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

Underlying Causes of Intractable Conflict
Identifying Underlying Causes
	According to Chester Crocker, an important part of conflict assessment is analyzing the underlying sources of conflict.
	Sarah Cobb suggests that neither unmet needs nor scare resources fully account for the underlying causes of conflict.
	Kevin Avruch suggests that cultural differences sometimes obfuscate the true motives that are driving conflict.
	Frank Dukes, an environmental mediator, observes that the presenting problem is seldom the real problem.
	Peter Coleman describes five different metaphors or ways of defining what intractable conflicts are all about.
Particular Underlying Causes
	Roy Lewicki describes how incompatible frames can lead to intractable conflicts.
	Brazilian economist Olympio Barbanti discusses how development efforts have caused conflict in the Brazilian Amazon.
	Jayne Docherty suggests that resolving conflicts among parties with fundamentally different world views is extremely difficult.
	Suzanne Ghais, Program manager at CDR Associates in Boulder, Colorado, focusing only on resolution will be inadequate in situations where ongoing relationships are a component of conflict. She stresses the importance of relationship management.

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

I have invented something which . . . I have been calling "Senesh's Law" - That if you can't teach it to the second grade it probably isn't true. -- Kenneth Boulding

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

Slifka Program in Intercommunal Coexistence

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Beyond Intractability

Red State/ Blue State: US Political Polarization
Though US politics has long been divided along ideological lines, the last two presidential elections have created increased polarization between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans. How did this happen? Is it good for the country? Can anything be done to reunited us?

Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Oscar Arias Sanchez
President of Costa Rica, and 1987 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