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

Introduction: "The presenting problem and issues that people talk about are rarely the ones that are most significant. What looks like one set of issues will almost always end up being another set of issues." Frank Dukes of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation at the University of Virginia talks about the dangers of an intervenor assuming he or she knows what a particular conflict is about.

This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).

Lessons Learned
Frank Dukes
Director, Institute for Environmental Negotiation, University of Virginia

Interviewed by
Julian Portilla
2003

...Don't assume I know. I assume just the opposite because I don't really understand until I have really had a chance to talk with people. The presenting problem and issues that people talk about are rarely the ones that are most significant. Two lessons I have learned are: what looks like one set of issues will almost always end up being another set of issues and learning over and over again the value of preparation.

The people who burned witches at the stake never for one moment thought of their act as violence; rather they though of it as an act of divinely mandated righteousness. The same can be said of most of the violence we humans have ever committed. -- Gil Bailie

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

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF)

Other Resources from
Beyond Intractability

Reconcilliation in Bosnia
How was peace acheived in Bosnia? Is the settlement working? Has reconciliation really been achieved?

Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Ralph Bunche
Served as an acting mediator in Palestine in 1948 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.

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