But, these relative similarities and differences define their potential conflict and cooperation. Place a Tongan and a Central African next to each other, have them share a dormitory room while both are attending a foreign university, and this potential for conflict and cooperation will become actual. Similarly if representatives of Tonga and the Central African Republic come together to discuss and negotiate issues in an international organization. Through acculturation, socialization and individual experience, international actors develop a lattice of attitudes. These are clustered around an actor's superordinate goal, delineate his sentiments, and define his role dispositions.
Attitudes are goal and means potentials transformed into dispositions.
Their development structures the conflict space. The attitudes of international actors make possible the structure of conflict between them. Awareness transforms potential opposition into opposing dispositions. It creates the structure of conflict. Awareness is the first theoretical element 3 in this structure, the second level of latent conflict.