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 different scales and types of conflict – interstate (between states), intrastate (within a state, e.g. civil war), and non-state or asymmetric conflict (involving actors other than states, such as insurgent or terrorist groups) – 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 multiple categories of cause – political (contested governance or territory), economic (resource competition), ethnic or religious (identity-based tension), and ideological – while recognising that real conflicts are rarely explained by a single cause alone. 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 conflict management (limiting the intensity or spread of a conflict without necessarily resolving its root cause), conflict resolution (addressing the underlying causes to produce a durable settlement), and peacebuilding (post-conflict work to prevent recurrence, such as rebuilding institutions and reconciliation processes). Revise named mechanisms and actors relevant to each: for management, ceasefires and peacekeeping forces; for resolution, negotiation and mediation, often involving third-party actors; for peacebuilding, transitional justice mechanisms and institution rebuilding.

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) asks for synthesis across all three thematic studies rather than treating Peace and conflict in isolation – a conflict case study can just as easily illustrate a rights and justice violation, or a development and sustainability tension, as it can illustrate conflict dynamics alone. Building case studies that can be discussed from more than one thematic angle is efficient preparation for both Paper 2 and, at HL, Paper 3.

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 three 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 conflict management and conflict resolution?
4. Name one mechanism or actor associated with peacebuilding specifically, as distinct from conflict management.
5. Why does a strong essay on the causes of a named conflict identify more than one contributing cause?

Answers: 1. Interstate, intrastate, and non-state/asymmetric 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. Conflict management limits the intensity or spread of a conflict without necessarily resolving its root cause; conflict resolution addresses the underlying causes to produce a durable settlement. 4. Any valid example, e.g. transitional justice mechanisms or institution-rebuilding programmes (as distinct from ceasefires or peacekeeping forces, which are management tools). 5. Because real conflicts are rarely explained by a single cause alone, and a strong answer explains how multiple causes (e.g. political, economic, ethnic/religious, ideological) interact rather than reducing a conflict to one label.

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.