The Cognition of Conflict: Ontology, Dynamics, and Ideology - Conflict and Multimodal Communication: Social Research and Machine Intelligence - page 22

1.6.2 Cooperation for War and War for Cooperation

Not only are there two possible parallel directions in social emerging behavior from
the structural layer of dependence (cooperation or competition), but they can coexist
and emerge one from the other: the process is recursive and applies to new layers.
In fact, given the emergence of a cooperative or exchange social network in
a given community, on top of these exchange relations we can develop a new,
higher, level of competition and contests: competing to be partners with and to
exclude the other. Given a market, we start to fight with each other in marketing,
for our relational capital, for better positioning in the market: new goods (market
positioning), new competition. On top of a network of competition and conflict we
can build a new cooperative layer: given the intended fight, conflict, or war with Y,
we might have common interests or the possibility of exchanging with Z against Y
and building an “alliance” for war.
Some forms of conflict imply/require/presuppose cooperation. Some forms of
cooperation require/presuppose conflict.
For example, economic competition (quite fierce and dishonest) actually implies
cooperation at the functional level; those in conflict cooperate in providing, for
example, the right selection, innovation, or value independently of the aims of the
competing agents. There is no intentional cooperation, just the invisible hand .
But sometimes there is also intentional cooperation, at least regarding the rules
or identifying and marginalizing dishonest competitors; this can be cooperation for
innovation and knowledge exchange. For example, to compete in sports or games,
we agree to play by certain rules, to follow a kind of script. Even in war, there can
be some agreement (regarding, for example, prisoners or chemical weapons).
Of course, there is also cooperation without conflict, just adjustments, coordina-
tion, and some misunderstandings: fully shared goals and subgoals.
There are also conflicts without any shared rules, where everything is
allowed and perhaps the adoption of the goal/expectation of the other is
involuntary/false/apparent (as in an exchange of insults or the suffering of a sadist's
victim).

1.7 Subjective Conflict and Social Conflicts

Do External Conflicts Require Internalized/Mentalized Conflicts?
Sometimes, to be successful, an external conflict requires its internal formulation
and the goal of beating the other.