Journal 5

The Basic Human Needs theory is very intriguing to me, and it makes sense to me that all conflicts find their root in some base human need for recognition. Even large scale conflicts, such as the conflict in between Israel and Palestine, can be reduced to personal need. For the Israelis, it is a need for identity that comes with land and recognition as a legitimate people (because they identify themselves with other Israelis). The Palestinians also tie their identity and history to the land, which their great grandparents owned. Both groups are looking for security, self determination, and power as individuals which is then manifested into the group mentality. In order for this international conflict to be resolved, there must be some sort of mediation, with decategorization and recategorization on an interpersonal level. In order to achieve a genuine solution to the conflict rather than just a resolution, satisfaction of those Basic Human Needs is necessary. I do wonder if there are any universal needs that can be identified as the most important human needs, since there is so much discrepancy among conflict theorists, and whether or not BHNs are conflict causing. I would assume that the deprivation of BHNs is conflict causing, but human needs themselves do not inherently cause conflict. Perhaps if the need is frustrated long enough then it would augment into a worse conflict, such as the transformation of security into the need for dominance.