For our purposes, in Global Politics, we can categorise wars as either interstate or intrastate. So, what's the difference?

Intrastate: Intrastate violence is the most common form of conflict today. It describes sustained political violence that takes place between armed groups representing the state, and one or more non-state groups. Violence of this sort usually is confined within the borders of a single state, but usually has significant international dimensions and holds the risk of spilling over into bordering states (the current conflict in Syria would be described as a Intrastate conflict).

Interstate: Interstate violence is a conflict between two or more states (both members of the international system), who use their respective national forces in the conflict.

You are going to split into groups and create a presentation that compares and contrasts these types of warfare using the Ukraine conflict and the Syria civil war as examples.There are a couple of sources below to get you started but, as ever in Global Politics, you are free to go wherever your research takes you provided you meet the assessment criteria.


What do you need to include?:

• Causes of the conflicts. This could be difficult as very often the causes of a conflict are contested. For example, do the Russian and Ukrainian governments see the causes of the conflict in the same way? This does not mean you should ignore claims as to the sources. Simply that you should treat all sources with caution and be aware that there is a different side to every story.

• Similarities. What do interstate and intrastate conflicts have in common? What are some of the common consequences?

• Differences. What are the differences between them? Can the differences between these two conflicts be applied to all interstate and intrastate conflicts?

• What was the effect on the wider global political system? How were other states affected? Who was involved? In what ways?

• What levels of analysis can we apply to these questions? Does using a different level of analysis lead us to different conclusions or tell us anything differently?