Regional conflict systems are characterised by their complexity of actors, causes, structural conditions and dynamics. Such complexity poses difficulties to those looking to undertake scientific analysis of the regional dynamics of violence. It is still quite unclear how militant violence diffuses in regions and under which conditions a regional conflict system can emerge. This review of existing approaches to regional conflict dynamics in international studies and peace and conflict studies focuses on how the regional conflict dynamics and the causal mechanisms behind the development of regional conflict systems are dealt with, considering process dynamics in space and time as well as in the interactions between possible causal factors. The primary gaps in existing research are identified and possible new research directions sketched out.
regions and regional conflicts are nothing new in international relations and peace and conflict studies. Especially since the end of the Cold War, methodological nationalism has been left behind, with several published works in international studies that include the regional level as an analytical dimension to explain security and conflict dynamics in regions.
As the general dynamics of violence in regional conflict systems remain unclear, a possible new research direction would be a general approach that detects the causes, structures
and dynamics that lead to the emergence and diffusion of regional conflict systems. New studies could try to bridge the research desideratum between the theoretical presumptions about regional conflict systems on the one hand, and the specific conclusions drawn on the basis of
single case studies or the study of single factors on the other.
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