflicts and the existing compensation scheme that compensates for the loss, most losses to human-wildlife conflicts are not reported to authorities. Thus, this study was conducted in the Banke National Park of Nepal to explore possible factors influencing the propensity to report losses. All 197 surveyed participants reported suffering from crop raids by wild animals, and 80 respondents (40.60 %) reported livestock depredation. Results revealed that socio-economic factors, such as age (β = 1.99, SE = 1.61), gender (β = -0.56, SE = 0.28), employment (β = -1.10, SE = 0.68), family size (β = 1.54, SE = 0.54), and conflict with certain species including Bengal tiger (β = 0.48, SE 0.24), leopard (β = 0.92, SE 0.35), elephant (β = 0.58, SE 0.34), and monkey (β = 0.56, SE 0.27), were statistically significant at p values ≤ 0.01, ≤ 0.05, and ≤ 0.10, in influencing the likelihood of reporting a loss. Except for gender and employment, all other factors positively influenced the likelihood of reporting a loss. These findings could be considered while formulating/executing policy guidelines for compensation or any policy related to protected areas to improve reporting rates. This study can also initiate future studies in other protected or forested areas globally.

Armed conflict and household water sources

AbstractAccess to safe drinking water is among the most important determinants of public health outcomes. We pair household-level data from Iraq together with data on armed conflict and adopt a generalized difference-in-differences approach to study the relationship between household drinking water sources and armed conflict intensity. We find that households located in conflict-affected areas are more likely to use piped water accessed at their homes or bottled water as their primary source of drinking water, but are less likely to use public water sources or tanked water delivered on trucks and carts. We explore the temporal dynamics of these adjustments as well as heterogeneity by household characteristics. We further present direct evidence that conflict-exposed households are less likely to travel to obtain water.

Unique roles of adolescents' friends and fathers in predicting verbal aggression in future adult romantic relationships.

This 20-year prospective study examined verbal aggression and intense conflict within the family of origin and between adolescents and their close friends as predictors of future verbal aggression in adult romantic relationships. A diverse community sample of 154 individuals was assessed repeatedly from age 13 to 34 years using self-, parent, peer, and romantic partner reports. As hypothesized, verbal aggression in adult romantic relationships was best predicted by both paternal verbal aggression toward mothers and by intense conflict within adolescent close friendships, with each factor contributing unique variance to explaining adult romantic verbal aggression. These factors also interacted, such that paternal verbal aggression was predictive of future romantic verbal aggression only in the context of co-occurring intense conflict between an adolescent and their closest friend. Predictions remained robust even after accounting for levels of parental abusive behavior toward the adolescent, levels of physical violence between parents, and the overall quality of the adolescent's close friendship. Results indicate the critical importance of exposure to aggression and conflict within key horizontal relationships in adolescence. Implications for early identification of risk as well as for potential preventive interventions are discussed.

Armed conflicts and household food insecurity: Effects and mechanisms

AbstractDespite extensive studies on the effects of armed conflict on household dietary diversity, food security, and nutritional outcomes, the underlying pathways remain underexplored. A better understanding of these mechanisms could unpack the subsequent effects of conflict‐induced food insecurity and oft‐reported nutritional shortcoming, as well as identify which policy interventions hold promise. We study the effects of terrorist violence in Burkina Faso on household dietary diversity, as proxied by food consumption scores (FCS), and investigate the underlying mechanisms. For this purpose, we combine nationally representative 5‐years panel data on households with spatial conflict data. We find negative and significant effects of conflict intensity on household food consumption scores. The decline in household FCS is a result of significant decreased dietary diversity in both food production and purchases. Although households in rural areas partially offset these reductions by food assistance, those reliant solely on farming as livelihoods remain the most affected. Further investigations show evidence that per‐capita farm income and food expenditure are pathways linking the intensity of armed conflict to reduced FCS in food purchases, whereas reduced dietary diversity in food production results from decline in crop production. Additional specification tests support our main findings, offering insights that can help policymakers faced with similar scaled‐armed conflicts. For instance, conflict‐sensitive interventions aimed at supporting crop production and farm income for affected households could effectively improve their dietary diversity and overall food security in a post‐conflict environment.

Rhythmic Vitality: Traditional Aesthetics and the Theoretical Vision of Contemporary Chinese Film Aesthetics

Abstract For Chinese films, the ideal of “rhythmic vitality” (气韵生动, Qiyun Shengdong) pursued by traditional aesthetics is of great significance. Traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy stress the pace of flowing (“similar sounds integrate”) and the rhythm of harmony (“different sounds correspond to each other”). Correspondingly, the aesthetic ideal of rhythmic vitality refers to the awareness of life produced by the cinematic medium during its evolution. However, compared with the aesthetic developments that characterize western cinema, Chinese films should not be content with its current approach, which largely disregards this particular aesthetic ideal. Rhythmic vitality originates from a unique national cosmology and methodology, beginning with the resemblances between appearances and spirit and resulting with the “primordial qi” (元气, Yuanqi) that constitutes all living creatures. It signifies the special aesthetic connection between humans and nature, whereby each are subjects of one another and in complete harmony. Arguably, this aesthetic ideal avoids the subject–object dichotomy of western thought that has prevailed since modern times. Additionally, the unique quality of cinema’s rhythmic vitality involves the use of special footage. Practically, through the use of large (small humans in wider landscape), full (the scene), far (the distance), and long-lens cameras for scenarios depicting intense emotion or conflict, cinema may render the holistic ideal of rhythmic vitality.

Surrogate safety evaluation of curve sections on an interurban highway under heterogeneous traffic conditions in India

<p class="H1">Road traffic safety is a global concern. Conventionally, road safety evaluation is carried out by analyzing historical crash data, which is a reactive approach to safety analysis. The safety analyst has to wait for sufficient time to accumulate crash data before taking up any safety analysis as a sample of substantial crashes is required for analysis. But in safety analysis with a proactive approach no crash data is required, which is replaced with surrogate “conflicts”, which can be obtained from the new techniques of traffic conflict technique and surrogate safety parameters. Other approaches can be applied in traffic safety evaluation in anticipation of the crash occurrence. The advent of traffic conflict techniques, i.e., use of traffic conflicts in place of crashes and microsimulation methods like modeling of the traffic flow and pattern in traffic streams on a road network, started to apply as a method of analyzing microscopic simulation models and traffic conflict techniques to determine the safety issues in traffic systems and correlate them to the probable incidences of collisions. In this regard, surrogate safety parameters have been used to determine the level of safety on the typical curve sections of an interurban highway namely, Faridabad-Gurgaon four-lane divided highway in Haryana, India. This is accomplished by the use of vehicle trajectory data extracted through microscopic simulation in Verkher in Staedten Simulation (VISSIM) and analysis in Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) for the above-referred corridor. Further, efforts have been made to present the intensity of traffic conflicts happening at the curved sections. The surrogate safety measures time to collision (TTC), deceleration rate (DR), and change in velocity (<em>ΔV</em>), as well as conflicting vehicle speed (Max <em>S</em>), are obtained by analysis from the SSAM model for all the curve sections and are validated using the reported crash data on the curve sections of the candidate corridor for 3 years. With the help of statistical elaboration, the critical threshold for TTC with the heterogeneous traffic movement is found 1.6 s, meaning any conflict occurring less than this time would invariably lead to a fatal crash. Similarly, the critical deceleration rate is observed as 0.569 m/s<sup>2</sup>, implying that any conflict with more than this value may lead to a fatal crash. Further, the Delta<em>V</em> values deduced for the study corridor on interurban curve sections catering to heterogeneous traffic movement is 4.1 m/s. Again, any conflict more than this value can turn into a potential crash.</p>

A Spiral Turn of History

We are witnessing a further divergence in the intensity of conflicts between first-echelon countries and the rest. This factor makes a turn to the strategy of indirect actions inevitable.

The promise of machine learning in violent conflict forecasting

AbstractIn 2022, the world experienced the deadliest year of armed conflict since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Much of the intensity and frequency of recent conflicts has drawn more attention to failures in forecasting—that is, a failure to anticipate conflicts. Such capabilities have the potential to greatly reduce the time, motivation, and opportunities peacemakers have to intervene through mediation or peacekeeping operations. In recent years, the growth in the volume of open-source data coupled with the wide-scale advancements in machine learning suggests that it may be possible for computational methods to help the international community forecast intrastate conflict more accurately, and in doing so reduce the rise of conflict. In this commentary, we argue for the promise of conflict forecasting under several technical and policy conditions. From a technical perspective, the success of this work depends on improvements in the quality of conflict-related data and an increased focus on model interpretability. In terms of policy implementation, we suggest that this technology should be used primarily to aid policy analysis heuristically and help identify unexpected conflicts.

A Report to the Ottoman Court about the Russian Army and Navy in the 1730s–1740s.

Since the beginning of the 18th century contradictions in Russian-Turkish relations were becoming more acute; the number and intensity of military conflicts between the two states was noticeably increasing, and their results were becoming more and more unsuccessful for the Ottoman Empire. In this regard, the Sultan’s government preparing for combat operations, had a growing need for information about the state of the Russian troops. One of the channels for obtaining such information were European diplomats who sought to use the weakening Turkish military machine to promote political interests of their own countries. This article deals with the report acquired by the Ottomans, which had been compiled by Woldemar von Löwendahl, a European military commander, lieutenant general of the Russian army in 1735–1743, and later (1747) Marshal of France. The text of the report, which according to its title, had been received from a Swedish ambassador, was translated into Ottoman-Turkish and placed in the document miscellany presumably compiled by the 18th century Ottoman financial official Kesbî (d. after 1798). Kesbî, the author of the historiographical work “İbretnümâyı Devlet” (“Edification of the State”), was at one time engaged in the work connected with preparation for the Russian-Turkish war of 1768–1774. The analysis of the mentioned events and dates allowed us to assume that the document was translated into Ottoman-Turkish in 1763. By that time, its information had already lost relevance. However, it could still give the Ottoman military command the idea of the organization and actions of the Russian army and navy during the war of 1735–1739. From academic point of view, the text is interesting as a source on the history of Turkey’s international relations as well as on the history of the Russian armed forces. In addition, its very presence among Kesbî’s documents is important for describing the personality of this Ottoman official and historiographer.

Dispersed Data Classification Model with Conflict Analysis and Parameterized Allied Relations

In the paper, a classification model for dispersed data is proposed. By dispersed data we mean a set of local tables that are collected independently by different units. This model uses conflict analysis, which considers the similarity of the values of conditional attributes occurring in decision classes of local tables. Tables having compatible values within classes are arranged into coalitions. The paper proposes the use of a parameter that steers the intensity of conflict between tables that are in allied relation. It was experimentally confirmed using 25 dispersed data that the proposed approach gives better results than the baseline approach in which coalitions are not used. The statistical significance of the differences was also proven. In addition, an advanced analysis of the impact of the parameter’s value steering the allied relations on the form of coalitions and the quality of classification was carried out.

金尙憲과 崔鳴吉의 漢詩에 나타난 丙子胡亂의 記憶과 傷痕

In this paper, I analyzed the Chinese poems of Cheongeum Kim Sang- heon and Jicheon Choi Myeong-gil, who had the most intense conflict between the Cheokhwa and Juhwa factions among the retainers who guarded Namhansanseong Fortress, and attempted to examine the horrors of the war and the resulting wounds and agony that remained in their minds after the end of the war.
 In the case of Cheongeum, his upright character and attitude are clearly visible in the poems he wrote after the end of the Byeongja War. He still called the Qing dynasty ‘barbarians’ and was angry at the reality of the Qing dynasty’s exclusion. After the court's discussion turned towards surrender, he attempted suicide after starving for six days, but failed, and this regret remained in his heart even afterwards. In addition, the fact that his eldest brother Kim Sang-yong took refuge in Ganghwa Island and died when the castle fell was imprinted in him with deep sadness. He could not help but feel regret and sorrow over the return and death of Crown Prince Sohyeon, who was taken to the Qing Dynasty. He was saddened by the decline of the Ming dynasty even as the Qing dynasty was becoming more and more powerful, and he desperately hoped that the Ming dynasty, which had shown favor to Joseon, would regain its status as an emperor kingdom.
 In the case of Jicheon, he criticized Cheongron's insistence on reconciliation and thought that true loyalty lies in protecting one's lordly father and preserving one's country. This perception is also reflected in his poems, and rather than expressing resentment over defeat in the war or anger toward the Qing Dynasty, he expresses painful memories of the Byeongja War, sorrow for his friends and Crown Prince Sohyeon who were sacrificed in the war, and concerns about the reality facing Joseon, a promise to repay the favor before death, and an expectation and hope that the country will prosper again after overcoming this tribulation.
 In this way, the two people show very different views in their perception of the Byeongja War and their response after the end of the war, and this difference in opinion can be seen to be reflected in their poetry.

Sovereign Exceptions and Sexual Autonomy in Heinrich von Kleist’s Betrothal in San Domingo

This article investigates how the concept of a state of exception and its dialectic relationship with the norm are negotiated in the German author Heinrich von Kleist’s Betrothal in San Domingo (1811), the story of two doomed lovers – a Swiss visitor named Gustav and a “mestiza” woman named Toni – set against the backdrop of the Haitian revolution. Drawing primarily upon Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben’s political thoughts as well as Alexander Weheliye’s critique of Agamben which, the former claims, has little “to say about racism, colonialism, and the world beyond fortress Europe” (64), I argue that the novella critically engages with the concept of exception and calls attention to its limitations but simultaneously offers an alternative conception to what political action may look like during a moment of intense conflict. The novella scrutinizes bio(necro)political theory’s placement of death at the center of our political thought, emphasizing instead the inadequacy of the universalization of the concept of “life,” particularly outside its Eurowestern perimeters. Through Weheliye, my analysis further suggests that Betrothal in San Domingo establishes Toni as an active, sovereign subject who, through actions of friendship and love, poses a significant challenge to the systems of exception and its underlying violent potentialities.

Противоречия и совместимость социальных пространств и глобальных потоков

The article presents an analysis of one of the main contradictions of the modern era. According to the authors, it consists in the inability of global flows, which now include not only the movement of people, goods and services, capital, ideas, but also the free transfer of knowledge, to take into account the features of a wide variety of spaces, understood both in geographical and problematic coordinates. The authors have identified the main causes of such a conflict associated with the complexities of the multifaceted transformation of social reality. Also noted are theoretical aspects related to the study of the interaction of global flows and specific spaces, in particular, manifested in postmodern methodology. Some directions for the development of research on the interaction of global and spatial actors are proposed, on the basis of which it is possible to take practical steps to reduce the intensity of conflict between them.