Recent BI and Substack Posts

Polarizing language demonstrates features that are readily identifiable. Can such warnings can be heard and action taken to enable people to shift from violence to problem solving before it's too late?

To abandon impartiality completely and simply join the fray as partisans will likely only further erode our political culture and exacerbate the problems of polarization, distrust, and misinformation.

Bernie Mayer and Jackie Font-Guzmán offer a critique of our focus on hyper-polarization based on their book, The Neutrality Trap.

We must overcome the hostile, adversarial, authoritarian forces that separate “us” from “them;” and realize that there is no “them,” there is only us. Then we can face our conflicts and crises together, as a diverse and cohesive community of problem solvers.

The introduction to Ken Cloke's latest book focused on the many concurrent crises facing the United States and the world. It demonstrates compellingly how our only way out is through collaboration.

A summary of an article focused on how peacebuilding dialogue and the movement for social justice should be complementary, not at odds with each other. 

Do efforts to limit hyper-polarization undermine efforts to challenge oppression or does allowing hyper-polarization to flourish fuel the hatred that makes oppression possible?

Kohatsu suggests we follow Adam Grant's "rethinking cycle" -- a progression through humility, doubt, curiosity, and discovering, circling back to humility.

The President of the Institute for Global Negotiation shares his thoughts on how the education system writ large can help entire societies learn and use better conflict resolution techniques.

We’ve seen up close the results of hate, discord and violence. We must choose the better path – and the first step begins with each of us making that choice.

A look at the many implications of living in a post-privacy society.

Three contributions to the hyper-polarization discussion that explore ways of working together despite the divisive social climate.

We should work to avoid inflaming the “all or nothing” consciousness that often leads in the direction of civil violence, and focus, instead, on our real enemy--the capitalist structure of wealth and power.

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.

A summary of Jay Rothman's 2014 Negotiation Journal article in which Jay suggests mediators cannot be neutral, but they can be reflexive and use "disciplined bias" to reach resolution.

An excerpted version of James Adams's reflection on the similarities between the United States and war-torn and post-war countries abroad where he has served as a peacebuilder. 

A joint BI/CRQ call for those with conflict resolution and peacebuilding expertise to pool their insights and think about how we could help democracies better live up to their ideals.

The conversation between Jackie, Bernie, and the Burgesses is a good example of the blind man and the elephant parable. We all need to look at the whole elephant!

The world is made of stories, and good stories accumulate into larger narratives and make the world’s history what it is, and what it could be. Here's a story we should learn from before it becomes true.

An approach that says we should focus on peace and not justice is not only bound to fail, it is dangerous in these times when our democracy is under attack and authoritarianism is on the rise.

Is America's core problem hyper-polarization or oppression? Which is the cause and which is the effect? What does this imply about how we address both?

Jay argues that participatory, civic engagement to promote deeper understanding of and commitment to fundamental difference (which he refers to as "agonism") is essential for successful democracy.

Those who want to promote dialogue or peace-making among parties who are “at war” are inviting the wrong people to the wrong kind of event in the wrong way.  There are clear alternatives that work, devising seminars being one of them.

Adams's book summary explains why he wrote the book the way he did, and what he was trying to accomplish in doing so.

The key to successful revolutionary (or evolutionary) change is a broadly agreed-upon vision for a better society in which most everyone would like to live.