The role of international law in the containment and restraint of civil strife

Abstract

The term 'civil strife' serves the purpose of distinguishing between conflict across state boundaries, that is war between states and conflict of an internal nature, that is between nationals of the same state. However, a closer examination of the concept reveals that the terminology is somewhat mischosen. This is because civil war or strife is very rarely 'domestic' in nature. The reason behind such a phenomenon is that world economic life and its politics are so inter-related that governments are always interested in other states. Subsequently there impulse to intervene in such a change the possibility of rival intervention. in governmental change is always a strong especially if there is This is especialy more so in the case of violent governmental change. The vast proliferation of nuclear weapons has greatly diminished confrontation between the powerful nations, setting the stage for a veritable check-mate between the so-called superpowers but, instances of ideal arena where contests of civil strife now provide an ideology can be played out with lesser risk to the 'players'. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the nationals engaged in the civil war because foreign intervention, more often then not, escalates the damage and harm caused to a much greater degree.