Armed Conflict Versus Global Sustainable Development as Functions of Social Change

This paper offers a futures analysis of armed conflicts and its detrimental impact on the three pillars of sustainable development - economic, social and environmental. It draws on macrohistory to contextualize war along its socio-political and psychological drivers and explores alternative options for conflict resolution. The macrohistory perspective offers an alternative view of armed conflict, as a vehicle of social change, due to its disruptive action on stagnating social conditions. War, as a feature of the dominator society, is a barrier to sustainable development. Hence, to enable global sustainable futures, the Causal Layered Analysis suggests plausible routes towards a partnership society.