Circumspection of one head backing conflict (8)
I believe the answer is:
wariness
'circumspection' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'one head backing conflict' is the wordplay.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'head' becomes 'ness' (ness is a headland**).
'backing' says to put letters next to each other.
'conflict' becomes 'war' (war is a kind of conflict).
'i'+'ness'='iness'
'iness' put after 'war' is 'WARINESS'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for wariness that I've seen before include "Circumspection" , "Caution, watchfulnes" , "State of caution" .)