Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog
Since early April, we have been corresponding with many people about the need for better conflict handling strategies to address COVID-19, and then after George Floyd's death, racism as well. We decided to compile this correspondence in a blog—now called the Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog. The original Blog Introduction explained our thinking back in April about how the principles of the Constructive Conflict Initiative applied to the COVID-19 challenge and what, in particular, we need to focus on now. But now that the blog has been around awhile, we wanted to let readers jump right in without having to wade through a long introduction. If you want more information about what this is and where it is going, however, please read the longer CCI Blog Introduction.
We hope you will read at least some of what we have assembed so far, and then consider sharing your ideas too—a few sentences to several pages about any of the conflicts that are raging around us right now, and how we might address them more constructively. We are also interested in hearing about things that people are doing to help address any of these issues and links to books and articles that offer helpful insights.
You might also be interested in our Constructive Conflict Massive Open Online Seminar with its more extensive blog which includes additional BI content as well as links to the activities of our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues and articles exploring the larger context surrounding today's big conflicts.
Blog Posts
- Jayne Docherty talks about the Red/Blue Divide She Lives in Everyday -- Harrisonburg, VA, and its county, Rockingham couldn't be more different. But they are also surprisingly the same, which could be used to leverage improved relationships. -- Aug 08
- Race and Caste, Gender and Patriarchy, Wealth and Class: Mediating the Systems, Structures, and Sources of Prejudice -- Reknown mediator Ken Cloke reflects on the origins of bias, stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination, and what that says about ways to dismantle these scourges. -- Jun 15
- The King Soopers Shooting: This Time It Was Personal -- 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 -- Mar 29
- Positive Thinking -- Giving "the other" the benefit of the doubt most of the time will lead to better outcomes for everyone. #mbi_cci -- Feb 21
- A More Positive "Take" on "The Jeep Ad" -- 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 -- Feb 15
- Avoiding a Category 5 Socio-political Hurricane -- We need to figure out how we can live together if we want to avoid a threatening disaster. Prospective reconciliation helps us do that. -- Feb 04
- Shamil Idriss: America’s Hard Path Forward -- We must address extremist groups' grievances, while standing firm against their extreme actions. By focusing on commonalities, as well as differences, we can find a path forward. #mbi_colleague -- Jan 17
- Chip Hauss - On Coups and Reconciliation -- The U.S. desperately needs reconciliation at a time when it is going to be especially difficult for us to reconcile. #mbi_frontiers -- Jan 11
- Ebrahim Rasool on What America Might Learn From South Africa's 300+ Years of Struggle -- Exceptionally wise advice from South Africa on how to overcome polarization with vision, humanism, inclusion, and a balancing of truth, peace, and justice. #mbi_cci -- Jan 10
- Chip Hauss - On Coups and Reconciliation -- The U.S. is desperately needs reconciliation at a time when it is going to be especially difficult for us to reconcile. -- Jan 07
- These Four Steps Will Help When You’re Stuck--How do some people make major changes happen? -- Introducing "desire paths," and the importance of designing change to follow them whenever possible. -- Dec 18
- U.S. Reconciliation in 2020 and Beyond -- Reconciliation is not the imposition of one side's view on the other, but rather a meeting of minds and a way forward. #mbi_cci -- Nov 22
- Catching up with Chip Hauss and Imperative 21 -- In the wake of the still disputed US election, we have a massive amount of work to do to respond effectively to our many crises. Here's how to start. #mbi_cci -- Nov 10
- So What -- A list of six things we all can do to move forward in these fightening and chaotic times. #mbi_cci -- Nov 01
- Put Down the Brick…A Commentary on Community Economics -- We need to remember that difference is strength, and we should learn from and appreciate our differences, not fight them. #mbi_cci -- Oct 29
- Ways to Advance Equal Justice in America -- Improving justice for blacks improves outcomes for everyone by increasing trust, security, and mutual understanding between citizens and the police. #mbi_cci -- Oct 22
- Advancing Black Equality in America -- A suggestion that BLM expand its tactics to more extensively negotiate and lobby local, school, state, and national officials. #mbi_cci -- Oct 20
- Does Nonviolence Work? -- Research shows nonviolence is far more effective than violence--it should be all protestors' go-to choice! #mbi_cci -- Oct 14
- Disproportionality Trap and Counter Trap -- It is not enough to address the disproportionate impact of social problems, you also have to equitably address the problem itself. -- Sep 27
- Jay Rothman: Systematic Collaborative Visioning for Conflict Resolution Action and Evaluation in the Post-Covid19 World -- The time is ripe and we have much to contribute do de-escalation: listening, dialogue, reframing, collaboration and more. #mbi_cci -- Sep 24
- Morton Deutsch on Understanding and Overcoming Oppression -- Oppression has been with us through the ages. Fortunately we have learned many strategies for overcoming it. -- Sep 15
- The US Election, COVID, Racism, and the Constructive Conflict Initiative -- If ever the "peacemakers time is at hand," this is it! Join our effort to help share what peacebuilders know that can help. -- Sep 13
- Constructive Confrontation -- Designed to show how conflict skills can be used for more effective advocacy, not just negotiation or compromise. #mbi_cci -- Sep 10
- Fighting Today's Oppression, Not Yesterday's Oppression -- Opposing today's injustices will require cooperation across the racial divides that were a focus of many of the unrightable wrongs of the past. #mbi_cci -- Sep 09
- Power Strategy Mix -- Success is usually obtained by using a combination of two or three strategies, not just one--especially not just coercion! #mbi_cci -- Sep 09
- What does "Justice" Mean? -- The political discussions about justice this summer of 2020 are very narrow; they should take a much wider view of what encompasses "justice." #mbi_cci -- Sep 08
- Suzanne Ghais: Bridging the Police Community Divide -- A reflection on the dangerous escalation between police and their communities and how to address that effectively for all constituencies. #mbi_cci -- Sep 08
- The Blood-Boiling Trap -- Our tendency to focus on things that make us furious distorts the way we look at the world in ways that threaten rather than advance our interests. #mbi_cci -- Sep 07
- Hyper-Polarization, the Pandemic, and the Need for a "Lifeboat Ethic" -- We are all, in a sense, on one giant lifeboat. Surviving the storm will require us to figure out how to work together more effectively. #mbi_cci -- Sep 07
- Where Does The Nightmare of Continuing Hyper-Polarization End? -- Social processes like hyperpolarization can't continue indefinitely without leading to catastrophe. We desperately need an exit strategy. #mbi_cci -- Sep 04
- U.S. Hyper-Polarization—Over the Edge? -- Hyperpolarization at the level of hateful, but entertaining, rhetoric could easily escalate into large-scale 1960s-style civil unrest and violence. -- Sep 03
- Confronting NIMBYs by Polling Community Interests -- By broadening their understanding of their "backyard" to include their whole community, citizens can be much more powerful in their advocacy efforts. -- Sep 03
- Exponential Growth in Pandemics, the Economy, and Escalation -- Economic panic and/or escalating political violence threatens to upend society even more rapidly than the COVID-19 pandemic. #mbi_cci -- Sep 03
- Constructive Demonstration Strategies -- Primal screams don't change policy or public opinion. Demonstrators should know their goals--and the best way to accomplish them. #mbi_cci -- Sep 01
- The Base-Mobilization Trap -- The inflammatory tactics that make mobilize-the-base politics so effective are tearing us apart In ways that will be very difficult to reverse #mbi_cci -- Sep 01
- (When) Should We Escalate? -- What determines whether escalation of the conflicts over police brutality and systemic racism is beneficial? What can be done to make it as constructive as possible? #mbi_cci -- Aug 31
- What Happens When We Have an Election That Both Sides Absolutely Positively Can't Afford to Lose? -- Seeing the possibility of electoral defeat as totally unacceptable justifies the use of the most extreme and dangerous forms of political combat. #mbi_cci -- Aug 30
- The "Primal Scream" Syndrome and the Havlick Solution -- Self-righteous expressions of anger risk making things worse rather than better unless they are accompanied by real problem-solving. #mbi_cci -- Aug 27
- The Crane Brinton Effect -- The key to successful revolutionary (or evolutionary) change a broadly agreed-upon vision for a better society in which most everyone would like to live. #mbi_fundamentals -- Aug 26
- Heidi Burgess and Guy Burgess: Framing the Events of Spring and Summer 2020 -- It's time "we, the people" start taking control of our frames, focusing on shared frames instead of the polarizing ones we are being fed. #mbi_fundamentals -- Aug 24
- Dehumanization in Politics -- Political rhetoric has been moving toward increasingly dehumanized enemy images. If we want to save democracy we have to reverse this trend--NOW! #mbi_cci -- Jul 23
- Civil Rights Mediation Oral History Project -- Stories from people with vast experience in de-escalating and resolving the most difficult racial, ethnic, and sexual orientation conflicts. #mbi_cci -- Jul 14
- The "Two Taproot (or Fuses) Theory" of Social Unrest -- 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 -- Jul 09
- Theories of Change -- 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 -- Jul 08
- Into-the-Sea Framing in 2020 USA -- This black/white, there's only room for one of us in this space is not a recipe for peace or justice. It's a recipe for war. #mbi_cci -- Jul 08
- Sanda Kaufman: Back to Basics: Making Sense of Current Events - Can Framing Help? -- Better framing can contribute to depolarization, mutual understanding, productive dialogue, and real problem solving. Why don't we work on that? #mbi_cci -- Jul 07
- Identify--and Scale Up--Your Areas of Influence -- As we struggle to do what we can to help address today's tough problems, it's worth thinking about our areas of influence and how they might be expanded. #mbi_cci -- Jul 06
- Carrie Menkel-Meadow: Words Matter! -- Words paint how we see and project ourselves and others, and how we act in the world. We need better words if we want to solve our problems. #mbi_cci -- Jun 30
- The Mass Media's Role in Conflict -- Our conflict problems are largely media problems--problems that lead us to wildly different images of the nature of problems like COVID or racism. #mbi_cci -- Jun 23
- Heidi Burgess and Guy Burgess: COVID-10 and Civic Unrest - The Situation in Early June 2020 -- An article putting the forthcoming articles (about COVID and civil unrest) in context. -- Jun 09
- Living with Uncertainty in the COVID-19 Era -- 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 -- Jun 03
- Heidi Burgess and Guy Burgess: COVID-19 and Civil Unrest -- An introduction to a set of posts on the intersection of intractable conflict, the pandemic, and civil unrest. -- Jun 02
- Chip Hauss: Going to Scale -- How peacebuilders can work with others to "scale up" their efforts to grapple with the many wicked problems currently facing humanity. -- Jun 01
- Collective Imaginaries for the World after Corona: Children and Youth's Imaginaries -- COVID-19's impact on youths' lives are substantial, but little discussed. This study seeks to collect youth's images of the present and future. -- May 31
- Dr Ivana Milojević: Minimizing Conflicts Amidst the Covi-19 Pandemic -- Information, resources, relationships, structures, and values cause conflict admist COVID19. But these conflicts are also opportunities. -- May 28
- Glenda Eoyang: Crush the Arrogance of Certainty -- We all want certainty and control. But it doesn't exist, and pretending it does is harming everyone. -- May 27
- Matt Legge: COVID-19 and Responses to Uncertainty -- An article explaining how uncertainty molds our response to the pandemic and other social challenges--and what should be done about it. -- May 21
- Louis Kriesberg: On Taking Action -- Fight despair by taking action--doing something relevant to you to address our personal and collective predicament. #mbi_colleague -- May 01
- Chip Hauss: Shifting from "Me First" to "We First" and Other "Takes" on the Coronavirus -- We must all worth together to address the pandemic--and all of the other complex, wicked problems we face. #mbi_cci -- Apr 27
- Chip Hauss: Shifting from "Me First" to "We First" and Other "Takes" on the Coronavirus -- Three blogs on how peacebuilders might approach their work in the era of COVID-19, -- Apr 25
- John Lande on the Crisis-New-Normal (CNN) and the Normal-New-Normal (NNN) -- "Normal" after the pandemic subsides is not going to be the "normal" we knew before. What will it look like? -- Apr 25
- Louis Kriesberg: On Taking Action -- Fight despair by taking action--doing something relevant to you to address our personal and collective predicament. -- Apr 25
- Mark Chupp - An Exponential Rise of Trust and Goodness -- Yes, Covid-19 is growing exponentially. But so, too, is goodness and trust, which can be harnessed to counter Covid. -- Apr 25
- Shannon Kupersmith: We are at a complicated intersection with lots of roads. What if we use this opportunity to move forward in a better dir -- Life as we knew it in 2019 is gone. The world is changing, so what if we use this opportunity to move forward in a better direction? -- Apr 20
- Alan Yarborough/Steven Paulikas: Another Reflection on the Choice Ahead of Us -- "Let us not lose our memory once all this is past, let us not file it away and go back to where we were." (Pope Francis) -- Apr 19
- John Paul Lederach: We Need Moral Imagination to Respond to Covid-19. -- We must respond to this pandemic by strengthening relationships, using curiosity and creativity, and taking risks to make things better. -- Apr 18
- Bruce Dayton: We're at a Crossroads between Tribalism and a New Supra-Ordinate Identity -- Do we want the conflicts of tribalism, or the benefits that come from helping each other in a time of mutual crisis? -- Apr 13
- Cynthia Cohen: Artists Can Help Us Frame Our Coronavirus Narrative -- What happens during and after Covid-19 will be largely influenced by the stories we tell about what is happening. -- Apr 11
