| Abstract | As the world has shifted away from the Cold War, the type of conflict around the world has shifted away from multi-national conflicts towards internal civil wars. This has also prompted a shift in conflict literature, as researchers look to analyze these new conflicts. Within the plethora of data/works on conflict literature, there had emerged two camps regarding conflict party alignment: one focused on sectarian roots and another centered on economic and class conflicts. However, in this piece I show how neither of the existing camps properly captures the highly volatile nature of party alignment past the initial divisions. Further, I take elements from both camps, along with new introductions, to craft a new model that can help us understand the impact institutions and other bodies have on shaping such divisions in times of internal civil war. To accomplish his, I used the most high-profile civil war of our past decade, Syria, to test this new theory. |
