Introduction

• Author: Cedric Grant and R. Mark Kirton
• Pages: 12-22

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It is almost six decades since our

contemporary international system witnessed

the end of a major conflict of truly global

proportions. The events that followed in the

aftermath of WWII had in fact fashioned an

international system characterized by global

conflict in the guise of the Cold War. However,

although wars were part of the struggle

between the two rival super powers — the

United States of America (USA) and the United

Socialist Soviet Republic (USSR) or Soviet

Union — their main theatres were in the Third

World. Thus conflicts during the Cold War era

were global.

In the aftermath of the Cold War and with

the collapse of the USSR, one of the key

protagonists, the contemporary international

system witnessed an intensification of a major

global process, which had been evolving

inexorably in the global financial and

economic spheres and which led to a

liberalizing global political economy. However,

almost simultaneously there was an

intensification of intra-state conflicts beginning,

ironically, with the collapsed USSR. New states

and/or nations were born or reborn to

accommodate the desire for self-

determination, most of them against the

backdrop of internecine warfare.

In fact, in our contemporary international

system, social capital is at risk of decimation

since intra-state conflicts have been a

common feature. It has been estimated that

at the turn of the current millennium, two-

Introduction

thirds of political conflicts worldwide were

ethnic conflicts. This reality has not only placed

great burden on the respective national

economies, but also on the regional and global

economies. Concomitantly, the abuses of

human rights only serve to promote a culture

of reprisals and the further degradation of

social capital. Therefore, it is no surprise that

these intra-state conflicts are testing the

capacity of the United Nations (UN) and

regional organizations to respond to them.

Even as this introduction is written, a conflict

rages in Sudan that tends to defy international

efforts to manage it.

It is against this background that the

University of Guyana and Clark Atlanta

University, as partners in the United Negro

College Fund Special Programs Corporation

funded Project on Democratization and

Conflict Resolution in Guyana, convened a

conference on Governance, Conflict Analysis,

and Conflict Resolution. In the words of Cedric

Grant, the Project Director, the conference

was ‘an attempt to share examples and

knowledge about conflict in the Caribbean and

elsewhere, and about the linkages between

conflict and development’. This volume indeed

encapsulates the contents of 32 of the 41

formal presentations and five addresses. The

presentations were done in eight thematic

selections addressing a range of issues

relevant to conflict, including regional and

global concerns, philosophical issues