metaconflict - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
metaconflict (countable and uncountable, plural metaconflicts)
- Conflict over whether or how to engage in a conflict.
1985, Joyce L. Hocker, William W. Wilmot, Interpersonal conflict:
You face this choice repeatedly throughout a conflict; it is so fundamental that parties often get stuck in cycles of metaconflict — conflicting over whether they will engage one another in the conflict.
1992, Donald L. Horowitz, A Democratic South Africa?, page 27:
First, the metaconflict places severe constraints on political discourse. Second, it contracts the range of acceptable innovations and future arrangements.