Political strife and violence in Northern Ugandan: the invisible children

In this paper, conflict analysis is used to illustrate the strategic aspects of a social conflict. Specifically, this paper analyzes a timely and important multi-party dispute involving Joseph Kony\u27s Lord\u27s Resistance Army\u27s continuous 22 year violent acts against native of northern Uganda (Acholis), the social, resource and financial support received from the Khartoum government of southern Sudan to the LRA, the multiple efforts of the Ugandan government to create safety and peace, and the controversial interference of the ICC. In a conflict analysis, the decision-makers (DMs) and possible states of a conflict are specified, along with the unilateral improvements of each DM, and also each DM\u27s ordinal ranking of all possible states. The main stakeholders included in the northern Ugandan conflict are: Joseph Kony and his commanders of the LRA, the Ugandan government, the International Criminal Court, and the southern Sudanese Khartoum government. The paper structure is as follows. First, we examine conflict analysis theory followed by an overview of the historical background of the northern Uganda conflict. Finally, we provide recommendations about how conflict analysis can improve strategic insights in this important and timely conflict