Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog Posts

James Coan and Katie Hyten on Scaling Up Dialogue and Other Forms of Interpersonal Communication to Bridge Political Divides -- Interpersonal communication is not the only way to reduce political divides; other much more "scalable" approaches work in addition to, not instead of, one-on-one communication to reduce hyper-polarization. -- Mar 02, 2023
AfP Seminar--Toxic Polarization: What's the Left Got to Do with It? -- The language used to refer to the right is just making things worse, not better. The substance of the left's arguments matters too. -- Dec 02, 2022
Developing a Vision for a Society in Which We Would All Like to Live -- With this newsletter, we start imagining a less polarized future with lessons from South Africa from Ebrahim Rasool as well as observations from Neal Kohatsu, Ken Cloke, and Duncan Autrey. -- Oct 16, 2022
A New Book on Lessons from Peacebuilding Abroad and the Implications for Divisions within the United States -- Adams's book summary explains why he wrote the book the way he did, and what he was trying to accomplish in doing so. -- Jul 21
We Must Break the Logic of War Now--Before We Get World War III -- As we embrace every effort to end the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine today, we must seize this moment for what it is: our last best chance to prevent even greater tragedy tomorrow. -- Apr 17, 2022
Talk with Shamil Idress, CEO of Search for Common Ground -- Heidi Burgess interviews Shamill Idress about his career, Search for Common Ground's work, current challenges facing Search, the peacebuilding field, and the world as a whole--and how we can meet them. -- Apr 16, 2022
Russians Must Accept the Truth. We Failed. -- From one of the many brave Russians who tried, and failed, to stop their countriy from sliding into an authoritarian dystopia, an eloquent reminder of why we have to strengthen liberal democracy. -- Apr 01
The Ukrainian War: What Happens When You Have a War That Both Sides Absolutely, Positively Can't Afford to Lose? -- The same dynamic that is driving the hyper-polarization crisis in so many countries now threatens to turn the Ukrainian crisis into a truly catastrophic war. -- Mar 31, 2022
Extended Commentary: Applying Conflict Resolution Insights to Hyper-Polarization: “When Will (We) Ever Learn?” -- We need to focus on our interdependence, the importance of curiousity, humility, "process pluralism," and most importantly widespread education of the polity on better ways of dealing with conflict. -- Mar 30, 2022
Helping organizations and individuals develop conflict wisdom -- An appeal for the conflict field to go beyond interpersonal work to organizational work, particularly in businesses and business schools and an explanation of how peacebuilding "hubs" have been used in Belgium and The Netherlands to "scale up" peacebuilding to the societal level. -- Mar 29, 2022
Adding to the call to action—A few more thoughts -- An exploration of the importance of framing and the need to take control of the destructive narratives that are so pervasive in polarized democracies. We need to replace them with a shared vision for our future -- one that is attractive to everyone including those with whom we disagree. -- Mar 28, 2022
Applying conflict resolution insights to hyper-polarization: “When will (we) ever learn?” -- Long-time conflict resolution scholar and practitioner, Carrie Menkel-Meadow reflects on the many causes of hyper-polarization and suggests new metaphors and approaches for replacing it with constructive, collaborative problem solving. -- Mar 27, 2022
Applying conflict resolution insights to the hyper-polarized, society-wide conflicts threatening liberal democracies -- Long-time conflict resolution scholar and practitioner, Carrie Menkel-Meadow reflects on the many causes of hyper-polarization and suggests new metaphors and approaches for replacing it with constructive, collaborative problem solving. -- Mar 26, 2022
Applying conflict resolution insights to the hyper-polarized, society-wide conflicts threatening liberal democracies -- A call for those with conflict-related expertise to do more to help society more constructively handle the scale and complexity of today's big conflicts while also more effectively countering the efforts of bad-faith actors who are actively working to inflame and exploit our conflicts. -- Mar 26, 2022
BI/CRQ Discussion: Welcome and Invitation to Participate -- An open invitation to participate in an online exploration of additional things that those with conflict -related expertise might be able to do to help diffuse the hyperpolarized conflict problems that are so threatening to modern societies. -- Mar 24, 2022
The Hyper-Polarization Crisis: a Conflict Resolution Challenge -- In partnership with the Conflict Resolution Quarterly's new Feature Article series, Beyond Intractability is convening a new online discussion focused on the hyper-polarization crisis. -- Mar 23, 2022
The Many Types of Reconciliation -- Different types of reconciliation are better at different times and places, and can be done simultaneously or sequentially. Choosing the proper order can determine success or failure. #mbi_cci -- Mar 07, 2022
The Ukrainian War: What Happens When You Have a War That Both Sides Absolutely, Positively Can't Afford to Lose? -- The same dynamic that is driving the hyper-polarization crisis in so many countries now threatens to turn the Ukrainian crisis into a truly catastrophic war. -- Mar 06, 2022
Reflections on Neuroscience, Conflict, and Peacebuilding -- The new generation of neuroscience insights are revolutionizing the way in which we think about a wide range of conflict problems. #mbi_cci -- Feb 10, 2022
Priorities for Reducing Political Polarization in the United States -- An explanation of why, for a healthy democracy, it is so important that voters believe that their core interests will be protected--even when they lose an election! #mbi_fundamentals -- Feb 09
Addressing The "Grey Zone*" Warfare Threat to Negotiation -- The "invisible hand" upon which so much of liberal democracy depends is now being undermined by a wide range of "gray zone" attacks on negotiation processes. -- Feb 08, 2022
Universities Need to Do Better -- Universities need to teach about ways of understanding and influencing complex systems, and encourage true multi-disciplinary efforts to do so. #mbi_cci -- Feb 07, 2022
The Power of Art in Gray Zone Conflicts -- Armies of artists can engage people in peacebuilding the way other conflict handling professionals cannot. #mbi_cci -- Feb 06, 2022
Peter Adler: COVID Consequences: Slouching Toward Civil War -- A report on a poll regarding likelihood of civil war in America, and what that means for conflict resolution work. -- Jan 26
Review of Peter Coleman's The Way Out -- Addressing hyper-polarization as a complex problem is essential--but figuring out how to do so successfully is very tricky. #mbi_cci -- Jan 23, 2022
Reversing Polarization and Escalation - Part 2 -- We now have a list of 28 things that can be done to reverse or prevent escalation, but one sums up them all: respect. #mbi_fundamentals -- Dec 01, 2021
Reversing Polarization and Escalation - Part 1 -- While there are many things driving destructive escalation and polarization, there are also many things that can be done to reverse them. #mbi_fundamentals -- Nov 30, 2021
Intractable Conflicts Are Always More than "Us-Versus-Them" -- We tend to assume that it is their choices and their behavior, that is causing our own problems. It isn't. It is almost always US TOO! #mbi_cci -- Nov 04, 2021
What (if anything) have we learned since Vietnam? -- A discussion of the dangers of over-simplification and what can be done to better understand the complexity of a conflict before you choose a course of action. -- Oct 01, 2021
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, 2021
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, 2021
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, 2021
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, 2021
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, 2021
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, 2021
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, 2021
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, 2021
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, 2021
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
So What -- A list of six things we all can do to move forward in these frightening 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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
Does Nonviolence Work? -- Research shows nonviolence is far more effective than violence--it should be all protestors' go-to choice! #mbi_cci -- Oct 14, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
Constructive Confrontation -- Designed to show how conflict skills can be used for more effective advocacy, not just negotiation or compromise. #mbi_cci -- Sep 10, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
(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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
Louis Kriesberg: On Taking Action -- Fight despair by taking action--doing something relevant to you to address our personal and collective predicament. -- Apr 25, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020
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, 2020