CHAPTER ONE
UNDERSTANDING CONFLICT AND
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
The focus of this work is on conflict and conflict resolution in international relations. It examines the Bakassi Peninsular disputes as a case study of supranational conflicts and conflict resolution in international system.  This chapter examines the concept of conflict, its various causes and what makes it a permanent feature of the human society and the international system. It defines supranational conflicts, its types and the various machineries that are in place in the international system for the resolution of international dispute. Lastly, the chapter identifies and explains the various methods of dispute resolution.
Conflict is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. It exist whenever incompatible activities occurs. An activity that is incompatible with another is one that prevents, blocks, or interferes with the occurrence or effectiveness of the second activity. Conflict has also be defined as “when two or more parties, with perceived incompatible goals seeks to undermine each other’s goal seeking capacity”.Conflict is different from competition and co-operation because in competitive situations, the two or more individuals or parties have mutually inconsistent goals, as either party tries to reach it goals it undermine the attempt of the others to reach others. Therefore, competitive situations will, by their nature, caused conflict. Conflict can also occur in cooperative situations, in which two or more individuals or parties have consistent goals because the manner in which one party tries to reach its goal may undermine the other individual or party.
A clash of interest, values, actions or directions often spark a conflict and conflict is also seen as the existence of the clash. Psychologically, a conflict exists when the reduction of one motivating stimulus involves an increase in another. The word ‘conflict’ is applicable from the instant the clash occurs. Even when it is described as a potential conflict, it is implying that there is already a conflict of direction even though a clash has not occurred. As a result conflict can occur whenever there is interaction. Leo Otoide describes this situation in the international system thus:
…when states interact there is competition for power and prestige and in the process, the international system elicits a picture of perpetual conflict, of survival of the fittest, where the desire for power and influence determines the attitudes of states and the course of events.
Consequently, conflict can been seen as part of human society and the international system at large.
Conflict is also the incompability of goals or values between two or more parties in a relationship, combined with the attempts to control each other and antagonistic feelings towards each other. The incompability or difference may exist in reality or may only be perceived by the parties involved. Nonetheless, the opposing actions and the hostile emotions are very real hallmarks of human conflict. Conflict occurs between people in all kind of human relationships and in all social settings. As a result of the wide range of potential differences between people, the absence of conflict usually signals the absence of meaningful interaction. A conflict can be as small as a perceived disagreement or as large as war. It can originate in the person, between two or more people, or between two or more groups. Conflict by itself it neither good nor bad but the manner in which conflict is handled determines whether it is constructive or destructive.
There are many sources of conflict, the most common of these sources is the struggle for economic gains. This occurs in a situation where there are competing motive to attain scarce resources. Each party wants to get the most that it can and the behaviour and emotions of each party are directed towards maximizing its gain. The Nigerian-Cameroon boundary dispute where each party tries to gain the peninsular is an example of economic conflict. Another example is workers’ union and management conflict. Conflicts can also be caused by value when incompability in ways of life, ideologies – the preferences, principles and practices that people believe in. This was the case in the cold war which has a strong value component, wherein each side asserts the rightness and superiority of its way of life and its political economic system.