BI ArticleEnemy Images
Enemy images deepen our socio-economic and political problems, while they make effective problem solving impossible.
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Constructive Conflict Guide >
The Complex Factors That Make Intractable Conflict So Difficult >
Conflict "Overlay" Problems >
Conflicting Visions and Frames
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Enemy Images
Enemy images deepen our socio-economic and political problems, while they make effective problem solving impossible.
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Stereotypes / Characterization Frames
Stereotypes are simplified, and often highly inaccurate, images of the motivations and behaviors of others. When in error, they can lead to and escalate conflicts.
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Into-the-Sea Framing
When a conflict becomes intractable, many people hope that their enemy will simply disappear. They pursue overwhelming victory without ever really considering the fact that they will still have to live with their enemies after the conflict.
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Delegitimization
Delegitimization refers to the negative stereotypes used to describe an adversary. Delegitimization is one of the major forces that feeds violence and prevents a peaceful resolution.
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Competitive and Cooperative Approaches to Conflict
This set of materials explores these two different approaches to conflict and the results of pursuing one or the other.
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Conflicting Visions and Frames
When people have divergent and competing images of what is happening in the world, why, and what they want, that makes resolving the conflicts between them much more challenging than it is when they share fundamental understandings of what the conflict is about, and how it might be resolved.
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Failure to Recognize the Need to Limit Destructive Conflict
Many people think polarization, conflict, and even war is inevitable -- "it is just human nature," some say. But the lethality of modern conflict and warfare makes the importance of conflict limitation and war prevention of utmost importance.
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Missing Underlying Democratic Vision
Many Americans who came of age after the end of the Cold War don't have a good sense of how democracy is different from other governmental systems, and why it is superior (at least to those who have grown accustomed to it). And even those who support democracy have widely different images about what democracy is, and what aspects of it are most important to preserve or even strengthen.
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Limiting Divisive Us-vs-Them Framing
When we define a conflict in us-versus-them terms, asserting that "we" are the "good guys" and "they" are the "bad guys" we are almost assuring that "they" will do the same thing, and common ground (other than defining each other as the enemy) will not be found.
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Constructive Framing & Future Visioning
If you frame conflicts as shared problems that need to be solved collaboratively, and work together to develop a vision for the future that will be acceptable to all, you are much more likely to be able to deal with conflict in a constructive way.
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Imagine a Positive Shared Future
You can't get to a destination if you don't know where it is. Likewise, if you don't know what kind of future you want, it will be hard to achieve. And if you seek a future that the "other side" strongly opposes, you are also likely to fail. Constructive conflict involves developing an image of a positive shared future -- a future in which everyone in society would like to (or at least be willing to) live.
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Visionaries
Visionaries help us imagine a unifying vision for a diverse society that maximizes self-determination while promoting joint action to protect the commons.
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A Vision for a Democracy That Lives up to Its Ideals
The ability of conflict to advance, rather than threaten, the human condition depends upon having a shared vision of how to build a democratic society that fairly and wisely balances the competing interests of its diverse citizenry.