Conflict

How it is used

Common in news, reports and humanitarian work: conflicts break out, escalate and end, and may be resolved or 'frozen'. Key phrases: armed conflict, conflict zone, conflict prevention, conflict resolution, post-conflict reconstruction.

Example sentences

1. Thousands of families fled the conflict and crossed the border.

2. The report looks at conflict prevention in border regions.

3. Aid workers have limited access to the conflict zone.

Common collocations

• armed conflict
• conflict zone
• conflict resolution
• conflict prevention
• frozen conflict

Related terms

• ceasefireAn agreement between the sides in an armed conflict to stop fighting, either for a limited time or as a first step towards a lasting peace.
• escalationAn increase in the intensity, size or danger of a conflict or crisis, for example when one side's action leads the other to respond more strongly.
• mediationAn effort by a neutral third party, such as a state, organisation or individual, to help the sides in a dispute reach an agreement without imposing a solution.
• peacekeepingThe use of international military, police and civilian personnel, usually under the UN and with the consent of the parties, to help maintain a ceasefire and support peace after a conflict.
• refugeeA person who is outside their own country and cannot return because of a well-founded fear of persecution; in wider use, also someone who has fled war or violence.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• conflict · Literature

More terms: Conflict & Security

• alliance
• collective security
• deterrence
• arms control
• non-proliferation
• confidence-building measures