Recent BI and Substack Posts

A Introduction to a five-part strategy for overcoming the conflict problems that are preventing us from building a society in which we would all like to live. #mbi_frontiers

Motivated by a mass shooting in our community, we've spent the last week thinking about how our insights into the intractable conflict problem can help. #mbi_cci

Democracy is a system for wisely, equitably, and nonviolently managing conflicts between people with deep cultural differences who are also in continuing competition for scarce resources.

An exploration of what we need to do to bend the arc of history back toward peace and democracy and away from autocracy, problem-solving paralysis, and civil strife.

An explanation of why it is in our best interest to empathize with our enemies (even when we don't expect them to reciprocate).

You can't get to where you want to go, if you don't know where it is. So how can you get to a desired future, if you don't know what that future looks like? #mbi_fundamentals

Giving "the other" the benefit of the doubt most of the time will lead to better outcomes for everyone. #mbi_cci

Competition, collaboration, compromise, avoidance, and accommodation all have costs and benefits. Know which is best when! #mbi_fundamentals

Today's culture wars are largely attributable to the fact that the different generations adapted their beliefs to very different social conditions. #mbi_fundamentals

Based on the Constructive Conflict Initiative, a 45 min. video that explains to students and others concerned about the world's many problems why the conflict threat is as serious as climate change and what they can do to help address it. #mbi_cci

The outcry over the ad was more a reflection of ourselves than it was about the ad. If we look more deeply at our reactions, we might be able to see the value of its basic message. #mbi_cci

No matter how hard forgiveness may seem, there are strategies that have been successfully used to make it work. #mbi_fundamentals

Using Lederach's "Meeting Place' metaphor, we consider how "truth and mercy have met together; peace and justice have kissed." #mbi_fundamentals

If you want reconciliation to “stick,” you need to design it in collaboration with all affected parties, designing a place everyone would want to live in, not just your side. #mbi_fundamentals

Using the metaphor of baking, reconciliation can be made with a variety of ingredients, in different amounts, and added in different orders. #mbi_fundamentals

Reconciliation can be visualized as a balance beam, where everyone needs to maintain their balance to keep reconciliation from failing. #mbi_fundamentals

Simple solutions won't work in complex conflicts; one needs a complex solution to match the complexity of the conflict. #mbi_fundamentals

We need to think about the complexities, where our areas of influence are, and how we can scale up our influence go over the tipping point. #mbi_cci

We need to figure out how we can live together if we want to avoid a threatening disaster. Prospective reconciliation helps us do that.

An overview of common mistakes that people make when trying to deal with uncertain situations like COVID-19 (and strategies for avoiding them). #mbi_cci

To prevent violence, you need to respond to more than the immediate incident. You need to look at the structures and processes that led to it. #mbi_cci

Expressions of anger and unfocused demands are unlikely to fix things. You need a workable plan and a strategy for building the needed support. #mbi_cci

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. #mbi_cci

Efforts to limit the disproportionate impact of social problems are more likely to succeed when you take an inclusive approach that tries to address the problem wherever it arises. #mbi_cci

Neither party can now win elections without fully mobilizing their "base." This is being done by portraying the other side in the most threatening way possible, which has left us in a cycle of escalating hostility that we must find a way to escape. #mbi_cci