- September 11, October 7, and Our Changing Responses to Terrorism -- A comparison of the differing reactions to the terrorism of September 11 and October 7 plus an exchange of views on the role that dehumanization is playing in the ongoing Middle East wars. -- Oct 06
- Massively Parallel Problem Solving and Democracy Building: An Ongoing Response to the Threats to Democracy in the U.S. - Part 1 -- The first of a five part series on massively parallel democracy building. This installment briefly introduces the core argument about what the threats to democracy are, and what is needed to meet them. -- Oct 02
- Caleb Christen and Vinay Orekondy Talk about the Better Together America Project -- Caleb Christen and Vinay Orekondy talk about the democracy and civic hubs they are helping form around the country to bring "democracy back to the people" where it can actually work. -- Sep 30
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of September 29, 2024 -- Our weekly set of recommended readings from colleagues and news and opinion writers. -- Sep 29
- The Threat of Political Violence in the United States -- The number of people supporting political violence is not nearly the 30% that has been often reported, but it is still much higher than it should be. We all need to try to calm down our rhetoric so things don't get out of hand. -- Sep 25
- Revisiting BI's Constructive Conflict Initiative - Part 1 -- Looking back on the 5-year old Constructive Conflict Initiative, a lot has happened to bring it to fruition. But a lot of challenges remain. -- Sep 19
- Reprise: The Power Strategy Mix — Empowering the Pursuit of the Common Good -- Power takes three forms that can be mixed and matched: coercion, exchange, and integration. The "recipe" for the optimal "power strategy mix" changes depending on whom you are trying to influence. -- Sep 17
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of September 15, 2024 -- We've been on vacation, so, to cover what we've missed, this is a long set of news, opinion, colleague, and recommended readings from our followers. -- Sep 15
- Reprise: Planning a Constructive Confrontation Strategy: Understanding the Relationship between Negotiation and Power -- Constructive confrontation calls for resolving most disputes through interest-based negotiation; only if that fails should one try a contest of rights, reserving nonviolent power contests as a very last resort. -- Sep 11
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of September 8, 2024 -- Readings on Israel, the U.S. political scene, and other intractable conflicts of note. -- Sep 09
- Reprise: Constructive Confrontation: Applying Conflict Insights from a 1st Party (Not 3rd Party) Perspective -- A reprise of an old newsletter on constructive ways of engaging in conflict that is less likely to create backlash and more likely to achieve one's goals than typical adversarial approaches are likely to do. -- Sep 07
- Guy and Heidi Burgess Talk with David Eisner about Threats to Democracy and How to Address Them -- The Burgesses talked with David Eisner about what he thinks the threats to democracy are, and how (and when) we might respond to them. We agreed, citizen involvement in governance is key. -- Sep 04
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of September 1, 2024 -- More in our regular set of links from readers, about colleague's activities, and from outside news and opinion sources. -- Sep 02
- Updating Our Impartiality Discussions - Part 1 -- The Burgesses update their 2-year old discussion of impartiality, adding to it Martin Carcasson's notion of "principled impartiality" which adds in quality information and "small-d" democracy. -- Sep 02
- Updating Our Impartiality Discussions - Part 2 -- 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. -- Aug 28
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of August 18, 2024 -- Reader suggested links, and the Burgesses selections of articles about colleague's activities and other news and opinion articles of interest. -- Aug 21
- A Potpourri Newsletter -- 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. -- Aug 18
- Susan Carpenter and Heidi Burgess Reflect on Susan's 40+ Years' Experience Doing Consensus -- 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. -- Aug 15
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of August 11, 2024 -- 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! -- Aug 12
- Walt Roberts and Caleb Christian Talk about the Inter-Movement Impact Project -- 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." -- Aug 11
- Massively Parallel Partisanship Revisited -- 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! -- Aug 07
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of August 4, 2024 -- Reader-suggested links, colleague activities, and news and opinion articles that caught our attention this week. -- Aug 04
- Thinking about What Democracy's Winners and Losers Owe One Another -- 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. -- Jul 21
- Daniel Stid: A Big Question I Have Is... -- 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. -- Jul 18
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of July 14, 2024 -- 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. -- Jul 17
The Hyper-Polarization Challenge to the Conflict Resolution Field
We invite you to participate in an online exploration of what those with conflict and peacebuilding expertise can do to help defend liberal democracies and encourage them live up to their ideals.
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