Recent BI and Substack Posts

In part 2 of this 2-part series, we apply Martin Carcasson's notion of "principled impartiality" to the Israel/Gaza/Hezbollah/Iran war, and to the political conflict in the United States.

Reader suggested links, and the Burgesses selections of articles about colleague's activities and other news and opinion articles of interest.

Short pieces about new books, and new ideas about the challenges we currently face and ways beyond them from John Paul Lederach, Lou Kriesberg, Kenneth Boulding, Deborah Laufer, and Guy and Heidi Burgess.

Susan Carpenter has been working in the field of collaborative problem solving for over 40 years. She talked about the changes she's seen over those years, and the time-tested approaches she has come to rely on for success.

Our weekly collection of links from colleagues and outside news/opinion sources on the many predicaments we are now facing around the world. It's pretty daunting!

Caleb Christen and Walt Roberts talk about the Inter-Movement Impact Project -- another example of massively parallel problem solving and democracy building "in the real world."

Massively parallel social movements can strengthen democracy or tear it apart, and the dividers are currently much more visible (and successful) than the uniters. With effort, though, that can change!

Reader-suggested links, colleague activities, and news and opinion articles that caught our attention this week.

In an hour-long interview, Martin talks about the "wicked problem mindset" as a way to diminish polarization, and encourage collaboration, creativity, and healthy democracy, at least at the local level.

Weekly suggested readings and viewings.

As we think about how to heal US democracy following the upcoming, and undoubtedly divisive election, we propose asking ourselves whether we are willing to treat the other side as we would like to be treated.

Hope, vision, and place-based civic heath are key elements to our ability to navigate the turbulent times that have left so many of us in fear and despair.

Our regular reader-suggested links, colleague activities, news and opinion links and a new "highlighted links" for people who want some really good reads quickly.

To address the polycrisis, it is necessary to "focus on part of the polycrisis but with an awareness of the whole." Among Gerzon and Sebree's several insightful suggestions: forget optimism and pessimism, focusing instead on "possibility."

Rosa Zubizarreta's thoughts about better ways to talk across differences without destroying relationships, and also how we can stop a repeat of World War II before it is too late.

Gerzon and Sebree explain what the "polycrisis" is, and ten of the individual crises that interact to create it. In part 2, they will explain what can be done to constructively address this unprecedented challenge to human well being, even survival.

Reader suggested links, colleague activities, and our renamed "News and Opinion Section" that shared insightful views of the issues of the day from outside the conflict resolution & peacebuilding fields.

Can the constitution brings us back together, as it was designed to do, or will it push us further apart? Should we, in the United States, be proud or ashamed this Independence Day -- and how can we build pride on the ashes of shame?

Sharing several new ideas that have come to us recently on controlling affective polarization and threats to democracy from the family level on up.

More useful and interesting reading from colleagues and others in allied fields.

Part 2 of 2 newsletters looking at an old, but eerily accurate, description of political events in the United States over the last ten-twenty years, explaining why we are well on our way to a destroyed democracy and what we can do about it.

Part 1 of 2 newsletters looking at an old, but eerily accurate, way of looking at the chain of political events that have done so much to undermine democratic societies in recent decades.

More links to interesting things we -- and our readers -- are reading.

How should we deal with summer family visits when some of our relatives are "on the other side?" Like so many other things, "it depends."

Peter Coleman suggests 8 steps that Columbia could follow to better understand what caused the chaos of last year, and how such conflicts can be conducted more constructively in the future.