In order to understand a given context it is fundamental to identify potential and existing conflict causes, as well as possible factors contributing to peace. Conflict causes can be defined as those factors which contribute to people’s grievances; and can be further described as:

• structural causes – pervasive factors that have become built into the policies, structures and fabric of a society and may create the pre-conditions for violent conflict
• proximate causes – factors contributing to a climate conducive to violent conflict or its further escalation, sometimes apparently symptomatic of a deeper problem
• triggers – single key acts, events, or their anticipation that will set off or escalate violent conflict.
  

Protracted conflicts also tend to generate new causes (eg weapons circulation, war economy, culture of violence), which help to prolong them further.

As the main causes and factors contributing to conflict and to peace are identified, it is important to acknowledge that conflicts are multi -dimensional and multi-causal phenomena – that there is no single cause of conflict. It is also essential to establish linkages and synergies between causes and factors, in order to identify potential areas for intervention and further prioritise them. Some of the tools in Annex 1 – eg Clingendael / Fund for Peace, RTC – offer methods to assess the relative importance of different factors. Many tools developed for conflict analysis also categorise conflict causes or issues by governance, economics, security and socio-cultural factors.