Improving Relationships

Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict

Improving Relationships

	Establishment of Personal Relationships While strong personal relationships alone cannot bring about conflict resolution, they can help to transform the conflict and make it easier to resolve. Relationships between the opposing sides help to build trust, improve communication, and increase tolerance.
	Networking This essay describes how networking can be used to build relationships and empower individuals and groups to confront difficult conflicts more effectively.
	Cooling Off Periods Escalation can sometimes be slowed or stopped by calling for a short-term "cooling-off" period during which time all the parties stop engaging and step back to look at the situation and how they might be able to proceed more constructively.
	De-escalating Gestures A de-escalating gesture could be an act of kindness or an attempt to compromise. Although risky and difficult to pull-off, these gestures are necessary for de-escalating a conflict.
	Confidence-Building Measures Limiting or reducing the level of fear among parties in conflict is essential for building confidence and a sense of security. Confidence-building measures aim to lessen anxiety and suspicion by making the parties' behavior more predictable.
	Managing Interpersonal Trust and Distrust Trust has often been praised as the "glue" that holds relationships together and enables individuals to pool their resources with others. Unfortunately, when conflict escalates to a dysfunctional level, trust is often one of the first casualties.
	Trust and Trust Building Trust comes from the understanding that humans are interdependent, that they need each other to survive. Third parties can attempt to use this insight to promote trust between disputing parties.
	Respect Treating people with respect is key to conflict transformation. When they are denied respect, people tend to react negatively, creating conflicts or escalating existing ones.

Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance. -- Indira Gandhi

Featured Links
Organizations Making Noteworthy Contributions to Efforts to Promote More Constructive Conflict

Global Security

Other Resources from
Beyond Intractability

Development and Conflict Theory
"Development should be understood as a process, not a product. Societies are always changing. Some improve, while others fail. Development theory aims at explaining both processes."

Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Alva Myrdal
Former Cabinet Minister, diplomat, and 1982 Nobel Peace Laureate

Beyond Intractability Version IV
Copyright © 2003-2007 The Beyond Intractability Project
Beyond Intractability is a Registered Trademark of the University of Colorado
Project Acknowledgements

The Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project
Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, Co-Directors and Editors
c/o Conflict Information Consortium (Formerly Conflict Research Consortium), University of Colorado
Campus Box 580, Boulder, CO 80309
Phone: (303) 492-1635; Fax: (303) 492-2154; Contact