Newsletter # 12 --  April 12, 2018

About Moving Beyond Intractability Newsletters

Every week or so, we will compile recent blog and seminar posts into a Newsletter that is posted on MBI and sent out by email to subscribers. You can subscribe on the Newsletter Sign Up Page and find all past newsletters on the Newsletter Archive Page. Ways to overcome potential email delivery problems are shown at the bottom of this newsletter.

April 12 Update: 

We are finally getting back in "the swing of things" after moving web hosting services. The result is a backlog of posts in this newsletter, for which we apologize.  Starting with the next one, however, we will strive to have only one weeks' worth of posts in the newsletter, which will make the size more manageable.  If you find any of these posts of interest, we hope you will consider engaging in the attached discussions.  We really want to make this a two-way conversation!

Things YOU Can Do To Help Blog

• Treat EVERYONE With Respect  - Respect is free to give, yet its payback is huge: breaking down stereotypes and often earning respect in return. March 19, 2018
• Allow Your Opponents to "Save Face." - No one likes to be humiliated--allowing your opponent to save face will help defuse a conflict. April 5, 2018
• Practice - and Preach - Civility in Public and Private Discourse - Incivility begets more of the same, while civil discourse can help de-escalate conflict and improve relationships. April 8, 2018
• Listen Actively and Empathically  Empathic listening is amazingly powerful--sometimes that is all that is needed to defuse destructive conflicts. April 11, 2018

Conflict Frontiers Seminar

Unit 2: Pushing the Frontier: the Limits of Business-as-Usual Approaches

• Part 6: More Bad Assumptions -- If they'd just talk, they could work it out! Exploring this and other bad assumptions. -- March 18, 2018
• Part 7: The Return of I'll Fight-you-for-it Rules -- Are efforts to solve problems collaboratively now losing to naked contests of Machiavellian power? -- March 19, 2018
• Part 8: The Backlash Effect and Coefficient -- If your backlash coefficient is more than one, your cause cannot be won! Learn why! -- March 20, 2018
• Part 9: Recent Peace and Conflict Paradigms -- Peace cultivation and massively parallel peacebuilding: two ideas for a new complexity-oriented conflict paradigm. -- March 21, 2018

Unit 3: Introduction to Complexity and "Systems Thinking" -- Theoretical Antecedents

• Developing a Systems/Complexity Paradigm -- An introductory look at a developing new paradigm for peacebuilding: using systems thinking and complexity analysis -- April 3, 2018
• Dugan's "Nested Theory" of Conflict -- Conflicts exist in many levels at once - seeing these helps you see the entire conflict system. -- April 4, 2018
• Lederach's Pyramid -- Leaders at three levels of society all contribute to peace, but those at the middle-level are often the most effective. -- April 6, 2018
• Lederach's Big Picture of Conflict Transformation -- Lederach's circle of conflict transformation shows how to design change processes that work. -- April 7, 2018
• Diamond and McDonald's Multi-track Diplomacy -- Diplomats are not just officials, but include 9 different types of people--all contributing towards peacebuilding. -- April 8, 2018
• Ury's "Third Side" -- Everyone can play at least one of Ury's 10 "Third Side" roles--even the disputants themselves. -- April 10, 2018
• Coleman's "Five Percent" Part 1 -- Peter Coleman says intractable conflicts are formed by powerful "attractors" or seemingly inescapable traps. -- April 11, 2018
• Coleman's "Five Percent" Part 2 -- Different from linear approaches, Coleman says intractable conflicts can still be tamed by 3 steps. -- April 12, 2018
• Ricigliano's SAT model -- Complex conflicts require complex responses: the SAT and PAL models are linked approaches for doing just that. -- April 13, 2018

Conflict Fundamentals Seminar

Unit 2: Core Concepts

• Lederach's "Meeting Place" -- None of these are simple and it is very hard to have all four together. But doing so, says Lederach "is the meeting place of reconciliation." -- March 17, 2018
• Stable Peace -- The region of stable peace, Boulding observed, included North America, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia. Is this region growing or shrinking? -- March 18, 2018
• Principles of Justice and Fairness -- An examination of the many different meanings of justice: distributive, procedural, retributive, and restorative among others. -- March 20, 2018

Unit 3: Conflict Parties

• First Parties, Third Parties, and Thirdsiders -- An essay examining the different roles conflict parties play, showing how even disputants can also be dispute resolovers. -- March 21, 2018
• Ury's "Third Side"' -- Ury describes 10 third side roles that both conflict insiders and outsiders can play to help make conflicts more constructive. -- March 22, 2018
• Leaders and Leadership -- An examination of the different meanings of the word "leader," what makes leaders good or bad, and the dynamics between a group and their leader. -- April 4, 2018
• Lederach's Pyramid -- A well-known diagram from Building Peace,this essay explains the roles of top-level, mid-level, and grassroots leadership. -- April 5, 2018
• Within-Party Differences -- A look at "persuadables," "reluctant persuadables," "traders" and "hardliners." Each needs to be treated differently. -- April 6, 2018
• Extremists and Spoilers -- Written before the "countering violent extremism" paradigm was developed, this essay lays out early fundamental thinking on the problem. -- April 7, 2018

Unit 4: Core Factors

• Core and Overlays Part 1 -- An examination of the Burgess's theory of core and overlaying factors which contribute to conflict intractability. -- April 9, 2018
• Core and Overlays Part 2 -- Following on from an examination of core factors, this article examines the Burgess's notion of "complicating factors" that also contribute to intractability. -- April 9, 2018
• High-Stakes Distributional Issues -- A further discussion of one of the Burgess's core factors driving intractability. -- April 10, 2018
• Inequality -- Inequality was a key driver of intractability when this article was written--it is even more so now. -- April 12, 2018
• Moral or Value Conflicts -- Value conflicts cannot be dealt with as if they were interest-based conflicts, although that's how mediators are often taught to handle them. -- April 13, 2018

Beyond Intractability in Context Blog

• From Foreign Affairs, a constructive strategy for adapting the international system to meet its current challenges. -- The World After Trump -- 04/11/2018
• A provocative exploration of the implications of very two different meanings of the word "privilege." -- In Praise of Privilege -- 04/11/2018
• In case you were wondering, Foreign Policy tells you how to start a war in five easy steps. -- How to Start a War in 5 Easy Steps -- 04/10/2018
• More on the coming threat of a high-tech "big brother" world: Google, Amazon, and Apple's patent applications. -- Hey, Alexa, What Can You Hear? And What Will You Do With It? -- 04/09/2018
• From a former FBI agent, an explanation of how Russia uses "active measures" to influence other countries. -- For Russia, Trump Was a Vehicle, Not a Target -- 04/09/2018
• Future security threats from Brookings: "The next Russian attack will be far worse than bots and trolls." -- The next Russian attack will be far worse than bots and trolls -- 04/08/2018
• A question for those thinking about the 1960s and the threat of civil unrest, "Where Have All the Rioters Gone?" --Where Have All the Rioters Gone? -- 04/08/2018
• Watch this (if you haven't) already it tells you a lot about how democracy's free & independent press is being mani --Video Reveals Power Of Sinclair -- 04/07/2018
• A sobering question to ask, what happens "When Terrorists and Criminals Govern Better Than Governments?" --When Terrorists and Criminals Govern Better Than Governments -- 04/07/2018

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