Conflict and Cooperation  

The 20th century can be said to be a century of conflicts, witnessing two world wars. The end of World War II did not bring about the much hoped for peace, as the Communist bloc led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Western capitalist nations led by the United States of America, became engaged in what came to be known the Cold War. After decades of contest between these two ideologies, the collapse of the Communist regimes in the 1990s also did not bring about the promised peace. In fact, new conflicts arising from previously suppressed ethnic and religious differences erupted in various regions once the totalitarian regimes were dismantled, as in the former Yugoslavia, which brought about civil wars between competing religious and ethnic communities. Other examples abound in other regions, especially in the Middle East, where anger against America and Israel arising out of the Palestinian question provided the catalyst for various terrorist organizations to wage a war against the West in the name of religion, the most well known being Al-Qaeda. Though dismal in its record for peace, the 20th Century also witnessed the birth of the United Nations. Despite that fact that it has not fully achieved the lasting peace that humankind has sought, it's continued existence and development may still hold the potential to a lasting peace. Moreover, the pooling of resources of like-minded people, private groups/think tanks working towards global peace, such as the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue , goes to show that the craving for peace has never wavered. How the 21st century will finally turn out to be depends on the collective wisdom of the human race to overcome the tendency to choose violence as a means to resolve differences.

This libguide is not meant to be a comprehensive resource on conflicts and cooperation in the world. Rather, it aims to provide an overview of the topic, based on examples such conflicts in various regions, looking at he causes and impact. This guide is divided into three sections, covering these themes:

• Rise of religious fundamentalism: Causes and impact
• Conflict and instability in the Middle East and South Asia
• The Political Effectiveness of the United Nations, 1945–2000

Books and texts are often mainstays of resource guides as these provide introductory and comprehensive information on a particular topic. In the creation of this libguide however, effort was also made to recommend resources that are highly accessible, such as, ebooks, journal and newpaper articles, authoritative websites, among others. Please find below a brief write-up of the resource formats, as well as, how to access them.

• Print materials from both the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, as well as, NLB's Public Libraries. Just click on the given links to activate NLB's online catalogue showing availability of the items. Apart for the reference books at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, books recommended in this guide can be reserved online and brought to the library branch of your choice for a small fee of $1.55 (just click on "Reserve this item").
  
  
• Journal Articles from the library's eResources service (http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg). Most of the recommended journal articles are from Proquest Central and JSTOR as these databases are accessible from home. Just click on the given links to be brought to the relevant section of the eResources site. Thereafter, register (if you are new to the service) or log-in >> click on the relevant database (e.g., JSTOR, Proquest Central) >> conduct a search using the article's title.
  
  
• Newspaper articles from the Factiva database, as well as, the NewspaperSG database. Factiva is available via our eResources service and articles within can be accessed in the same manner as that for journal articles (described above). Newspapers from NewspaperSG can be accessed via (http://newspapers.nl.sg). Articles from 1831 - 1989 can be accessed from home (direct links to the articles are provided) while those after 1989 can only be accessed onsite at the libraries.
  
  
• RSS feeds. Listings of the most recent articles from reputable websites. Simply click on the link to be brought to the webpage.
  
  
• Embedded videos. A picture speaks thousand words, what more a video? Click the play button on the embedded videos (from reputable sources) for some visual learning.
  

For more detailed information on accessing our print resources and electronic databases, please go to the section on "Accessing the Resources" in this same guide.

If you know of any interesting resource not featured in this guide, please share with us! It's easy, just click below :)

  

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