Successful Conflict Management by Military Means

Military endeavours related to the management of violent conflict constitute an important and popular field of academic enquiry. However, scholars often fail to define convincingly and coherently what it means to militarily manage a violent conflict successfully. This article considers the theoretical foundations of conflict management. It synthesizes the existing literature on the topic and carefully considers the purpose of military conflict management operations. It explores how conflicts become violent and what role third-party military deployments are intended to play in preventing more violence. In this way, the article links the study of peace operations to the scholarship of violent conflict and its external regulation. The purpose of this undertaking is to develop further the understanding of conflict management and the role of the military in this regard.