Newsletter Topical Archive

Our regular newsletter feed lists all our newsletters according to the date they were published — over 350 of them! Here, we group them according to topic, and within the topics, list them in chronological order. This listing was updated September 8, 2025. 

Oppression, Justice, Advocacy, Neutrality, and Peacebuilding 

• Updating Our Impartiality Discussions - Part 2 — In part 2 of this 2-part series, we apply Martin Carcasson's notion of "principled impartiality" to the Israel/Gaza/Hezbollah/Iran war, and to the political conflict in the United States.
• Updating Our Impartiality Discussions - Part 1 — An update on our 2-year old discussion of impartiality, adding to it Martin Carcasson's notion of "principled impartiality" (and its relationship with information quality and "small-d" democracy).
• Is Intersectionality Dangerous or Benign? Colin Rule Weighs In. — Colin Rule says that intersectionality means that all oppressed people should support each other in their mutual efforts to realize their basic human rights to live in peace and have self determination, and hence is good.
• Rachel Kleinfeld and Shamil Idriss on Polarization, Philanthropic Plurality, Social Justice, and Democracy — Those seeking to improve democracy should hold themselves accountable for advancing both peace and justice through collaborative action to meet common goals.
• Social Justice Advocacy, Bridge-Building and Philanthropy: How Do These Intersect? — What role should philanthropy play in the effort to fix democracy? Can they help? How? Or should they bow out, acknowledging that they are making the problem worse?
• Helena Desivilya Syna on The Paradox of Tolerance with a response from Heidi Burgess and Guy Burgess — Israel presents a dilemma for conflict resolvers: should one seek dialogue and compromise, or should one advocate and work for total victory without compromise because one side is so extreme?
• Carol Pauli's "The 'End' of Neutrality: Tumultuous Times Require a Deeper Value" — Pauli asserts that neutrality is an "unsatisfying value" for both journalists and mediators in our current conflicted times, and might be better replaced with a fundamental reliance on human dignity of every person.
• On Oppression, Justice, Advocacy, Neutrality, and Peacebuilding -- Additional Perspectives — More insight into the complex relationship between social justice advocacy and peacebuilding from Larry Susskind, Louis Kriesberg, Jay Rothman, Ken Cloke, Greg Bourne, Lisa Schirch, and Martin Carcasson.
• On Oppression, Justice, Advocacy, Neutrality, and Peacebuilding -- Part 3 — Heidi Burgess and Guy Burgess defend BI's focus on reversing the hyper-polarization spiral from the argument that this would reinforce systems of oppression (see previous BI newsletter).
• On Oppression, Justice, Advocacy, Neutrality, and Peacebuilding -- Part 2 — Bernie Mayer and Jackie Font-Guzmán offer a critique of our focus on hyper-polarization based on their book, The Neutrality Trap.
• On Oppression, Justice, Advocacy, Neutrality, and Peacebuilding -- Part 1 — The first in a series of articles exploring the tension that exists between the pursuit of "social justice" and the need to diffuse hyper-polarization and the resulting hatred and social dysfunction.

The Hyper-Polarization Threat: How Serious? What can be done?

• Heidi and Guy Burgess Talk with Tom Klaus and Lamar Roth in their "Third Space" — Tom Klaus and Lamar Roth talked with Guy and Heidi Burgess about Beyond Intractability, hyper-polarization, constructive conflict, and ways we are going to get out of the "mess" we are in.
• Nealin Parker Talks about Search USA's Efforts to Reduce Polarization and Tension in the United States — Heidi Burgess and Nealin Parker talk about how Search for Common Ground is adapting its pathbreaking international peacebuilding work to healing divides in the United States.
• Knife Edge Elections, the 51% Hammer Strategy, Hatemongering, and Scapegoating — Why are the United States' elections so close and so bitterly fought? Guy Burgess argues our knife-edge elections are caused by scapegoating, hatemongering, and our drive to get as much as we can for ourselves, by taking it away from the other side.
• Peter Coleman on The Way Out of Polarization and Intractability — Polarization is destroying our relationships with friends and family. Peter Coleman has a way to fix that -- and possibly fix our society as well.
• The Hyper-Polarization Discussion: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going — A review of what we've focused on and what we've learned since starting this newsletter 20 months ago, and a discussion of where we plan to go in the months ahead.
• Daniel Stid Talks about Ways to Strengthen Democracy by Replacing Polarization with Pluralism — Polarization is afflicting both leaders and followers, and the feedback between the two makes the problem worse. Key to fighting that is reinvigorating the value of political pluralism and openness to divergent views of problems and solutions, starting first at the local and state levels.
• Zach Elwood on the Belief that "Polarization is not the Problem" — Polarization is hurting both sides, and both sides should be concerned about reducing it if they want to achieve any of the high-priority goals.
• Palma Strand: A Path Out of Polarization: The Strengthening Democracy Challenge and the Civity Storytelling Intervention — Civity is all about forming relationships across difference. It's the "secret sauce" of successful communities and organizations. And better yet, everyone can do it!
• Polarization's Toll on US Credibility, Progressives' Reverse CBT, and Other Colleague and Context Links — Our readers share their thoughts: how progressive attitudes are deeply hurting progressives themselves, and how polarization is damaging US credibility abroad. Plus normal colleague and context posts.
• Massively Circular Hyper-Polarization — Complex social systems are made up of multiple interlocking negative and positive feedback loops that can, for good or ill, lead to stability or to change. In order to improve the system, we need to understand these loops.
• Could Massively Parallel Processes Make Hyper-Polarization Worse? — Bad-faith actors can and do use a massively parallel strategy to drive us apart. But that doesn't mean that the strategy is bad -- it means that it is effective. Good-faith actors need to learn how to use similar techniques to bring us together.
• From the Discussion: Kristin Hansen and the Civic Health Project's Work on De-polarization in America — The Civic Health Project's Kristin Hansen on why polarization matters, and what we can do to reduce it.

Successful Efforts to Solve Problems Across Political Divides

• David Eisner: History Rhymes: Lessons of Civic Renewal Then and Now — David Eisner points out astonishing similarities between our civic angst now and the turmoil of the early 1900s. He goes on to argue that we turned things around then and can do so again. Indeed, many people and organizations are already working on this effort.
• Daniel Stid: Civil Society and the Liberal Democratic Project — Defending civil society against attacks is not enough. We also need to cultivate the attributes that will make civil society more defensible – and worth defending.
• Teacher, Consensus Builder and Advocate Frank Dukes Talks with Guy and Heidi Burgess About Balancing Those Three Roles — Frank Dukes talks about how he balances his three roles of conflict resolution practitioner, teacher/trainer, and human rights advocate in this wide-ranging interview.
• Caleb Christen and Vinay Orekondy Talk about the Better Together America Project — Caleb Christen and Vinay Orekondy talk about the democracy and civic hubs they are helping form around the country to bring "democracy back to the people" where it can actually work.
• Susan Carpenter and Heidi Burgess Reflect on Susan's 40+ Years' Experience Doing Consensus Building — Susan Carpenter has been working in the field of collaborative problem solving for over 40 years. She talked about the changes she's seen over those years, and the time-tested approaches she has come to rely on for success.
• Martin Carcasson Talks with Heidi and Guy Burgess about Wicked Problems, Polarization, Deliberation, and Democracy — In an hour-long interview, Martin talks about the "wicked problem mindset" as a way to diminish polarization, and encourage collaboration, creativity, and healthy democracy, at least at the local level.
• Bill Froehlich Talks about the Ohio State Divided Community Project — A summary of a conversation Bill Froehlich about the work of the Divided Community Project which works to help deeply divided communities come together to prevent, and respond to civic strife.
• Fact, Value, Lie, or Uncertainty? How Do We Tell? — Sorting out "real facts" from "fake facts" gets more difficult all the time. But there are ways to do it. And it matters. Because facts can "bite you," even if you don't believe they are true.
• Civil Rights Mediation Oral History Project: Modern Updates from Lum, Burgess, and Froehlich — New civil rights mediator interviews provide a fascinating then-and-now comparison with earlier interviews conducted in 1999-2001. So much has changed--AND--so much has stayed the same!
• Paul Monteiro, Former Director of the Community Relations Service, Talking About How CRS Works its Magic — A few of the many important and interesting things Community Relations Service Paul Monteiro shared about the way CRS operates, what makes it successful, and most importantly, how it needs help from locals.
• D.G. Mawn Talks About Community Mediation and NAFCM — A short summary of a longer interview highlighting the important role that community mediation can play in helping societies handle local conflicts more constructively.
• Urban Rural Action Frameworks — ABCs of dialogue, problem trees and problem tree mapping are very simple, yet very useful tools for helping disputants better understand their conflict and decide how to approach it constructively.

Strategies for Effectively Dealing with Scale and Complexity 

• Conflict Core and Overlay Issues - Part 2 — Continuing our review of the distinction between core conflict factors and conflict overlays, this post examines common overlay factors that make conflicts even more difficult to resolve--and (briefly) what to do about them.
• Reprise: Conflict Core and Overlay Issues — A review of the distinction the Burgesses make between core conflict factors and conflict overlays. This is the first of a two-part series; this one on the core factors; the second one will be on the overlay factors that make conflicts even more difficult to resolve.
• The Engineering and Medical Approaches to Fixing Broken Systems — Complex adaptive systems cannot be fixed using typical engineering problem solving. Rather they need to be approached using a "medical model," which is designed to deal with systems we don't entirely understand.
• Reprise: Sharp vs. Fuzzy Feedback --- The Distinction That Explains Why Society Can Be Both Astonishingly Smart and Incredibly Stupid — We are good at understanding and responding to sharp feedback, but continue to have serious trouble seeing and responding to fuzzy feedback. These difficulties do much to explain why society is in such serious trouble.
• Reprise: The Google Maps and Adopt-a-Highway Approach to Systems — A repeat of a two-year old post, explaining "thinking and acting systemically" by using the metaphor of Google Maps and "Adopt a Highway" programs -- both systemic ways of managing vast amounts of traffic on the U.S. highway system.
• Mark Gerzon and Mesa Sebree -- Towards a Polycrisis Consciousness - Part 2 — To address the polycrisis, it is necessary to "focus on part of the polycrisis but with an awareness of the whole." Among Gerzon and Sebree's several insightful suggestions: forget optimism and pessimism, focusing instead on "possibility."
• Mark Gerzon and Mesa Sebree -- Towards a Polycrisis Consciousness - Part 1 — Gerzon and Sebree explain what the "polycrisis" is, and ten of the individual crises that interact to create it. In part 2, they will explain what can be done to constructively address this unprecedented challenge to human well being, even survival.
• Heidi Burgess Talks With James Coan about Taking De-Polarization Work "to Scale." — Dialogue is great for the few participants, but it simply cannot be scaled up enough to change societal attitudes and behaviors. James Coan and Heidi Burgess discuss alternative ways to scale depolarization work.
• Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty — Unavoidable risks and uncertainties make wise decision-making especially difficult. These difficulties are compounded by cognitive traps that lead us to believe that we have certainty when we don't. A better approach is to remain flexible and monitor changing conditions so that we can adapt quickly.
• Katie Hyten Explains how Essential Partners is Taking Dialogue to Scale — Essential Partners has figured out both how to scale dialogue to the community level (if not beyond) and to make the relationship improvements dialogue engenders sustainable over the long term.
• Jay Rothman on Large Scale Interventions — In this interview, Jay Rothman continues to reflect on strategies for scaling up small group processes in ways that enable whole communities to develop "both-and" solutions the common problems.
• Anne Leslie: Know Thyself — Reflections on building a career that makes a positive difference despite the daunting complexities and uncertainties of the modern world.
• Jay Rothman and Daniela Cohen on the Aria Group School Intervention in Yellow Springs, Ohio — Highly polarized conflicts are typically systems problems, and they need system-based solutions to be successfully addressed. Here's an example where that was done very well.
• An Award for NAFCM + Conflict Mapping and Other Tools for Understanding Complex Problems — Conflict mapping is a tool to help understand what, besides "the other guys" are driving a conflict or social problem, and hence what might be done to fix it.
• Sharp vs. Fuzzy Feedback --- The Distinction That Explains Why Society Can Be Both Astonishingly Smart and Incredibly Stupid — We are good at understanding and responding to sharp feedback, but not nearly as good at seeing and responding to fuzzy feedback, which is the source of many serious mistakes.
• Core And Overlaying Issues — Conflicts are never simple us-versus-them. By sorting out the core and overlaying factors, disputants can come to a much clearer understanding of what needs to be done to transform their conflicts.
• The Google Maps and Adopt-a-Highway Approach to Systems — A look at two metaphors that make it easier to see how we can limit destructive hyper-polarization by combining big picture thinking with individual commitments to help fill gaps in society's broader efforts to address the problem.
• From the Hyper-Polarization Discussion: Anne Leslie: Embracing Ambiguity — A summary of an excellent talk IBM security expert gave to a conflict resolution audience on dealing with complexity and uncertainty.
• Hyper-Polarization Challenges: Scale, Complexity, and Collaboration — Chip Hauss, Larry Susskind, and Shafik Islam offer their thoughts on how to collaborate despite the scale, complexity, and hyper-polarized nature of modern society.

US Politics

• Magical Production — Magical production is the tendency to unconsciously think that goods and services magically appear in our stores and that the only important question is how to distribute them. A road trip through flyover country shows how false--and damaging--this image is.
• Responses and Related Comments on the Fourth of July — Comments from readers on our earlier Fourth of July post and further thoughts about the meaning of the holiday.
• Harry Boyte and the Burgesses on Thinking Politically — What does "thinking politically" mean in terms of nonviolent action. It doesn't mean thinking along party lines. Rather, it means thinking strategically about audiences, desired outcomes and best strategies to meet those outcomes.
• Responsibilities of Bridgers -- And The Rest of Us — David Eisner observes that bridgers serve as a critical portal for ideas on each side to be heard, understood and considered by the other when they are too angry to listen to the other on their own. Are bridgers the only people who can do that?
• Predicting a "Rule-of-Law" Crisis? — Are we facing a "constitutional" or "rule-of-law" crisis? What can/should the peacebuilding community do in such circumstances? This is what we call "the peacebuilder's dilemma."
• Harry Boyte On Nonviolence Training and Effective Nonviolent Action — A reflection on the relationship between love and power and what makes nonviolent protests effective.
• David Eisner's P.S. -- Are Trump's Moves -- and the Results -- Controlled Burns or Out-of-Control Wildfires? — David Eisner asks whether the fires we talked about in our "Fiddling While Rome Burns" series are controlled burns or forest fires. The Burgesses respond "out of control forest fires" -- and explain why.
• Part 2 of the Burgess's Answer to Ashok Panikkar's Questions about Hyperpolarization and Today's World — We finish answering Ashok Panikkar by talking about other drivers of hyper-polarization: globalization and technology driven job loss, identity politics, cable news and social media, and distrust of institutions. We also address Ashok's notion of theory of continuity and share what we think it will take to "save" liberal democracy in the U.S.
• USIP, CRS, and FMCS and Responding to Ashok Panikkar's Question about Hyper-Polarization — We reflect on the implications and impact of the closing of FMCS, USIP, and probably CRS, what might be done about that, and then turn to answering Ashok Panikkar's question about whether hyper-polarization is "logical and rational," given the current state of the world.
• Responses to Fiddling While Rome Burns - Part 2 — The Burgesses respond to Bernie Mayer's comments on "Are We Fiddling While Rome Burns," arguing that bridging and advocacy are both needed for change, along with other elements in David Eisner's "renewing democracy ecosystem."
• Responses to: Are We Fiddling While Rome Burns? - Part 1 — A discussion with David Eisner and Bernie Mayer of how bridging efforts relate to other efforts to strengthen American democracy in what David refers to as the "renew-democracy ecosystem."
• Can we lower toxic polarization while still opposing Trump? — In the United States, hyper-polarization has escalated to the point where President Trump is trying to destroy pretty much everything Democrats care about. The question is how can the Democrats defend themselves while also working to defuse the hyper-polarization that made Trump's Presidency possible.
• Are We Fiddling While Rome Burns? — A reflection on why it still makes sense to try to find a middle ground between the far left and the far right, even as the far right seems to be profoundly threatening to U.S. democracy.
• Lou Kriesberg's "For All the People" and Related Thoughts About Paths Forward for the U.S. — Taking Kriesberg's essay as a starting point, this newsletter explores, from left-leaning and centrist perspectives, a range of hopeful responses that are emerging to the most extreme actions of the still young Trump presidency.
• Lou Kriesberg: Applying the Constructive Conflict approach to the American Right-Wing Populism Phenomenon — Lou Kriesberg explores "what next" for progressives in the United States following Trump's election, arguing that two responses are necessary: resistance, and strengthening democracy.
• The US in 2024: An Election That Worked and a Democracy That Doesn't — U.S. polarization and political dysfunction is only going to worsen until the two parties realize that the problem isn't "the other," but rather the way we refuse to tolerate, compromise and/or work collaboratively with with "the other."
• Walt Roberts and Caleb Christian Talk about the Inter-Movement Impact Project — Caleb Christen and Walt Roberts talk about the Inter-Movement Impact Project -- another example of massively parallel problem solving and democracy building "in the real world."
• Reflections on the 4th of July (U.S. Independence Day) — Can the Constitution brings us back together, as it was designed to do, or will it push us further apart? Should we, in the United States, be proud or ashamed this Independence Day -- and how can we balance pride with serious efforts to address our many shortcomings?
• Become Part of the Solution — The American electorate includes True Believers, Pro-Democracy Transpartisans, and the Disillusioned, Disengaged, and Politically Homeless. We need to grow the second group, while shrinking the other two if we want American democracy to survive.
• How Do We Get What We Want and Need? Through Polarization or Bridge-building, Reframing, and "Omni-Win" Approaches? — This newsletter focuses on the several contributions to the BI/CRQ Hyper-Polarization Discussion that we have not yet had space to include in the newsletter.
• Developing a Vision for a Society in Which We Would All Like to Live — With this newsletter, we start imagining a less polarized future with lessons from South Africa from Ebrahim Rasool as well as observations from Neal Kohatsu, Ken Cloke, and Duncan Autrey.

Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars

• Ariel Markose, the Chief Strategy Officer of Amal-Tikva, Talks About How To Do Peacebuilding in Wartime — Peacebuilding looks different in the context of war, but it can (and must) be done, explains Ariel Markose, CEO of a leading Israeli-Palestinian NGO. And, she explains, it is being done, despite tremendous obstacles.
• More Reflections from "Gail," The Israeli Peacebuilder Who Also Serves in the IDF Active Reserves -- And What that Says for U.S. Peacebuilding -- within the U.S. — Excerpts from an email exchange between Heidi Burgess and one of her former students, who is now a peacebuilder in an Israeli/Palestinian peacebuilding organization, while also serving in the IDF reserves.
• Comments on Our Post Comparing Responses to October 7 to Those of September 11 — Comments from two readers about the Burgess's comparison of responses to October 7 and 9-11, one from an American, the other from an Israeli peacebuilder who also serves as an active reservist in the IDF.
• September 11, October 7, and Our Changing Responses to Terrorism — A comparison of the differing reactions to the terrorism of September 11 and October 7 plus an exchange of views on the role that dehumanization is playing in the ongoing Middle East wars.
• Updating Our Impartiality Discussions - Part 2 — In part 2 of this 2-part series, we apply Martin Carcasson's notion of "principled impartiality" to the Israel/Gaza/Hezbollah/Iran war, and to the political conflict in the United States.
• Guy and Heidi Burgess's Thoughts on Memorial Day and Louis Kriesberg on Seeing a Way Out of The Gaza War — A reflection on why peacebuilders ought to take Memorial Day much more seriously and Louis Kriesberg's thoughts on how the Gaza war might be ended.
• Crisis, Contradiction, Certainty, and Contempt — Columbia Professor Peter Coleman, and expert on intractable conflict, reflects on the intractable conflict occurring on his own campus, suggesting "ways out" that would be better for everyone.
• Bari Weiss: What it Means to Choose Freedom, Supplemented by Franklin Foer — Bari Weiss (The Free Press) and Franklin Foer (The Atlantic) reflect on the meaning of the war in Gaza and world response to it, to prospects for the survival of liberal democracy worldwide. The two, they agree, are linked.
• Lou Kriesberg, Deborah Laufer, and Ashok Panikkar: Thoughts About a Hopeful Future for Israel/Palestine and the Dark Reality That Stands in the Way — One positive, optimistic look at what could happen in Israel/Palestine, and others looking at some of the negative forces that are working against such an integrative outcome.
• Reader Responses on the Israel/Hamas War and Reconciliation and Justice — A continuing exchange with readers about egocentrism, Hamas' "sacred values," Jewish identity, restorative justice, and other topics.
• More Reader Comments On Israel and Intractable Identity Conflicts more Broadly — A compilation of readers' thoughts on Israel and identity conflicts in general. We agree--they are intractable--but greatly in need of inspiration and new thinking!
• The Israeli / Hamas War: Understanding the Larger "Larger Context" - Part 2 — Further exploration of the larger, "larger context" of the Israel/ Hamas war with the focus on global public opinion and the perverse incentives that it is creating.
• The Israeli / Hamas War: Understanding the Larger "Larger Context" - Part 1 — In order to successfully navigate the complexities of the Israel/Hamas war, we need to understand the war's context in ways that are much more expansive than the left's narrow focus on Palestinian grievances.
• Does the Concept of Ripeness Apply to the Israel/Hamas War? — A conflict is "ripe for resolution" when the parties are in a mutually-hurting stalemate, and they can see a "way out." Though Israeli/Palestinian conflict seems, to those on the outside, to be in such a stalemate, the way out seems much less apparent.
• Jack Williams and the Burgesses Discuss the Israel/Hamas War - Part 2 — The Burgesses answer Jack William's questions about strategies for bringing peace and security in Israel and Gaza, whether Israel is attacking civilians on purpose, and what can be done over the longer term to attain peace and security in the region.
• Jack Williams and the Burgesses Discuss the Israel/Hamas War - Part 1 — An exchange between the Burgesses and Jack Williams examining how the Burgesses have come to make the several controversial assertions with respect to the Israel and Hamas war.
• Intersectionality Can Be Beneficial to Peacebuilding: Jay Rothman — Jay Rothman shared his 2013 article in which "intersectionality" is seen as aiding intergroup cooperation, not harming it.
• Lisa Schirch's 5-Point Peace Plan for Israel, Hamas, and the Palestinians More Broadly + Katja Rieger's Comments — A summary of Lisa Schirch's plan for obtaining long-term peace, justice, and security for Israelis and Palestinians, and Katja Rieger's comments on that and the war more broadly.
• The Israel/Hamas War: A Perfect Storm of Complexity and Chaos — A consideration of the factors that are making the Israel/Hamas war so exceptionally difficult even to talk about (civilly at least) let alone solve.
• Intersectionality, Israel, and Peacebuilding: How Do They Mix? — Reflecting on messages from readers about our Israel/Hamas writing and why we see this as differently as we do from many of our colleagues.
• More On the Israel/Hamas War from Contributors — New comments from Israeli peacebuilder Julia Chaitin and U.S. psychotherapist Madeline Taylor about the Israel/Hamas war.
• Colleagues' Thoughts about the Israel/Hamas War - Part 1 — A compilation of the first round of comments that we have received about our Israel/Hamas war discussion posts. There is much to think and debate about here!
• Julia Chaitin, Israeli Peacebuilder, on the Israeli-Gazan War — Chilling testimony from an Israeli peace activist living near the Gaza/Israeli border, and her thoughts about ways forward.
• October 24, 2023
• Israel, Hamas, Evil, and the Bad-faith Actor Problem — From a conflict resolution and peacebuilding perspective, reflections on Hamas' horrific attack on Israel and the role that our field has played and could play in shaping this tragedy.

Communication Problem and Solutions

• Jacob Bornstein Shares His Strategies for Building Consensus, Even Under the Most Difficult Circumstances — Jacob Bornstein gives a master class on how to assemble and facilitate a collaborative process over very contentious issues -- and easier ones.
• Things to Think About -- Alone and Together - Part 2 — Two more interesting exercises to think about ways of constructively approaching intractable conflicts and the role of intervenors in those conflicts.
• Things to Think About -- Alone and Together - Part 1 — An introduction to a set of exercises that people can do alone or in groups to think through difficult conflict situations and find ways of overcoming obstacles to moving forward more constructively.
• Rosa Zubizarreta-Ada: Transformative Power and Empathic Connection: Changing Contexts, Generating Inclusive Mindsets — Rosa Zubizarreta-Ada explores solutions to the "Achilles Heel of democracy," in which free speech allows illiberal speech, which then threatens the very democracy that allows it.
• More responses to Friends and Family + Democracy Subversion from Rosa Zubizarreta — Rosa Zubizarreta's thoughts about better ways to talk across differences without destroying relationships, and the relationship between our hyper-polarized politics and the increasing risk of large-scale war.
• Talking with Friends and Family about the Election — How should we deal with summer family visits when some of our relatives are "on the other side?" Like so many other things, "it depends."
• Attack the Problem, Not the People — Separate the people from the problem might be the most often violated fundamental conflict resolution principle, even by people who know better. And it is hurting us.
• Don't Take the "Hate Bait!" — Returning hate with hate hurts everyone. Much better to return hate with inquiry and respect (even if it isn't deserved), and try to defuse the anger before it explodes.
• Anne Leslie: Slurps, Sulks, and Family History: Do You Care Enough to Argue? — Sometimes it is better to have an argument, rather than stew in silence, and have it with the mindset of wanting to learn more about the other person's truth instead of wanting to 'win'?
• More on Constructive Conflict Communication — Empathic (active) listening and I-message are two very powerful communication strategies that work at the societal as well as interpersonal levels.
• Talking with and Listening to People on the Other Side — Most of us have unrealistic images of "the other side." If we talk with, and most importantly really listen to, some of those people, we will usually find out they are not nearly as different from us as we think.
• Constructively Navigating the World of Media Bias — A look at the forces, including our own cognitive preferences, that produce a biased information environment and thoughts about what to do about it.
• John Lande: The Importance of Really Listening -- For Ourselves, Others, and Democracy — Some of our biggest errors are that we generally assume that we correctly understand the world and that being wrong is bad. Rather, we often are wrong--and that is good!
• ChatGPT --- Can It "Listen" Better Than We Can? — Can ChatGPT "listen to" and understand the other side better than we can? And if so, is that useful for de-polarization?
• Carrie Menkel-Meadow: Freedom of Speech and Freedom to Protest — Who has the right to speak how and when? The Stanford Law School controversy has lessons for all of us.
• Alan Yarborough: Getting to Meaning — To better understand both others and even ourselves, we must dig deeper into the words and terms we use to ensure we are conveying precisely what we want to convey and nothing more.
• Alan Yarborough: Getting to Meaning — To better understand both others and even ourselves, we must dig deeper into the words and terms we use to ensure we are conveying precisely what we want to convey and nothing more.
• Julia Roig and James Savage: Exploring Narrative Practices for Broad-based Movements in Contexts of Democratic Decline — The narratives we engage and deploy shape our world. In the face of rising authoritarianism, what stories and tactics drive collaboration within and between movements?
• Focus on Contribution, Not Blame — Focusing on blame doesn't solve problems, it just makes them more intractable. Focusing on contribution instead encourages collaborative problem solving that stands a much better chance of success.
• Fighting Hyper-Polarization for Our Children and Grand Children — This newsletter focuses on the importance of continuing our efforts to strengthen democracy, and considers one obstacle to doing that: being too sure of our selves.

Constructive Confrontation

• A Happy Birthday and Tribute to Lou Kriesberg — For his 99th Birthday, a tribute to Lou Kriesberg -- a leading light in the conflict and peacebuilding fields, along with his latest thoughts on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
• Harry Boyte Talks with Heidi Burgess about the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the Lessons it Can Teach Us — Harry Boyte explained how the ideas of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s and 1960s can be adapted by anyone wanting to make positive change in their communities and their societies.
• Marc Wong on How We Can Bring Out the Best in Others -- and Ourselves — Road rage is much like ideological rage. We don't accept the former; why do we accept the latter?
• Emma Addams and Jennifer Thomas Talk about Mormon Women for Ethical Government — Emma Addams and Jennifer Thomas talk about the founding, the principles, and the "magic sauce" that has made the Mormon Women for Ethical Government so successful.
• Revisiting BI's Constructive Conflict Initiative - Part 2 — The second 1/2 of a set of posts on BI's Constructive Conflict Initiative, this one looking at what still needs to be done to strengthen and improve U.S. democracy and the way U.S. society deals with intractable conflict.
• Revisiting BI's Constructive Conflict Initiative - Part 1 — Looking back on the 5-year old Constructive Conflict Initiative, a lot has happened to bring it to fruition. But a lot of challenges remain.
• Reprise: The Power Strategy Mix --- Empowering the Pursuit of the Common Good — Power takes three forms that can be mixed and matched: coercion, exchange, and integration. The "recipe" for the optimal "power strategy mix" changes depending on whom you are trying to influence.
• Reprise: Planning a Constructive Confrontation Strategy: Understanding the Relationship between Negotiation and Power — Power takes three forms that can be mixed and matched: coercion, exchange, and integration. The "recipe" for the optimal "power strategy mix" changes depending on whom you are trying to influence.
• Reprise: Constructive Confrontation: Applying Conflict Insights from a 1st Party (Not 3rd Party) Perspective — A reprise of an old newsletter on constructive ways of engaging in conflict that is less likely to create backlash and more likely to achieve one's goals than typical adversarial approaches are likely to do.
• Ken Cloke: Free Speech on Campus: What Colleges and Universities Can Do - And Lorelie Kelly on How Universities Can Strengthen our Democratic System — There are no judicial or military solutions to the wars being fought around the world, or on our campuses. Our only choice is to learn to live together by settling, transforming, or transcending our conflicts.
• Harry Boyte and Marie-Louise Ström: Constructive Nonviolence — Constructive nonviolence can be a profound resource for addressing injustice, repairing torn relationships, and creating healthy civic life. And it is something we all can do, everyday.
• Our Problem Isn't "Them" — We need to learn more about the other side--not about how bad they are, but why they believe what they believe, why they respond to us the way they do, and why they advocate for the things we think are so awful.
• The Power Strategy Mix --- Empowering the Pursuit of the Common Good — Power is not just force. It is the ability to get things done. And that usually is maximized by using integrative as well as exchange power to encourage collaboration whenever possible. Force should be reserved for the most extreme cases only.
• Planning a Constructive Confrontation Strategy: Understanding the Relationship between Negotiation and Power — Healthy conflict resolution systems rely primary on interest-based negotiations, using rights and power contests much less frequently. US democracy currently does the opposite.
• Constructive Confrontation: Applying Conflict Insights from a 1st Party (Not 3rd Party) Perspective — Constructive confrontation applies conflict resolution theory and practice to advocacy efforts in an effort to help people limit pushback and better defend their interests.

Democracy Concept, Processes, Threats, and Solutions

• David Eisner: History Rhymes: Lessons of Civic Renewal Then and Now — David Eisner points out astonishing similarities between our civic angst now and the turmoil of the early 1900s. He goes on to argue that we turned things around then and can do so again. Indeed, many people and organizations are already working on this effort.
• Understanding Democratic Erosion: A Lowy Institute/Toda Peace Institute Collaborative Project — A conflict map of democratic erosion shows how complex this problem is, and why a simple, us-versus-them definition of the problem, along with an attempt to overpower "them," cannot work to solve it.
• Daniel Stid: Civil Society and the Liberal Democratic Project — Defending civil society against attacks is not enough. We also need to cultivate the attributes that will make civil society more defensible – and worth defending.
• The 4th of July, a Time to Celebrate --- Or Not? — July 4, 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Is this an event to be celebrated or mourned? Or celebrated and used as a platform to revitalize and improve our democracy? We choose the latter!
• Bridge-Building in Times of Hyper-Polarization: An ACR-EPP Webinar — A report on the webinar Guy and Heidi Burgess did with the Environmental and Public Policy Section of the Association for Conflict Resolution, focusing on how environmental and public policy mediators might be able to help strengthen U.S. democracy.
• Better Together America: Another Example of Massively Parallel Democracy Building at Work — A report on Better Together America's first Hub Accelerator Workshop -- an inspiring get together of people from around the United States who are working in a wide variety of ways to strengthen civic engagement in their local communities.
• Daniel Stid: Competitive Authoritarianism Comes for Civil Society — An exploration of the critical role that civil society needs to play in the defending US democracy and thoughts about how civil society might overcome the challenges that are making it difficult for it to play that role.
• Daniel Stid -- PS: Three Further Reflections on "Pluralism in the Trump Era" — Daniel Stid's three key "take-aways" from a conference on Pluralism in Action: we have a choice between pluralism and war; political resistance and civic renewal are different tasks, and pluralism is not a field. See why!
• Daniel Stid: Top Down Democratic Decline vs. Bottom Up Civic Renewal: 8 Working Hypotheses — The civic renewal we need is not primarily political or governmental, but rather, cultural. While Federal governance is still in a shambles, cultural change at the local and state levels promises a healthier democracy.
• Potpourri Newsletter #2 — Comments on our U.S. democracy post, Ashok Panikkar's question about contemporary education, and uplifting essay from Anne Leslie, and a new case study on Burundi from Emmy Irobi.
• Representative Derek Kilmer on the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress and De-polarization — Guy and Heidi Burgess talked with Rep. Derek Kilmer on how to break down polarization in Congress and in society in order to actually solve problems collaboratively. There is much to learn and copy here!
• The US in 2024: An Election That Worked and a Democracy That Doesn't — U.S. polarization and political dysfunction is only going to worsen until the two parties realize that the problem isn't "the other," but rather the way we refuse to tolerate, compromise and/or work collaboratively with with "the other."
• Do You Want the U.S. Government to Work? Read This! And Then Do This! — A description of the House Administration's Subcommittee on Modernization, and its predecessor, the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, and a plea for everyone to lobby for its continuation in the incoming Congress.
• Kristin Hansen: As America's political "world series" wraps up, let's focus on the long game + Richard Harwood Concurring Statement — Kristin Hansen of the Civic Health Project reflects on where we need to move to strengthen our civic health after the election; Richard Harwood and the Burgesses concur and add a few more thoughts about how to create a new "civic path."
• Daniel Stid: The Meaning of Democracy in Nine Words — Daniel Stid writes about one definition of democracy -- that it is a system in which one party loses elections, but is able and wants to "come back and play again."
• Massively Parallel Problem Solving and Democracy Building: An Ongoing Response to the Threats to Democracy in the U.S. - Part 5 — This final installment of the Burgess's Toda Policy Brief on Massively Parallel Democracy Building describes 53 different roles which all need to be filled simultaneously for democracy strengthening efforts to succeed. And everyone fits somewhere!
• Massively Parallel Problem Solving and Democracy Building: An Ongoing Response to the Threats to Democracy in the U.S. - Part 3 — The resilience of American democracy is based on three factors: an abundant array of tools for resisting those who threaten democratic institutions, a willingness to use those tools, and the creativity needed to develop new responses to new challenges.
• Could Congress Leverage AI to Help Restore Faith in US Democracy? — Communication between Congressmembers and their constituents is democracy's mission critical data. Combined with other kinds of expertise, this data could serve as the digital foundation of a modern representative system.
• Massively Parallel Problem Solving and Democracy Building: An Ongoing Response to the Threats to Democracy in the U.S. - Part 2 — In this 2nd (of 5) installments of the Burgess's Toda Policy Brief on Massively Parallel Democracy Building, we look at some of the threats facing democracy in the United States, and where they could lead if they aren't addressed soon.
• Massively Parallel Problem Solving and Democracy Building: An Ongoing Response to the Threats to Democracy in the U.S. - Part 1 — The first of a five-part series outlining our latest thinking on massively parallel democracy building. This installment briefly introduces the core argument about what the threats to democracy are, and what is needed to meet them.
• Guy and Heidi Burgess Talk with David Eisner about Threats to Democracy and How to Address Those — The Burgesses talked with David Eisner about what he thinks the threats to democracy are, and how (and when) we might respond to them. We agreed, citizen involvement in governance is key.
• Thinking about What Democracy's Winners and Losers Owe One Another — As we think about how to heal US democracy following the upcoming, and undoubtedly divisive election, we propose asking ourselves whether we are willing to treat the other side as we would like to be treated.
• Daniel Stid: A Big Question I Have Is... — Hope, vision, and place-based civic heath are key elements to our ability to navigate the turbulent times that have left so many of us in fear and despair.
• Democracy Lighthouse, Practitioner Mobilization, and More on Communicating with Friends and Family — Sharing several new ideas that have come to us recently on controlling affective polarization and threats to democracy from the family level on up.
• Democratic Subversion - Part 2 — Part 2 of 2 newsletters looking at an old, but eerily accurate, way of looking at the chain of political events that have done so much to undermine democratic societies in recent decades.
• Democratic Subversion - Part 1 — Part 1 of 2 newsletters looking at an old, but eerily accurate, way of looking at the chain of political events that have done so much to undermine democratic societies in recent decades.
• Lorelei Kelly on Strengthening Democracy at the Top and the Bottom — Lorelei Kelly describes the work of the bipartisan Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress which passed 202 recommendations, many unanimously. Over half have been implemented and most others are in progress.
• Talking Race and Democracy with Grande Lum — Reflections on the Community Relations Service, the Divided Community Project, the Rebuild Congress Initiative, the Disagree Better Campaign, and many other topics.
• What Happens When We Have ANOTHER Election That Both Sides Absolutely Positively Can't Afford to Lose? — The US 2024 presidential election is shaping up to be extremely challenging for U.S. democracy, but there are things that can be done to make sure it is both trustworthy and trusted.
• Daniel Stid Talks about Ways to Strengthen Democracy by Replacing Polarization with Pluralism — Polarization is afflicting both leaders and followers, and the feedback between the two makes the problem worse. Key to fighting that is reinvigorating the value of political pluralism and openness to divergent views of problems and solutions, starting first at the local and state levels.
• Daniel Stid: Citizens' Assemblies: An Idea Whose Time Has Come (Again) — Citizens' assemblies are an ancient form of governance, used by the Athenians in the 5th Century B.C., whose time has come again. Daniel Stid reports on their increasing use and benefits around the world, including in the U.S.
• Does the Power-With Approach Include Justice? Comments on Our Power-Over/Power-With Essay — Power-with and power-over whom, how, and for what purpose are all important factors to consider when making strategic choices.
• Pro-Democracy Efforts: the Tension between Power-Over or Power-With Approaches — Pro-democracy efforts have little consensus on what democracy is, or how it should be "saved." Our failure to reconcile these competing views is a big part of the reason why democracy is in so much trouble.
• Daniel Stid: Four Ways To Reframe Democracy in America — How loneliness and isolation are contributing to our political malaise--and four ideas for changing that.
• Bridging the Theory/Action Gap: One Key to Improving the Effectiveness of Efforts to Strengthen Democracy — If democracy scholars and democracy actors knew more about each others activities, they could both do more to strengthen democracy.
• The Key to Saving Democracy: Reducing Polarization? Promoting Justice? It Takes More Than That! — There's no one answer to "saving democracy." We need to pursue many different things all at the same time.
• Divided Community Project: Speaking Out to Strengthen the Guardrails of Democracy — One of the most important ways in which we can all act to strengthen our democracy is to speak out when others are acting in ways that threaten it.
• Sharing Ideas From Around the Globe on Ways to Strengthen Democracy - A BI/IGN Discussion — A summary of ideas generated by the joint BI/IGN discussion on ways to strengthen democracy using negotiation, conflict resolution, and related processes.
• Rachel Kleinfeld's "Five Strategies to Support U.S. Democracy" — US democracy is failing. Each moment deepens the polarization that makes its problems harder to fix. As Americans, we must start now, at scale, strategically, with a broad, cross-party coalition to save our democracy.
• Kevin Clements' "Authoritarian Populism and Atavistic Nationalism: 21st Century Challenges to Peacebuilding and Development" — Are liberal, democratic capitalist states operating under the rule of law capable of meeting the economic, welfare, and identity needs of citizens in the 21st century? If not, what can?
• Julia Roig Talks about Weaving a Healthy Democracy in the United States — Julia Roig talks about her efforts to build a social movement to support democracy in the U.S. Such a movement needs to both block and build: block bad actors, and build a new pluralistic society that works.
• Essential Elements + Obstacles = The Things That Need Doing Matrix — An introduction to a matrix of "things that need doing" to fix democracy, together with a blog post on an "inter-movement" designed to help do those things and two more posts on the nature of polarization.
• Essential Elements + Obstacles = The Things That Need Doing Matrix — An introduction to a matrix of "things that need doing" to fix democracy, together with a blog post on an "inter-movement" designed to help do those things and two more posts on the nature of polarization.
• Essential Elements + Obstacles = The Things That Need Doing Matrix — In addition to the Burgess's essays this newsletter includes Matt Legge's thoughts on polarization and CalebChristen on creating and intermovement community.
• Obstacles to Implementing the Elements of Successful Democracy — A discussion of five obstacles to implementing the elements of successful democracy, two examples from the blog of what's going wrong, and Colleague and Context posts.
• Essential Elements of Successful Democracies - Part 2 — Here we continue the discussion of 7 essential elements of essential democracies, add blog posts on calling in, not out, and not being too sure of oneself. A discussion of complex adaptive systems is also included.
• Essential Elements of Successful Democracies - Part 1 — This newsletter begins to consider what democracies need to do to be successful, along with some ways they can start doing that.
• The 2022 Election -- Did It Make Hyper-Polarization Better or Worse — This newsletter looks at what the 2020 election did for hyper-polarization and begins to discuss potential conflict resolution responses, along with usual colleague activity and context posts.
• Strategies for Revitalizing Democracy in the Post 9/11 Era — Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Connie Ozawa, and Barney Jordaan offer their their thoughts on what the conflict resolution field can do to help limit the hyper-polarization that is plaguing so many societies.

Escalation/Violence

• The Threat of Political Violence in the United States — The number of people supporting political violence is not nearly the 30% that has been often reported, but it is still much higher than it should be. We all need to try to calm down our rhetoric so things don't get out of hand.
• Peter Coleman: The Great Reset — Peter Coleman suggests 8 steps that Columbia could follow to better understand what caused the chaos of last year, and how such conflicts can be conducted more constructively in the future.
• Don't Take the "Hate Bait!" — Returning hate with hate hurts everyone. Much better to return hate with inquiry and respect (even if it isn't deserved), and try to defuse the anger before it explodes.
• Gaza, Ukraine, Increasing Global Tensions, and the Nature of War — An exploration of Quincy Wright's image of total war, reasons why it is so much more dangerous than lesser armed conflicts, and mechanisms through which it could quickly spread around the world.
• 7 More Ways to Turn Down the Heat — Figuring out how to avoid destructive escalation, when possible, and reversing it once it has started, is of the highest importance. The good news, though, is that there are many ways to do that.
• A Remarkable Effort to Do Trauma-Informed Peacebuilding Training in Ukraine Amidst Ongoing Trauma — A description of a longer "practitioner reflection" about trauma-informed peacebuilding training in Ukraine, and how that reflects on peacebuilding challenges in less challenged places as well.
• More Ways to Turn Down the Heat — The second part of our short, readable summary (with lots of links) to what we collectively know about strategies for controlling destructive escalation.
• Reversing or Better Yet, Avoiding, Destructive Escalation — A short, readable summary (with lots of links) to what we collectively know about strategies for controlling destructive escalation. (Part I)
• Escalation is the Most Dangerous Force on the Planet. But We Continue to Drive It — Driven by many interacting feedback loops, escalation can get out of control quickly--leading to violence or even worse.
• Revisiting the Gun Violence Issue and America's Declining Trust and Increasing Sense of Threat — A look at what we know about reducing the mutual hostility (associated with escalation and hyper-polarization dynamics) that contributes so much to mass shootings, gun deaths, and interpersonal and political violence.
• The Crane Brinton Effect --- Why Revolutions Fail — Amid calls for a political revolution to fight systemic oppression, a critical look at why revolutions fail with contributions from the Burgesses, Peter Adler, James Adams, William Donohue, and Mark Hamilton.
• How Can We Reduce Hyper-Polarization? Join BI's Discussion to Share Your Ideas and Learn Others! — A welcome to Beyond Intractability's new Substack newsletter and an introduction and invitation to participate in our online discussion of strategies for limiting hyper-polarization.

Dialogue

• James Coan and Katie Hyten on Scaling Up Dialogue and Other Forms of Interpersonal Communication to Bridge Political Divides — Interpersonal communication is not the only way to reduce political divides; other much more "scalable" approaches work in addition to, not instead of, one-on-one communication to reduce hyper-polarization.
• Katie Hyten Explains how Essential Partners is Taking Dialogue to Scale — Essential Partners has figured out both how to scale dialogue to the community level (if not beyond) and to make the relationship improvements dialogue engenders sustainable over the long term.
• A Further Discussion of Dialogue — Dialogue has no fixed goal or predetermined agenda. The emphasis is not on resolving disputes, but rather on improving the way in which people with significant differences relate to each other.
• Ted Wetzel's Disagreement Fitness — Democracy only works if people understand how to work through disagreements constructively. "Disagreement Fitness" is a way to strengthen such skills.
• Ted Wetzel's Disagreement Fitness — Democracy only works if people understand how to work through disagreements constructively. "Disagreement Fitness" is a way to strengthen such skills.
• Contradictory Thoughts About Dialogue — Dialogue can change attitudes, but those changes tend to be fleeting unless a great deal of thought and care goes into both the process and the aftermath. Designing for scale up is key.

Massively Parallel Processes

• Kenneth Boulding's First Law: If It Exists (or Has Been Done), It Must Be Possible — Reflections on the vital role played by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the fraught relationship between those organizations and governmental sources of support.
• Every Problem Creates an Opportunity to Develop Something New and Better — A retrospective look at the long and hopeful history of the conflict resolution and peacebuilding fields -- a history punctuated by a long series of societal crises and, ultimately, constructive responses to those crises.
• Massively Parallel Problem Solving and Democracy Building: An Ongoing Response to the Threats to Democracy in the U.S. - Part 5 — This final installment of the Burgess's Toda Policy Brief on Massively Parallel Democracy Building describes 53 different roles which all need to be filled simultaneously for democracy strengthening efforts to succeed. And everyone fits somewhere!
• Massively Parallel Problem Solving and Democracy Building: An Ongoing Response to the Threats to Democracy in the U.S. - Part 4 — This 4th (of 5) installments of the Burgess's Toda Policy Brief on Massively Parallel Democracy Building lays out seven essential goals, all of which contribute to developing a "power-with democracy" to replace "power-over" approaches.
• Massively Parallel Problem Solving and Democracy Building: An Ongoing Response to the Threats to Democracy in the U.S. - Part 3 — The resilience of American democracy is based on three factors: an abundant array of tools for resisting those who threaten democratic institutions, a willingness to use those tools, and the creativity needed to develop new responses to new challenges.
• Massively Parallel Problem Solving and Democracy Building: An Ongoing Response to the Threats to Democracy in the U.S. - Part 2 — In this 2nd (of 5) installments of the Burgess's Toda Policy Brief on Massively Parallel Democracy Building, we look at some of the threats facing democracy in the United States, and where they could lead if they aren't addressed soon.
• Massively Parallel Problem Solving and Democracy Building: An Ongoing Response to the Threats to Democracy in the U.S. - Part 1 — The first of a five-part series outlining our latest thinking on massively parallel democracy building. This installment briefly introduces the core argument about what the threats to democracy are, and what is needed to meet them.
• Massively Parallel Partisanship Revisited — Massively parallel social movements can strengthen democracy or tear it apart, and the dividers are currently much more visible (and successful) than the uniters. With effort, though, that can change!
• Massively Parallel Peacebuilding Roles - Part 4 — The last in a four-part series of MPP roles looking at those who help balance power so that everyone in society is treated fairly, and those who try to defend democracy from those who would destroy it.
• Massively Parallel Peacebuilding Roles - Part 3 — Part 3 of a 4 part series examining the many roles played by participants in Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building. This newsletter focuses on those who help us analyze complex problems and develop collaborative solutions.
• Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Roles - Part 2 — The second of three posts explaining the actor roles needed for a massively parallel peacebuilding/democracy building effort to work, which combined with an earlier post on strategy roles, makes up the current MPP role list.
• Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Roles - Part 1 — People engaged in massively parallel peace and democracy building play at least 50 different roles. In Part 1 of this three part series, we explore the roles played by the "strategizers" who help us understand the both nature of the problem and possible responses.
• Massively Parallel Peacebuilding: A Strategy for Building a Democracy That Lives Up to Its Ideals — A summary and links to videos outlining the Burgess's latest thinking about massively parallel peacebuilding and democracy building and explaining how it is already taking place on a large scale.
• Learning More about How the TRUST Network Does Massively Parallel Peacebuilding — Democracy is a complex adaptive system. This means we need a complex, adaptive response to the many threats that it faces. The TRUST Network is one.
• Peace is My Day Job — Working for peace can be a primary job. Figure out your passions, your talents, talk with people, and together develop a path to pursue your dreams and make the world a better place at the same time!
• The Trust Network: An Example of Massively Parallel Peacebuilding in Action — The Trust Network is an "if it exists, it must be possible" example of massively parallel peacebuilding. We are writing about it. They are doing it!
• Could Massively Parallel Processes Make Hyper-Polarization Worse? — Bad-faith actors can and do use a massively parallel strategy to drive us apart. But that doesn't mean that the strategy is bad -- it means that it is effective. Good-faith actors need to learn how to use similar techniques to bring us together.
• Massively Parallel Peacebuilding vs. Massively Parallel Partisanship — As we work to build a massively parallel peacebuilding movement to limit hyper-polarization and protect democracy, we must be aware of other, more partisan massively parallel movements that are deepening our divisions.
• Addressing the Skeptics And Moving Forward — The first of our new shorter format newsletters we finish up our paper on massively parallel peacebuilding and introduce what comes next.
• Massively Parallel Peacebuilding/Problem Solving — The first of our new shorter format newsletters we finish up our paper on massively parallel peacebuilding and introduce what comes next.

Future Visioning

• Richard Harwood Talks With Heidi Burgess About His "New Civic Path" — Heidi Burgess talks with Richard Harwood, President and Founder of the Harwood Institute about how community members can work together to overcome even their most difficult problems
• An Entreaty: An excerpt from The New Civic Path: Restoring Our Belief in One Another and Our Nation by Richard C. Harwood — Rich Harwood's new civic path starts with turning outward toward one another, figuring out what we can agree on amid our differences, and getting in motion together to take action on what matters in our daily lives.
• Anne Leslie: Why Hope Dies Last...and Why I Stopped Being an Optimist — When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes -- you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others.
• Envisioning a Future (Almost) Everyone Will Want to Live In — How much could we change if we could just accept the fact that "America belongs to all who live here" and we set about the task, as South Africans did, to figure out how we could make that work for everyone?
• If You Don't Know Where You Are Going, it Is Going to Be Hard to Get There — More on envisioning a society in which we all want to live: an elicitive approach suggests that Western democracies should try to visualize ways to improve those democracies, not replace them.
• Developing a Vision for a Society in Which We Would All Like to Live — With this newsletter, we start imagining a less polarized future with lessons from South Africa from Ebrahim Rasool as well as observations from Neal Kohatsu, Ken Cloke, and Duncan Autrey.

Peacebuilding

• Comments on Our Webinar with Ashok Panikkar on "Whither Peacebuilding" — Does peacebuilding always work? Are there some instances in which it should not be pursued? The Burgesses and three readers discuss this difficult topic.
• Ashok Panikkar, Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess Discuss: Whither Peacebuilding? Is There Life After USAID and USIP? — The peacebuilding field has been seriously shaken by the closure of USAID and USIP. What does this (and other real-world pressures) mean for the field? A conversation with three people who have been thinking about these challenges for a long time.
• A Reasonable Peace: Can Critical Thinking Save the Field of Peacebuilding? — Ashok Panikkar, Heidi and Guy Burgess (with facilitation from Merrick Hoben) talk about why peacebuilding is failing in much of the world, and how the use of critical thinking explains why and what might be done to be more successful.
• More Reflections from "Gail," The Israeli Peacebuilder Who Also Serves in the IDF Active Reserves -- And What that Says for U.S. Peacebuilding -- within the U.S. — Excerpts from an email exchange between Heidi Burgess and one of her former students, who is now a peacebuilder in an Israeli/Palestinian peacebuilding organization, while also serving in the IDF reserves.
• "Don't Destroy What you Want to Inherit": Peacebuilding Holds the Key to Building a Strong United States of America — A guest post from a MSc student at Ulster University in Northern Ireland, charting a way forward in the United States after the election -- suggesting three critical steps the U.S. might take to avoid "destroying the country we want our children to inherit."
• A Potpourri Newsletter — Short pieces about new books, and new ideas about the challenges we currently face and ways to meet them from John Paul Lederach, Lou Kriesberg, Kenneth Boulding, Deborah Laufer, and Guy and Heidi Burgess.
• Reconciliation "Pieces" - Parts 2, 3 and 4: Truth, Mercy, and Peace — Progress toward reconciling today's deeply divided democracies requires the balanced and simultaneous pursuit of peace, justice, truth, and mercy.
• Talking Peacebuilding and Democracy with Ashok Pannikar and Guy and Heidi Burgess — A report on a thought-provoking conversation that explored some of the most difficult challenges facing the peacebuilding field.
• Elements of Reconciliation --- Part 1: Justice — Justice has many different meanings. If social justice is to be attained, we need to sit down together an negotiate which of the many meanings of justice we want to pursue--and how.
• More Comments on Growing Strawberries on Coconut Trees — More reader comments and Ashok Panikkar's comments on those comments about the role of peacebuilding, force, and other approaches to the world's current most violent conflicts.
• Martin Luther King from a Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Perspective — A look at the now hard to imagine challenges faced by the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King, and the 1963 March on Washington; how they were able to overcome them; and what they can teach us today.
• Deborah Laufer and Katja Rieger on Peacebuilding, Israel/Hamas, and Future Visioning — Two more readers contribute thoughts about the Israel/Gaza war and ways of envisioning a future we would all want to live in.
• Growing Strawberries on Coconut Trees: The Nature of Peace and Peacebuilding in a Collectivist and Illiberal World — To understand why the peacebuilding field has failed to live up to its lofty ambitions, we have to unpack the world we inhabit today. Peacebuilding is not possible in many societies, and peacebuilders need to understand where their processes can work and where they cannot.
• A New Year's Gift from Jay Rothman: 31 Definitions of Peace and You — An exercise to help us all appreciate our inner and social experiences of peace, wholeness, and connection, as defined by many cultures around the world.

Bad Faith Actors

• Israel, Hamas, Evil, and the Bad-faith Actor Problem — From a conflict resolution and peacebuilding perspective, reflections on Hamas' horrific attack on Israel and the role that our field has played and could play in shaping this tragedy.
• Bad-Faith Actors and the Red/Blue/Gold Divide — Successfully dealing with intractable conflict requires distinguishing between good-faith and bad-faith actors (and between intentional and reluctant bad-faith actors) and then dealing with each group in a different way.

Multi-Topic Links

• August 31, 2025
• Beyond Intractability Announces Major System Upgrade — In this Newsletter we announce the release of the much updated Beyond Intractability website with the addition of an extensive Constructive Conflict Guide focused on hyper-polarization and ways to strengthen and improve democracy.
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• Special Edition of Colleague and Context Posts: The 2023 Israel-Hamas War — This Special Edition of the Beyond Intractability in Colleague and Context Newsletter offers links to articles that we have found to be especially useful as we have struggled to understand the far-reaching implications of Hamas' brutal attack on Israel and the extremely dangerous and tragic war that that attack has unleashed.
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