- 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. -- Apr 24
- 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. -- Apr 21
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of April 20, 2025 -- Useful readings for today. -- Apr 19
- 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." -- Apr 14
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of April 13, 2025 -- Weekly readings and viewings of interest. -- Apr 12
- Harry Boyte On Nonviolence Training and Effective Nonviolent Action -- A reflection on the relationship between love and power and what makes nonviolent protests effective. -- Apr 10
- 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. -- Apr 06
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of March 30, 2025 -- Our weekly readings for your enjoyment! (Or blood pressure increase). -- Apr 02
- 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. -- Mar 30
- 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. -- Mar 28
- Heidi and Guy Burgess Talk with Tom Klaus and Lamar Roth in their "Third Space" - Part 2 -- The second half our Guy and Heidi Burgess's conversation with Lamar Roth and Tom Klaus on their podcast "Getting to Third Space." Here we talk more about what is driving American polarization, why it is a problem, and what can be done to address it. -- Mar 25
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of March 23, 2025 -- Lots of readings about the Trump administration and responses to it -- plus other readings and videos of note. -- Mar 23
- 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." -- Mar 20
- 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." -- Mar 20
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of March 16, 2025 -- Our weekly collection of readings, not surprisingly, heavily focused on Trump's moves and responses to those moves. -- Mar 15
- 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. -- Mar 11
- 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 U.S. democracy. -- Mar 09
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of March 2, 2025 -- Another installment of our weekly suggested readings and viewings. -- Mar 06
- Louis 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. -- Feb 27
- Lou Kriesberg's "For All the People" and Related Thoughts About Paths Forward for the U.S. -- Lou Kriesberg, the Burgesses, and a variety of commentators agree. America needs to be governed by and for all the people, not just by and for a few rich folk. Pushback is starting to work toward that goal. -- Feb 26
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of February 23, 2025 -- Our weekly roundup of interesting reading and viewings, along with one event announcement. -- Feb 23
- 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. -- Feb 20
- 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. -- Feb 17
- 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. -- Feb 13
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of February 9, 2025 -- More important readings from our colleagues and journalists of note. -- Feb 09
The Hyper-Polarization Challenge to the Conflict Resolution Field
We invite you to participate in an online exploration of what those with conflict and peacebuilding expertise can do to help defend liberal democracies and encourage them live up to their ideals.
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