This blog contains posts highlighting things everyone--not just powerful people, not just important or rich people--but everyone of us--can do to help limit the dynamics that lead to destructive and intractable conflicts.
Things You Can Do To Help Home | About | Follow | Join Discussions | All Posts
Things You Can Do To Help Blog
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Play a "Third Side Role"
"Third siders" are disputants and outsiders - united in a desire to transform conflicts for the better.
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Minimize the Use of Force
Exchange and respect are more powerful than force--they persuade without causing backlash.
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Seek Co-existence, Not Total Victory
The demand for total victory is a recipe for continuing and deepening strife--co-existence is essential for peace.
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Understand Your--and Others'--Fundamental Human Needs
Fundamental needs are common drivers of conflict. But they don't have to be.
Visit briefly, follow, or join our Conflict Frontiers Massive Open Online Seminar (MOOS) to explore and discuss strategies for more constructively addressing the many challenges of the large-scale, complex, intractable conflicts that threaten contemporary society.
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LATEST POSTS
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The Decentralized, "Markets Plus" Metaphor
Harnessing the power of markets: a strategy for scaling up efforts to deal with complex, intractable conflict.
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The Google Traffic Metaphor
Google traffic and other traffic control activities can teach us a lot about dealing with conflict.
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The Scale-Up Problem
We need to stop thinking in terms of mediation triads, and scale up conflict work to societal levels.
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Engineering and Medical Troubleshooting Models
Complexity-oriented approaches to conflict are more like medicine and less like engineering.
Brief readings and videos which highlight the conflict and peacebuilding field's fundamental building blocks – ideas which help address both "tractable" and intractable conflicts more effectively.
Fundamentals Home | About | Syllabus | Follow
LATEST POSTS
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Channels of Communication
When channels of communication between hostile actors close, risks of destructive conflict raise substantially.
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Misunderstandings
Even if the misunderstandings do not cause conflict, they can escalate it rapidly once it starts.
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Interpersonal Communication
We take it for granted, but so much can go wrong with our communication. In conflict, care is essential!
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Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance can escalate or de-escalate conflict depending on how it is used.
Beyond Intractability's efforts to promote more constructive approaches to conflict occur within the larger context of efforts to promote wise and equitable solutions to a broad range of social problems. This blog highlights readable news articles that help us understand the big picture.
Many other people are doing important and interesting things in an effort to move beyond intractability-in theory and in practice, in different locations and on different conflicts. Please share what you are doing here so we can all learn from each other.
LATEST POSTS
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New Report: Snapshot of Adaptive Management in Peacebuilding Programs
This report introduces a new approach to peacebuilding evaluation which is more and flexible and adaptive (and hence appropriate for fast-changing, complex environments) than are traditional non-adaptive, post-hoc evaluation methodologies.
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New Book: Embodied Conflict: the Neural Basis of Conflict and Communication
Tim Hicks has published an important new book on neuro-science that illustrates what Guy Burgess refers to as "pscyhological complexity" and explains how that impacts communication and conflict.
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The Economics of Peacebuilding: Assessing the Cost and Effectiveness of Programming
An argument that the peacebuilding field needs to do a much better job understanding the cost-effectiveness of our work.
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Louis Kriesberg on Gene Sharp
Louis Kriesberg's obituary for Gene Sharp, the pre-eminant scholar on nonviolent direct action.
