The wicked problem of ethnic conflict: introducing an interdisciplinary multi-level framework to better comprehend ethnic conflict in postcolonial states

Ethnic conflict has been a popular research subject in numerous disciplines across the political, social, behavioural, and natural sciences as well as the humanities. However, even with many decades of research and numerous millions put towards addressing these crises, ethnic violence continues to persist in many parts of the world. This thesis aims to contribute to this diverse academic scholarship by recognising the highly complex nature of ethnic conflicts in postcolonial states that make them a wicked problem - a problem defined by its complex, multifaceted nature, consisting of numerous interwoven elements that are usually in flux and tricky to untangle. As such, the thesis recognises each ethnic conflict as being unique, in that whilst an ethnic conflict case may have similarities with other conflict situations, the same solutions cannot be applied without contextualisation.