metaconflict

plural metaconflicts

1. countableuncountableConflict over whether or how to engage in a conflict.

   First, the metaconflict places severe constraints on political discourse. Second, it contracts the range of acceptable innovations and future arrangements.

   1992, Donald L. Horowitz, A Democratic South Africa?, page 27

   1 more example

   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.

   1985, Joyce L. Hocker, William W. Wilmot, Interpersonal conflict