Conflict Fundamentals Seminar/Blog

Conflict Fundamentals Graphic

Conflict Fundamentals

As conflicts have been heating up and becoming both more destructive and intractable, many of our friends who are not in the conflict resolution field have been asking me "what can I do?" or "What can be done to defuse the deepening level of distrust, hostility, and even hate that we see growing daily in the United States and elsewhere around the world?"  We created the Conflict Fundamental seminar series -- along with the "What Everyone Can Do" Blog -- to try to help answer that question.  

These seminars go into more detail than the Blog, presenting the core knowledge from the conflict resolution and peacebuilding fields---knowledge that is, to a large extent, considered a "starting point" for our more advanced Conflict Frontiers Seminar Series.  These posts, which cover both "normal" conflicts and conflict resolution processes as well as complex intractable conflicts, are also likely to be of use and interest to students of conflict resolution and peacebuilding as well as a more general audience.

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MOOS Icon  MOOS Icon

Fundamentals posts are also being included in the
Constructive Conflict MOOS Seminar's
exploration of the tough challenges posed by the
Constructive Conflict Initiative.
Look for: #mbi_fundamentals

 
Syllabus Overview

As of March, 2019, the Fundamentals Seminar has been re-organized and expanded.  It now has twenty units, covering introductory concepts, and then a deeper examination of typical conflict problems and solutions, or at least ways of addressing such problems constructively if "solution" to too high a goal.  Posts in the first five units are mostly ones that were in the earlier seminar.  The units after that are new.  Right now they are primarily populated with BI Knowledge Base essays.  We will soon begin adding "Current Implications Sections" for these, which is what we had done previously when we included Knowledge Base materials in the Fundamentals Seminar.  But we decided linking to the original essays in the interim was still useful. Current Seminars include:

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Detailed Syllabus

See syllabi for the entire seminar series with a list and short descriptions of all posts including a collection of teaching materials and erercises.

Recent Posts
  • Face
    Face is the opposite of shame and saving face--one's own and others'--is critical for conflict resolution.
  • Respect
    The opposite of humiliation, respect is almost a magic pill helping to jump start conflict transformation.
  • Oppression and Conflict: Introduction
    This intro to a 6-essay series focuses on the causes and impacts of oppression and how it can be overcome.
  • Conflicts and Disputes
    Distinguishing between conflicts and disputes is essential for successful engagement in each.
  • Complex Adaptive Systems
    Successfully working with complex system requires us to challenge many of our assumptions and understand the limits of rational planning.

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Participation Options and Guidelines

There are four ways to participate in the Conflict Fundamentals Seminar:

  • Visiting: You can simply drop into the Seminar's blog or the Syllabus Page, reading as your interest and time allows.
  • Following: You can sign up to follow the core seminars  (of which this is considered one) or all the seminars and blogs on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or through the MBI Newsletter.
  • Give Us Feedback: We have discontinued our formal discussions due to lack of participation, but we still hope to hear from you via email.  We will be posting any thoughts we receive on a feedback page (with or without attribution, as requested). So please send your comments on posts you find interesting!
  • Contribute: We also welcome suggestions of other topics for this seminar and information about your work that relates to this effort overall.

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