In a strange sense, conflict leads to understanding (9)
I believe the answer is:
awareness
'understanding' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'in a strange sense conflict' is the wordplay.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'strange' indicates anagramming the letters.
'conflict' becomes 'war' (war is a kind of conflict).
'sense' anagrammed gives 'eness'.
'a'+'eness'='aeness'
'aeness' going around 'war' is 'AWARENESS'.
'leads to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for awareness that I've seen before include "Knowledge or consciousness" , "Fact of consciousness" , "Perception" , "Knowledge (of a fact)" , "Mindfulness, consciousness" .)