Resolving one conflict generates new enemies and conflicts

Evidence

It is human to hate. For self-definition and motivation people need enemies: competitors in business, rivals in achievement, opponents in politics. They naturally distrust and see as threats those who are different and have the capability to harm them. The resolution of one conflict and the disappearance of one enemy generate personal, social, and political forces that give rise to new ones. “The ‘us’ versus ‘them’ tendency is,” as Ali Mazrui said, “in the political arena, almost universal.” In the contemporary world the “them” is more and more likely to be people from a different civilization. The end of the Cold War has not ended conflict but has rather given rise to new identities rooted in culture and to new patterns of conflict among groups from different cultures which at the broadest level are civilizations. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 353 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Generic anti-foreign feelings rerouted onto new targets when old enemies failed — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 517; Resolving one conflict merely produces a fresh enemy to define oneself against — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 353; Enemy objects arise when ambivalent conflict is displaced onto a substitute — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 442 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Resolving one conflict merely produces a fresh enemy to define oneself against #corroborates (0.95) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 353