Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict
Introduction:
Much could be learned if different types of intervenors would learn from each other,
observes Helen Chauncey. A concern about neutrality is one thing that keeps this learning
from happening.
This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).
Learning from Other Intervenors
Helen Chauncey
The Coexistence Initiative
We also believe that there are a wealth of lessons from the tolerance,
multi-cultural, anti-bias field that are sitting there waiting to be drawn in to
the peace-building
field at large. Part of the reason they haven't been systematically drawn in is
that there has been something of a tendency within the conflict resolution field
to assume that there needs to be a kind of neutrality, that makes perfect sense.
If you are a third party helping create or facilitate dialogue, create capacity
for dialogue and communication, create capacity for civic building of trust,
something for what we might call the conflict resolution tool kit.
One of the
messages that is implicit in that is you as a third party are neutral. What has
tended to happen is that people make the assumption that the process must be
neutral, which gets us to the "park your identity at the door" tendency. We've got to
create the neutral common ground. For a certain amount, for historical reasons,
this vast set of resources describing how coexistence works, how people of different
ethnicities, religious beliefs, etc, how they work together — much of that part of the
tool kit — the skillset and the values — is embedded more in the second of the two
communities, tolerance and multi-culturalism. We see
ourselves as being a bridge between the two because we recognize and know that
resource base. We have come largely out of the first of those two communities, conflict
management and resolution. We physically stand in one community, but are trained
and are aware of this vast resource base in the other community. We see our
principle challenge as helping to build bridges to facilitate the sharing of
resources, ideas, and ultimately the sharing of values.
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Other Resources from Beyond Intractability A User's Guide for Third Siders The Third Side concept was developed by William Ury. Third Siders are people who try to see both sides of a conflict and encourage cooperative solutions, fair fights, and decision making that advocates solutions which meet everyone's interests and needs as much as possible.
Nobel Peace Prize Winners
Eisaku Sato Former Prime Minister of Japan, and 1974 Nobel Peace Laureate
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
