INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND
This research examines the revolt of the Mayas in Chiapas State in Mexico in 1994 within the context of international conflict resolution. The paradigms realist, structuralist, and globalist of international conflict resolution theory are defined, and the actors in the Chiapas action are evaluated within the contexts of these paradigms.
There are several approaches to the assessment of international political relations. One approach posits that cultural traditions provide the best basis for understanding motivations for policy (Skidmore and Smith, 1989, p. 9). A second approach is based in the contention that political outcomes are linked to socioeconomic causes (p. 9).
A third alternative is the approach holding the world, imperfect as it is from the rational point of view, is the result of forces inherent in human nature (Morgenthau, 1988, p. 3). This alternative perception holds further that the conduct of international relations must, therefore, be realistic, must accept human nature as it actually is, and must deal with political processes as they actually occur. The theory of political realism holds that international relations is the concept of interest defined in terms of power. Political realism does not require, nor does it condone indifference to political ideals and moral principles, but it does requires a sharp distinction between the desirable and the possible (p. 7). Political realism holds that universal moral principles cannot be applied to the actions of states in their abstract universal formulation, but that they must be filtered through the concrete circumstances of time and place (p. 10).
Two important hypotheses in international relations theory are the systemic hypothesis and what Kenneth Waltz (1979, pp. 38 59) designated as "the second image" hypothesis. The systemic hypothesis holds generally that the international relations policy of a given act...