Conflicts are frequent in the world, although there are preventional and mitigational efforts. In addition to international conflicts including the Ukraine war, there are civil wars in several Middle East and African countries including Syria, Yemen and the Central African Republic. Armed conflicts led to millions of deaths, millions of displacements and many other negative consequences, not only to the warring parties but also to others, in the last several decades. Along with armed conflicts, there are repression and marginalization of one group by another or one person by another in political, economic, social, religious and cultural terms. Globally, many are affected by repression and marginalization in economic, social, political, cultural and religious terms in many countries.
Notably, there are economic, political, social, geo-political, geo-economic and many other causes of international conflicts and civil wars conflicts in the world. Geo-economic and geo-political interests often play vital roles in international wars. Moreover, there are political, economic and other causes of repression and marginalization in economic, social, political and other terms in many countries. Power struggle leads to civil wars, repression and marginalization of opposition leaders and others in many countries. Power struggle — along with several other causes — led to the civil wars in Yemen, Syria and several other countries. But, among the causes of conflicts, a lack of tolerance or intolerance is an important cause, though it is driven by other causes and drives other causes of conflict, repression and marginalization.
Definitely, there are ways to prevent conflicts, both international wars and civil wars. Preventive diplomacy and coercive techniques are the most used steps to prevent inter-country wars and civil wars. They are successful in deescalating tensions and preventing conflicts in some contexts and have been effective in preventing the re-escalation of conflicts and resolving conflicts in many countries including Syria and Ethiopia, though they fail to prevent conflicts before their occurrence on many occasions. Also, there are measures at the national and international levels including the rule of law, policy efforts and international pressure that help to reduce repression and marginalization in economic, social, political and other terms in many countries, even if they do not bring the desired outcomes always.
Probably, increased tolerance, along with other steps, may help to prevent international and civil wars, repression and marginalization on many occasions. This is because tolerance helps to provide opponents the scope of raising their concerns, expressing their views and accepting their acceptable demands. Also, tolerance helps to respect the rights and freedom of actual and perceived opponents in economic, social, political and other terms. Consequently, tolerance will work positively in reducing violence, terrorism, aggressive nationalism, racism, exclusion, marginalization, discrimination and deprivation — at least to a certain extent — at the local, national and global levels. But there is a paucity of tolerance among political leaders, religious leaders and others across the world in political, economic, religious and other terms.
Global and national efforts need to be continued to combat all forms of intolerance and develop and promote tolerance need to be emphasized across the world. A well-developed and applicable tolerance policy can be considered to mitigate potential political, ethnic and religious conflicts. But adopting a more peaceful means for resolving disagreements and conflicts at the national and international levels is crucial. Also, effective legal and policy efforts are needed to end repression and marginalization within states in economic, political and other terms, along with the strengthened rule of law and improved governance. In this respect, the promotion of a culture of respect for human rights and freedom can also be imperative.
Also, tolerance needs to be promoted at the international, national and local levels. While tolerance at the international level is imperative among powerful countries, it needs more in repressive countries to reduce the repression and marginalization of opponents and others within states. Notably, there are social, political, religious and other challenges to increasing tolerance. Extreme nationalism leads to intolerance among many political leaders and extreme religious stance leads to religious intolerance among many. Thus, long terms efforts are crucial to desirably address the challenges to increased tolerance across the world. In this respect, global efforts, along with local steps, are imperative.
