Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict
Introduction:
Ron Fisher, of American University, briefly describes an information process in South Africa that helped restore trust between factions, paving the way toward a peace agreement.
This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).
Building Trust Between Factions in South Africa
Ron Fisher
Professor of International Peace and Conflict Resolution, School of International Service, American University
A: Everyone finds what happens in South Africa inspirational. There is a
small slice of that which involved a series of quite unofficial meetings between
high level ANC folks coming unofficially, and people on the other side who were
very well connected to the national government, like people in the Afrikaans
Brotherhood. These were initiated and facilitated by, believe it or not, a
mining company and a business firm with interests who had people in its human
relations department with some expertise to bring folks together and provide a
forum to initiate some discussions that helped pave the way toward negotiations
by building understanding and trust. Obviously many people in South Africa,
especially what was previously the Center for Inter group Relations, did a lot
of work, I don't know the case well, but I know a lot of people did a lot. This
is just one slice but it seems to be an essential slice of how South Africa got
on the road to peace when it did. That is fairly inspirational. We need more.
I expect to pass through this world but once, therefore any good that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not come this way again. -- Stephen Grellett
Other Resources from Beyond Intractability Taming Intractable Conflicts The trick for the mediator is identifying what conflicts it pays to become involved in, how to go about it, and when. Crocker et al. explore some limitations and pitfalls for mediators and go on to suggest how they may most effectively contribute at different stages of the conflict.
Nobel Peace Prize Winners
Mairead Corrigan Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement, and 1976 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
