IB DP Global Politics: Peace and Conflict – Revision Notes

Peace and conflict is one of three thematic studies every DP Global Politics student studies – all three are compulsory at both SL and HL, as the full syllabus guide confirms, unlike the teacher-selected options in some other DP individuals and societies subjects. These notes go deeper into this specific thematic study, alongside the subject overview and assessment revision notes already on the site.

What this thematic study covers

Peace and conflict examines the causes, dynamics and resolution of political conflict. Revise the distinction the syllabus draws between four scales and types of conflict – interstate (between states), intrastate (within a state, e.g. civil war), non-state (between non-state actors, without a state as a direct party), and extra-state (between a state and a non-state actor operating beyond that state’s own borders) – since a strong answer names which type of conflict a described scenario actually is before analysing it.

Applying the four core concepts to conflict

Every thematic study is meant to be examined through the core concepts introduced in “Understanding power and global politics” – power, sovereignty, legitimacy and interdependence – applied to genuine political content rather than recalled as a separate list. For Peace and conflict specifically:

• Power – who holds power in a conflict (military, economic, informational), and how the balance of power between parties shapes the conflict’s dynamics and outcome.
• Sovereignty – how conflict can challenge or reassert a state’s sovereignty, particularly in intrastate conflicts involving separatist or secessionist movements.
• Legitimacy – how combatants and outside actors claim (or deny) legitimacy for their use of force, and how legitimacy shapes international responses to a conflict.
• Interdependence – how conflicts in one state or region create effects (refugee flows, economic disruption, security concerns) that spread beyond that conflict’s own borders.

Causes of conflict

Revise being able to distinguish and name the syllabus’s six named causes – identity, ideology, interests, resources, socio-economic divisions, and institutional arrangements – while recognising that real conflicts are rarely explained by a single cause alone. The socio-economic-divisions and institutional-arrangements causes are the two most directly linked to the syllabus’s separate concept of structural violence, and are easy to under-revise since they are less intuitively “causes” than identity or resources. A strong essay identifies more than one contributing cause and explains how they interact, rather than reducing a conflict to one label.

Approaches to resolving conflict

Distinguish peacemaking (negotiations and treaties aimed at ending violence), peacekeeping (maintaining a ceasefire or preventing renewed violence, e.g. through UN peacekeeping missions), and peacebuilding (post-conflict work to prevent recurrence, such as rebuilding institutions and reconciliation processes). Revise named mechanisms and actors relevant to each: for peacemaking, negotiation and mediation, often involving third-party actors and resulting in a treaty; for peacekeeping, ceasefire monitoring and peacekeeping forces; for peacebuilding, transitional justice mechanisms and institution rebuilding – for example truth and reconciliation commissions (as used in the Gambia, Canada and Tunisia) or justice institutions such as the International Criminal Court.

Case studies to build

Because the course is explicitly built around contemporary real-world examples, build a running case log for Peace and conflict specifically – at least one interstate conflict, one intrastate conflict, and one example of a resolution or peacebuilding process, each with genuine dates, actors and outcomes you can discuss in detail. A live, current example you can discuss with genuine up-to-date detail tends to carry more weight in an extended-response answer than a well-known but dated case the whole cohort is also using.

How this connects to the HL extension

For HL students, the Global political challenges extension (Paper 3) is not a synthesis of the three thematic studies: it is built on cases each student researches independently, connected to eight topic areas – borders, environment, equality, health, identity, poverty, security and technology. A conflict case you have studied here may connect naturally to one of those areas (borders, security or identity, for example), so noting such links is a useful starting point for the HL research. For Paper 2, a conflict case that can also illustrate a rights and justice violation or a development and sustainability tension is efficient preparation.

How to approach it

Because all three thematic studies are compulsory, do not treat Peace and conflict as optional relative to Rights and justice or Development and sustainability – Paper 2’s extended-response questions can draw on any of the three. Practise naming which of the four core concepts (power, sovereignty, legitimacy, interdependence) a given conflict scenario actually foregrounds before writing an extended answer, since this concept-application skill, not just conflict-specific factual recall, is what the syllabus is built to test.

Self-test

1. Name the four scales/types of conflict this thematic study distinguishes.
2. Explain, using the concept of legitimacy, why international responses to two similar conflicts might differ.
3. What is the difference between peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding?
4. Name one mechanism or actor associated with peacebuilding specifically, as distinct from peacekeeping.
5. Why does a strong essay on the causes of a named conflict identify more than one contributing cause, and which two of the six named causes are most directly linked to structural violence?

Answers: 1. Interstate, intrastate, non-state, and extra-state conflict. 2. Because legitimacy is partly a matter of perception and recognition by other actors – a use of force widely seen as legitimate (e.g. authorised by international bodies or seen as defensive) tends to draw different international responses than one seen as illegitimate (e.g. unprovoked aggression), even where the underlying conflict dynamics are similar. 3. Peacemaking covers negotiations and treaties aimed at ending violence; peacekeeping covers maintaining a ceasefire or preventing renewed violence (e.g. UN peacekeeping missions); peacebuilding covers post-conflict work to prevent recurrence, such as institution rebuilding and reconciliation. 4. Any valid example, e.g. transitional justice mechanisms, truth and reconciliation commissions (as used in the Gambia, Canada and Tunisia), or justice institutions such as the International Criminal Court (as distinct from ceasefires or peacekeeping forces, which are peacekeeping tools). 5. Because real conflicts are rarely explained by a single cause alone, and a strong answer explains how multiple of the six named causes (identity, ideology, interests, resources, socio-economic divisions, institutional arrangements) interact rather than reducing a conflict to one label; socio-economic divisions and institutional arrangements are the two most directly linked to structural violence.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and Societies: Global Politics, first assessment 2026, (c) 2023 – the same source already cited by the full syllabus guide, which first identified Peace and conflict as one of the three compulsory thematic studies.