The Hyper-Polarization Crisis: A Conflict Resolution Challenge

You are invited to participate in and contribute to an online discussion of how those with conflict resolution and peacebuilding expertise can do more to defend liberal democracies while also helping them live up to their ideals.

A Beyond Intractability / Conflict Resolution Quarterly Joint Online Discussion / Blog

Discussion Focus / Framing Articles

CRQ Feature Article Framing the Discussion: Applying conflict resolution insights to the hyper-polarized, society-wide conflicts threatening liberal democracies — Burgess, Burgess, & Kaufman
CRQ Commentaries on the Feature Article from: Menkel-Meadow, Ozawa, Jordaan, Goldberg (Added Nov 2022)
Secondary (newer) Framing Article: The Key to Revitalizing Liberal Democracy: Think of It As a Conflict Handling System — Burgess & Burgess
BI/CRQ Discussion Project Origins: The Constructive Conflict Initiative
More on the Focus of the Discussion

Executive Summaries / Highlights

For those with limited time, here are quick summaries (and links) to some of the discussion's most valuable insights.

Executive Summary of CRQ Feature Article: Applying Conflict Resolution Insights to Today's Hyper-Polarized Societies
Additional summaries to be added.

Invitation to Participate

CRQ Editor's Invitation
Beyond Intractability Co-Directors' Invitation (with information about how to join the discussion)
The Best Way to Follow the Discussion Is by Signing-up for BI's Free Substack Newsletter

Discussion Topics

A growing collection of pages highlighting discussion posts related to more focused topics

Discussion Blog

Chronological listing starting with the most recent posts

Julia Roig: Where Does Civil Resistance and Social Justice Fit in MPP? -- How do we know when taking a stand is what’s absolutely called for – because we’ve reached the tipping point of uncivil politics/undemocratic behaviors? January 25, 2023
Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess: Massively Parallel Peacebuilding vs. Massively Parallel Partisanship -- Advocacy plays a key role in Massively Parallel Peacebuilding. But, this role can either be supportive and helpful, or destructive, depending on how it is done. January 25, 2023
Beyond Conflict's Reports on America's Divided Mind and Renewing American Democracy -- Now is our time to re-rebuild our democracy, and it will take all of us, working on multi-faceted solutions at the local, state, and national levels. - January 25, 2023
Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess: The Google Maps and Adopt-a-Highway Approach to Systems (Newsletter 72) -- If we were to map all the challenges Google-maps style, and then each person or organization were to adopt one or two of the challenges that were not widely adopted by others, that could have a much bigger impact. Jan. 20, 2023
Anne Leslie: Embracing Ambiguity -- Curiosity will get you SO FAR. …Never underestimate the power of being curious and likeable! It will get you so far in life! And it’s massively, massively underestimated. January 6, 2023
Kristen Hansen talks about the Civic Health Project's Work on De-polarization in America -- A discussion of ends and means, incentives, interventions, scale, challenges, successes, visions--Kristen's vision is clear and exceptionally wide ranging at the same time. Jan. 5, 2023
Canaries, Constructive Advocates, and Intermediaries -- A comparison of three conflict roles, all of which are needed to successfully confront challenging and complex social problems and issues. Jan. 2, 2023
Lou Kriesberg's Chapter 10 in Fighting Better - Recovering and Advancing Equality in the Future -- A review of Louis Kriesberg's seven elements of constructive conflict, as illustrated in the closing chapter of his new book Fighting Better: Constructive Conflicts in America. Jan. 2, 2023
Caleb Christen: Creating an Inter-movement Community -- Transforming democracy is an adaptive challenge requiring flexibility, adaptability and intentionality in organizing to enable organizations and millions of Americans to work in unison. Dec. 15, 2022
Matt Legge: When Polarization is Beneficial -- Issue polarization can help people come closer to understanding "the truth" about controversial events or issues. How information is presented to parties in conflicts makes a big difference to the quality of the conflict that ensues. -- Dec. 6, 2022
Is Polarization Good or Bad? -- Rising heat is not necessarily bad--it shows changes are needed. But we need to pursue those changes constructively, as attempts to overpower or destroy the other will also destroy ourselves. Dec. 4, 2022
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. 3, 2022
Jean-Jacques Subrenat: Implementing Democracy -- Attacks on the rule of law in the U.S.A. are having an impact on the political mores of other democracies. The U.S. badly needs to update its own democracy to preserve the safety and prosperity of all around the world. November 29, 2022
Kristen Hansen: Are Bridge-builders Being "Too Nice" to the Right? -- The primary role of bridge-builders in America at this time is to "call in," not to "call out." That this does not make us irrelevant, it makes us essential. Nov. 20, 2022
Matt Legge: Beware the Popular Idea That You Know a Hidden Truth -- This metaphor leads to a binary assumption: I'm right, they are wrong. We'd be well served dropping that assumption, and listening to others to learn how they might, actually, be right, and we are wrong. Nov. 18, 2022.
Frederick Golder on Common Ground instead of Polarization -- We cannot change anyone’s opinions, values, ideas, attitudes, judgments, or viewpoints, but, we can understand each other better through learning conversations and use those to find common ground. Nov. 17.2022.
Guy Burgess: Finding Common Ground / Constructive Approaches for Addressing Differences -- This process focuses on five questions examining the nature of the different beliefs and opinions, and how they might be dealt with most constructively depending on whether they are fact-based, moral, or both. Nov. 15, 2022.
Andrew Harward: A Vision of Constructive Political Conflict in The United States -- A visioning exercise yields a credible plan for significantly reducing political polarization -- with many additional benefits to individuals, organizations, and society as a whole as well. Nov. 14, 2022
Guy Burgess: The QED Trap -- The QED trap locks people into a win-lose struggle for power that eliminates any chance of learning, compromise, or collaboration. Nov. 8, 2022
Julia Roig -- Rethinking 'Polarization' as the Problem -- Polarization is good when it pushes us to change. It is toxic when it causes us to dehumanize and push away "the other." We need to sit with our conflict, explore it, and move through it together. Oct. 25, 2022
Colin Rule : Positive Reframing in Political Conversations: Avoiding the Race to the Bottom -- What outcome do we want to achieve? When we lash out in anger, do these behaviors help or hinder our efforts to achieve that outcome? Are they making the problem worse? Oct. 23, 2022
Duncan Autrey: We All Win, or We All Lose -- We all agree society is in grave trouble. We all have different notions of how to fix it. If we pool our knowledge and work together, we can create a better world for everyone. Oct. 23, 2022
Ken Cloke: Hyper-Polarization -- Interest-based processes that allow us to capture the positive aspects of polarization while reframing, minimizing, and transforming the destructive aspects is essential for positive change. Oct. 20, 2022
Duncan Autrey: It's Time to Upgrade Our Democracy -- Our current democratic system is inherently flawed because it relies on elected officials to represent people without an effective means of listening to them. We must fix that! Oct. 20, 2022
Kevin Clements et al: The Toda Peace Institute's Conversations on the Subversion of Democracies in the 21st Century -- Democracy is backsliding around the world, driven by polarization, attacks on democratic fundamentals by duly-elected "democratic" leaders, and clandestine, insidious incremental changes. Oct. 19, 2022
Responses to Our Crane Brinton Essay -- Conrad and Camus also pointed out what we called the Crane Brinton Effect--revolutions tend to lead only to an exchange of regimes with an even more brutal regime likely to replace preceding one. Oct. 19, 2022
If You Don't Know Where You Are Going, It Is Going to Be Hard to Get There -- Elicitive approaches can help us visualize a democracy in which we all would want to live. Oct. 17.2022
Summary of William Donohue's "A Framework for Understanding Polarizing Language" -- Polarizing language demonstrates features that are readily identifiable. Can such warnings can be heard and action taken to enable people to shift from violence to problem solving before it's too late? — Sept. 27, 2022
Summary of Martin Carcasson's "The Case for Principled Impartiality in a Hyper-Partisan World" — To abandon impartiality completely and simply join the fray as partisans will likely only further erode our political culture and exacerbate the problems of polarization, distrust, and misinformation. - Sept. 25, 2022
Ken Cloke: Neutrality, Omni-Partiality, and the Evolution of Political Conflict — We must overcome the hostile, adversarial, authoritarian forces that separate “us” from “them;” and realize that there is no “them,” there is only us. Then we can face our conflicts and crises together, as a diverse and cohesive community of problem solvers. - Sept. 23, 2022
Ken Cloke: Mediation in a Time of Crisis -- The introduction to Ken Cloke's latest book focused on the many concurrent crises facing the United States and the world. It demonstrates compellingly how our only way out is through collaboration. — Sept. 22, 2022.
Summary of Lisa Schirch: Transforming the Colour of US Peacebuilding: Types of Dialogue to Protect and Advance Multi-racial Democracy -- A summary of an article focused on how peacebuilding dialogue and the movement for social justice should be complementary, not at odds with each other. — Sept. 22, 2022.
Neal Kohatsu: For Less Divisiveness, We Need More Humility -- Kohatsu suggests we follow Adam Grant's "rethinking cycle" -- a progression through humility, doubt, curiosity, and discovering, circling back to humility. — Sept. 20, 2022.
Jack Williams: Reaching out Within and Beyond the Classroom -- The President of the Institute for Global Negotiation shares his thoughts on how the education system writ large can help entire societies learn and use better conflict resolution techniques. — Sept. 20, 2022
Greg Bourne: What Do the Times Require? -- We’ve seen up close the results of hate, discord and violence. We must choose the better path – and the first step begins with each of us making that choice. — Sept. 17, 2022.
Richard Rubenstein: Talking Sense about "the Next American Civil War" -- We should work to avoid inflaming the “all or nothing” consciousness that often leads in the direction of civil violence, and focus, instead, on our real enemy--the capitalist structure of wealth and power.— Sept 14, 2022
Jay Rothman: The Reflexive Mediator — A summary of Jay Rothman's 2014 Negotiation Journal article in which Jay suggests mediators cannot be neutral, but they can be reflexive and use "disciplined bias" to reach resolution. — Sept. 9, 2022
James Adams: A Cautionary Tale for a Polarizing America and the World—An excerpted version of James Adams's reflection on the similarities between the United States and war-torn and post-war countries abroad where he has served as a peacebuilder. . — Sept. 4, 2022
Not a False Flag, a More Effective Strategy for Fighting Oppression: the Burgesses Respond to Jackie Font-Guzmán and Bernie Mayer -- The conversation between Jackie, Bernie, and the Burgesses is a good example of the blind man and the elephant parable. We all need to look at the whole elephant! . — Aug. 26, 2022
Peter Adler: Defiance at Duck Springs -- The world is made of stories, and good stories accumulate into larger narratives and make the world’s history what it is, and what it could be. Here's a story we should learn from before it becomes true. — Aug. 24, 2022
The False Flag of Hyper-Polarization A Response to Guy and Heidi Burgess’ Critique of The Neutrality Trap -- An approach that says we should focus on peace and not justice is not only bound to fail, it is dangerous in these times when our democracy is under attack and authoritarianism is on the rise. — Aug. 24, 2022
Introducing a Discussion with Bernie Mayer and Jackie Font-Guzmán about Hyper-Polarization, Neutrality, and Oppression -- Is America's core problem hyper-polarization or oppression? Which is the cause and which is the effect? What does this imply about how we address both?— Aug. 23, 2022
Polarization Past and Present: What’s Changed? What’s Possible?— Join the Network for Responsible Public Policy on Thurs Aug 25 at 7:30 pm EDT for a discussion of what can be done to bridge todays gaping divides— Aug. 22, 2022
Jay Rothman's Quick Answers to Our Questions -- Jay argues that participatory, civic engagement to promote deeper understanding of and commitment to fundamental difference (which he refers to as "agonism") is essential for successful democracy.— Aug. 22
Larry Susskind Explains How To Get Highly Distrustful, even Hateful Parties to Work Together -- Those who want to promote dialogue or peace-making among parties who are “at war” are inviting the wrong people to the wrong kind of event in the wrong way. There are clear alternatives that work, devising seminars being one of them. -- Jul. 22, 2022
The Crane Brinton Effect--Why Revolutions Fail —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. — July 20, 2022
Allison Pike-Merrell Interviews Nawaz Mohammed, Sri Lanka Country Director, Search for Common Ground -- SFCG country director Nawaz Mohamed talks about his background, how he got into peacebuilding work, and how (and why) he is working for reconciliation in his native Sri Lanka. -- Jun. 30, 2022
Larry Susskind in the Negotiation Journal: Initiating Collaboration in the Midst of a Standoff -- Breakthrough Collaboration is different from traditional dispute resolution and dialogue in that it can be initiated on just one side and does not need to bring the parties together. It can create "ripeness" where none exists. -- Jun 29, 2022
Larry Susskind and Shafik Islam on Complexity -- The combination of complexity theory with negotiation theory yields a powerful tool for effective water resources management--and other complex public problems. -- Jun 28,2022
Chip Hauss: Beyond Polarization -- We’ll counter toxic polarization if and only if we offer people a better and credible alternative that they can put into practice in the lived experience of their daily lives. -- Jun 28, 2022
Louis Kriesberg: Comments on “Applying conflict resolution insights…” by Burgess, Burgess, and Kaufman -- Lou Kriesberg, co-author with Bruce Dayton of Constructive Conflicts, offers a variety of comments, including his view that "polarization" implies equivalence of responsibility, which is not accurate. -- Jun 27, 2022
Larry Susskind: Consensus Building in the Age of Trump What was it like in the Age of Trump? -- Listening to or caring about "the other side" has become much less common in "the age of Trump," but that just makes the roles of neutrals all the more important. -- Jun 27, 2022
Solon Simmons: Applying Root Narrative Theory to the Republican Party and American Politics -- Only Republicans can save the party from the abyss they have fallen into; the way out involves changing their dominant root narratives that drive their behavior. -- Jun 26, 2022
From Chris Honeyman: Statement of J. Michael Luttig to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6, 2021 Attack on the United -- Luttig asserts that America is at war with itself and if its leaders do not quickly develop the moral courage to make peace, America is doomed. -- Jun 25, 2022
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 country from sliding into an authoritarian dystopia, an eloquent reminder of why we have to strengthen liberal democracy. -- Mar 31, 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 30, 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 curiosity, humility, "process pluralism," and most importantly widespread education of the polity on better ways of dealing with conflict. -- Mar 29, 2022
See All Posts
See Earlier (Closely Related) Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog

Supporting, More In-depth Information from Beyond Intractability

In order to support the BI/CRQ discussion, we are starting to assemble supporting materials from the Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base and elsewhere and organize those around the framework explained in the secondary framing article.