This seminar relates to Conflict Frontiers Massively Parallel Peacebuilding (MPP) Challenge 4: Deveioping an Attractive Common Future.

As the teaser says, if you don't know where you want to go, you are very unlikely to get there.  Many people in conflict just know they are angry and frustrated and they want things "fixed," but they really haven't thought about "how."  And if they have considered how, they often don't think about whether or not their end goal and/or their ways of achieving it are remotely acceptable to the other side(s).  If they aren't then their likelihood of being able to get to their desired end state is still very low.  Hence, the important of developing an attractive common future--a future that everyone would want to live in. 

Posts in this Seminar:

• Envisioning -- Envisioning is a process in which people try to see into the future--not only what they expect to happen, but what they would like to happen. In order to attain "peace," people must have an image of what "peace" would look like. Only then can they figure out what they need to do to get there.
• Setting Goals -- Just as you cannot walk to a destination if you do not know where it is, you cannot achieve your goals if you do not know what they are. For this reason, goal setting is an important part of conflict management and resolution.
• Tolerance  -- William Ury explained, "tolerance is not just agreeing with one another or remaining indifferent in the face of injustice, but rather showing respect for the essential humanity in every person."
• Coexistence -- In a state of coexistence, the parties agree to respect each other's differences and resolve their conflicts nonviolently.