Conflicts take place in many countries. Though conflicts bring positive outcomes, they also bring many negative outcomes. Positively saying, conflicts increase awareness and understanding of different perspectives and lead to positive change and growth — through the reformation of established rules — within society. Conflicts, according to multiple sources including the BBC and CNN, have made significant social progress in many countries including South Africa, where the end of apartheid led to a more inclusive and democratic society. Negatively saying, conflicts lead to the displacement of populations and destruction of infrastructure, leading to economic instability and social unrest many times. Conflicts have significantly hindered social progress for many countries in Asia, Africa and other regions including Syria and Yemen.
It is notable that diverse external reasons play crucial roles in conflicts or fueling conflicts in different countries. External players fuel tensions by providing support to various anti-government factions many times. This support comes through several forms including arms supply and political backing that often complicate the situation. Diverse geoeconomic, geopolitical and human rights based reasons including territorial disputes, economic interests, political agendas, historical grievances and competition for resources play crucial roles for external players to fuel conflicts in other countries. Among others, though different powerful countries sometimes seek to exert influence or expand their power in different countries or regions through supporting armed groups or engaging in proxy wars, the violation of human rights including political rights leads to an increased external role in conflicts many times.
But, undeniably, external factors are not always decisive and do not work alone without the causes within the national boundary, though many governments often blame external actors for their internal conflicts. Both external and internal reasons interact in complex ways to perpetuate or escalate conflicts including civil wars. Even when external reasons play major roles in conflicts, internal causes play facilitative roles, to say the least. But internal reasons also play a major role in internal conflicts — even if external factors play a role — many times. Political conflicts, power struggles, economic disparities and social inequalities play vital roles in conflicts and further division in different countries in Asia, Africa and other continents.
Historical grievances, religious tensions, ethnic rivalries and resource competition often escalate into violence and civil unrest, especially when they are not addressed through effective conflict resolution mechanisms. Many countries in Asia, Africa and other continents including, but not limited to, Colombia, Brazil, Sudan, Myanmar and Nigeria have unaddressed historical grievances and ethnic rivalries. The gross violation of human rights and governance issues also leads to or fuels conflicts within national boundaries many times. The Arab Spring in Tunisia in 2011 which overthrew the government was because of many internal reasons of the country including economic disparities, mal-governance and political repression, though external factors facilitated such a movement.
The governments of different countries take various steps including the enactment of laws to address the external roles in fueling conflicts within national boundaries. Though they are important and sometimes successful, they are not always successful in preventing external roles in conflicts. But it remains questionable whether addressing external factors alone will reduce the chance of conflicts in different countries without addressing the internal reasons. There is the unwillingness of the government in different countries to address economic, political and other grievances including the violation of political and other rights — increasing the chance of conflicts and the external role in conflicts.
Given the difficulty in addressing external roles and the lack of mitigation of grievances many times, it is difficult to prevent conflicts including civil wars in many countries. But addressing diverse concerns including economic grievances and political concerns can reduce the chance of conflicts in many countries in Asia, Africa and other continents. Civil war is definitely undesired in any country for its devastating consequences, though it does not take account of reasons many times in different countries. The good intentions of the parties are vital to avert civil wars.
