Abstract: the author of the article sets out the main foreign concepts about the relationship between conflict and social change, distinguishing between changes that create conflicts and changes that make conflict more intense or that help improve its regulation. This leads to a discussion of the nature of the social “change” itself and the types of change that seem important for creating or resolving a protracted conflict. The author also emphasizes the consideration of social changes necessary to ensure the resolution (or transformation) of the conflict when it has already begun, as well as general obstacles to the implementation of such “crucial” changes. The author also proposes his own thoughts about possible participants, which can help to achieve decisive social change, and what strategies may be necessary to promote protracted and intractable conflicts to achieve a lasting, long-term and constructive solution. The author of the article seeks to make a definite contribution to filling the gap in the domestic literature by discussing the relationship in the conflict-social change dichotomy using the example of conflicts between specific communities, societies and states. The author also considers those fundamentally significant social changes that can lead to the resolution of any particular conflict that is protracted or temporarily latent. Understanding the dynamics of the formation and perpetuation of conflicts should be important for the methods of resolving (or, at least, overcoming) even the most intractable conflict relations. This article can be a starting point for developing a set of theories of conflict dynamics, as well as a practical set of guidelines for the regimes and deadlines for “decisive” interventions based on existing and necessary social changes.
Keywords: social change, social processes, conflict, social processes, social transformations