18 Scarcity and Surfeit~onflict."~ Sandole's multi-level, multidimensional framework includes "'he
decision-making, societal, and trans-societal levels", corresponding to Waltz's
individual, state and international (and inclusive of North's, 1990, global eco-
logical) levels.'03 Such framework is developed "in response to the fragment-
ed, bivariate nature of quantitative studies of war" as "a multi-level map and
pre-theory of variables operative at the trans-societal, societal, and decision-
making levels that may be relevant to the initiation and escalation of violent
conflict and war':"4
Sandole investigated the role of variables located in different levels through-
out the life cycle of conflicts, which he divided in to three successive periods:
early, intermediate and late stages of a conflict systems' de~elopment.'~~
Furthermore, Sandole found that it is critical to distinguish between conflict-
as-startup conditions and conflict-as-process. The trend found across the three
stages of conflict systems' development of self-stimulating/self-perpetuating
conflict processes is extremely important in evaluating the relationship
between different variables located at different levels through time. 'Conflict-
as-startup conditions' is seen to generate 'conflict-as-process', and "once
process comes to characterise conflict, it does not matter how (or when) the
conflict started': As a result, "different start-up-conditions can lead to the same
process (initiation, escalation, controlled maintenance) ".'O%onflict-as-process
means that after some point in the conflict cycle, conflict itself may become
the main source of its own continuation and protractedness.
Lund refers to this in the following terms: "once some level of significant
violence has begun [sic], it is prone to escalate because an interactive process
of attack and retaliation leads to a self-perpetuating cycle."'07 In this respect,
Christopher Mitchell posits that,
"... conflict behaviour itself can also be an important influence in
affecting the other two components, especially if it involves high levels
of violence, and damage or loss of participants. Such behaviour will,
almost inevitably, involve an increase in the levels of anger, hatred,
resentment, fear or desire for revenge on the part of those suffering
damage. Over time, the behaviour of the opposing party may appear to
become, in itself, sufficient reason for continuing and intensifying one's
own conflict behaviour, often producing an analogous impact on the
attitudes and subsequent behaviour of the adversav ... Conflict behav-
iour therefore may become the source of future conflict attitudes and
behaviour, irrespective of any future development of mutually incom-
patible goals.""8
If factors besides 'start-up conditions' become part of conflict cycles, it is nec-
essary to probe the dynamic processes of conflicts themselves. Vivienne Jabri
talks about the 'war mood' that takes hold when conflicts escalate towards
violence,