IB DP Global Politics: Peace and Conflict

This guide covers Peace and Conflict, one of three compulsory thematic studies for IB Diploma Programme Global Politics, first assessment 2026. All three thematic studies are compulsory at both SL and HL, as confirmed by the full syllabus guide, unlike the teacher-selected options found in some other DP individuals and societies subjects.

Where this fits in the syllabus

Peace and Conflict is examined through the four 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. Because all three thematic studies are compulsory, Peace and Conflict should not be treated as optional relative to Rights and Justice or Development and Sustainability: Paper 2’s extended-response questions can draw on any of the three. The HL Global political challenges extension (Paper 3) is separate again: it is built on cases each HL student researches independently, connected to eight topic areas (borders, environment, equality, health, identity, poverty, security and technology).

Syllabus coverage

IB DP GLOBAL POLITICS — THEMATIC STUDY: PEACE AND CONFLICT

Peace and Conflict examines the causes, dynamics and resolution of political conflict, distinguishing four scales and types: interstate (between states), intrastate (within a state, for example 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). Applying the four core concepts to this content:

• 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

The syllabus also names six causes of conflict – identity, ideology, interests, resources, socio-economic divisions, and institutional arrangements – and approaches to resolving conflict: peacemaking (negotiations and treaties aimed at ending violence), peacekeeping (maintaining a ceasefire or preventing renewed violence, for example through UN peacekeeping missions), and peacebuilding (post-conflict work to prevent recurrence, such as institution rebuilding, transitional justice and reconciliation – for example truth and reconciliation commissions, as used in the Gambia, Canada and Tunisia, or justice institutions such as the International Criminal Court). The socio-economic-divisions and institutional-arrangements causes are the two most directly linked to the syllabus’s separate concept of structural violence.

How to approach it

Before analysing any described conflict scenario, name which type it actually is — interstate, intrastate, non-state, or extra-state — since a strong answer establishes this classification before building an argument around it. Practise identifying which of the four core concepts a given scenario 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. When discussing causes, name more than one contributing category and explain how they interact, since real conflicts are rarely explained by a single cause alone. Because the course is explicitly built around contemporary real-world examples, build a running case log with at least one interstate conflict, one intrastate conflict, and one resolution or peacebuilding process, each with genuine dates, actors and outcomes — a current example discussed with genuine up-to-date detail tends to carry more weight than a well-known but dated case the whole cohort is also using.

Worked example: applying legitimacy to explain differing international responses

A question asks why the international community responds differently to two conflicts that appear militarily similar.

Conflict A:    use of force widely perceived as defensive or
               authorised by an international body -- legitimacy
               is broadly recognised by other states and
               institutions

Conflict B:    use of force widely perceived as unprovoked aggression
               or lacking international authorisation -- legitimacy
               is broadly denied

Consequence:   Conflict A tends to attract more measured or
               supportive international responses; Conflict B tends
               to attract condemnation, sanctions, or intervention

Conclusion:    legitimacy is partly a matter of perception and
               recognition by other actors, not simply a description
               of the conflict's scale or intensity -- two
               militarily similar conflicts can provoke very
               different international responses once legitimacy is
               applied as the analytical lens

Naming legitimacy explicitly and explaining how perception shapes response, rather than only describing what other states did, is the skill this thematic study rewards.

Common mistakes

Describing a conflict’s events without naming which of the four core concepts a given point is illustrating. Reducing a conflict’s causes to a single label (e.g. “it was an ethnic conflict”) rather than identifying and connecting multiple of the six named causes. Confusing peacekeeping with peacemaking or peacebuilding — peacemaking covers negotiations and treaties aimed at ending violence, peacekeeping covers maintaining a ceasefire or preventing renewed violence, and peacebuilding covers post-conflict work such as institution rebuilding and reconciliation. Using a well-known but dated case study that the entire cohort also relies on, rather than building at least one genuinely current example.

Quick revision checklist

• Be able to classify a described conflict as interstate, intrastate, non-state, or extra-state before analysing it.
• Practise applying all four core concepts (power, sovereignty, legitimacy, interdependence) to conflict scenarios, not just conflict-specific vocabulary.
• Build a running case log with at least one interstate conflict, one intrastate conflict, and one resolution or peacebuilding process (e.g. a named truth and reconciliation commission or the ICC).
• Distinguish peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding, with a named mechanism or actor for each.
• HL: where a conflict case you know well connects to one of the eight HL topic areas (for example borders, security or identity), note it as a possible starting point for the independent case research that Paper 3 is based on.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and Societies: Global Politics, first assessment 2026, © 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. Verified 2026-09-06.