The big idea: Conflicts rarely have a single cause. They grow from a mix of grievances (injustice, oppression, exclusion) and greed (grabbing resources or power), often triggered by a specific event. Analysts also separate a party's positions, interests and needs.
- Grievances — injustice, discrimination, oppression, exclusion from power, or structural violence.
- Greed — the desire to control valuable resources (oil, minerals, land), wealth or power.
- Identity — divisions of ethnicity, religion or nationalism that leaders can exploit.
- Weak institutions — governments too weak to manage disputes peacefully or share power fairly.
- Triggers — a specific event (an assassination, an election, a crackdown) that sparks fighting.
Positions, interests, needs (PIN): To resolve conflict, analysts look beneath a party's position (what it publicly demands) to its interests (what it really wants) and its needs (what it cannot give up — security, identity, survival). Deals fail when they only address positions; they last when they meet needs.
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The greed vs grievance debate is a favourite. Do people fight because they are wronged (grievance) or because they want to grab resources and power (greed)? The honest answer is usually both — but the mix matters.
The grievance explanation
People rebel because of injustice: discrimination, poverty, exclusion from power, repression or structural violence. Conflict is a response to being treated unfairly — so lasting peace needs justice, not just a ceasefire.
The greed explanation
People fight to control valuable resources and power. Where there is oil, diamonds or minerals, armed groups can fund themselves and profit from war, so conflict is driven and prolonged by economic opportunity, not just injustice.
Case study — resources and grievance together: In many resource-rich civil wars, the fighting begins with a real grievance — a region feels exploited and excluded — but valuable resources (oil, minerals, diamonds) then let armed groups fund themselves, so greed sustains a war that grievance started. This is why 'greed vs grievance' is usually the wrong question: the two feed each other, and resources can turn a short grievance-driven revolt into a long, profitable war.
The key point: Conflicts usually have multiple causes: grievances (injustice) often start them, greed (resources/power) can sustain them, identity divisions deepen them, weak institutions allow them, and a trigger sets them off. To resolve conflict, look beneath positions to interests and needs.
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Access past paper questions with model answers. Learn exactly what earns marks and what doesn't.
Is conflict mostly about greed or grievance? And can you ever end conflict without addressing its root causes? Recurring debates. Weigh them.
Why root causes matter
If a ceasefire ignores the grievance or the resource competition that caused the war, the conflict often reignites — lasting peace usually requires addressing the underlying needs (security, fair power-sharing, justice), not just stopping the shooting.
Why root causes are hard to fix
Root causes — deep injustice, ethnic division, control of valuable resources — are difficult and slow to change, and powerful actors may benefit from the status quo, so addressing them is far harder than arranging a temporary ceasefire.
Two perspectives — weigh them: One view: conflict is fundamentally about grievance and injustice, so peace needs justice. Another view: greed and resources drive and sustain war, so you must cut off the money. Strong essays show the two interact — grievance often starts a war and greed sustains it — and judge that ending conflict means addressing both the injustice and the war economy.
How causes of conflict come up in Paper 2: A Paper 2 essay might ask whether conflict is caused more by greed or grievance, or whether conflict can be resolved without addressing root causes. Weigh the causes, show they interact, then judge.
The 15-mark markband (what moves you up)
Bands 1–6
Mostly descriptive; perspectives not identified.
avoid
Bands 7–9
Clear knowledge, but perspectives identified, not explored.
7–9
Bands 10–12
Well-supported argument; perspectives explored.
10–12
Bands 13–15
Balanced, compelling; perspectives explored AND evaluated.
13–15
Discuss the view that conflicts are caused more by greed than by grievance.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Common mistakes: 1. Picking only greed OR grievance. Show they interact.
2. No real conflict. Use a resource-linked civil war.
3. Forgetting triggers and weak institutions. Causes are multiple.
4. Listing causes, not evaluating. Top marks need perspectives explored AND evaluated.
5. No judgement. Conclude on the balance of causes.