The non-credit MOOS seminars merge the free and widely accessible reach of massive open online courses with a seminar's exploration of frontier the field issues.
- Invitation / Quick Introduction
- What's New
- Accessing MOOS Content
- MOOS Authors | Project History
- Detailed Program Description
- Guy's Philosophical Introductory Video
- Heidi's Nuts-and-Bolts Introductory Video
- Using the MOOS Video
The MOOS is designed to speed the development and utilization of strategies for effectively addressing the complexity of destructive, intractable conflicts so that they can be transformed into more constructive situations.
The content and organizational structure of MOOS Seminars and Blogs is designed to meet the needs of five principal audiences:
- Citizens wanting information about more constructive of handling conflict problems.
- Advocates and Activists wanting to limit the destructive conflict dynamics they commonly encounter.
- Students and Educators at the undergraduate graduate level looking for a structured exploration the intractable conflict problem.
- Practitioners in formal & informal conflict roles looking for ways to improve their practice.
- Expert scholars and practitioners with substantial background in intractable conflict-related fields interested in helping to advance the frontier of the field (and improving the MOOS).
The MOOS content can be accessed directly through the specific seminar pages. In addition, as the seminars proceed, MOOS content is posted in two streams on social networks and on the MBI-MOOS page:
- Core Content Blog:
- All Content Blog: (Core Content plus Additional Resources and Colleague Activities):
Additional details on how the various ways to access MOOS content can be found on our Access Page.
Posts are organized in the following annotated syllabi and blogs.
- Conflict Frontiers Seminar - a sustained inquiry into ways of advancing the conflict field,
- Fundamentals Seminars - quick summaries of the field's big and proven ideas,
- Additional Resources - links to informative intractable conflict-related news stories,
- Colleague Activities - highlighting the contributions of our colleagues,
- Brown Bag Seminars.- short, free-standing explorations of intriguing topics:
- Complexity,
- US Political Polarization, and
- Constructive Confrontation for advocates.
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The Complex Causes of Social Problems
We need to think about social problems as complex adaptive systems requiring massively parallel problem-solving.
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Our Most Important Conflict: Coexisters vs. Fighters vs. Divide & Conquerors
We need to resist "divide and conqueror's" efforts to control society by exacerbating left/right tensions.
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The Evolutionary Choice: "Power With" or "Power Over"
An explanation of why this may be our best/last chance to make democracy work (and avoid autocracy and anocracy).
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Meeting the Adaptation Challenge
Speeding society's ability to rapidly adapt to changing conditions should be a key goal of the conflict field.
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The Really Big Picture Ecodynamics & Planetary Evolution
An exploration of how understanding ecodynamics and evolution can help us deal with complex conflict.
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System Levels
Simple models won't work! We must develop conflict intervention models for higher-level complex systems.
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Complex vs. Complicated Systems
Intractable conflicts are complex adaptive systems, so they need complex, adaptive responses.
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Embracing Complexity: The Key to Dealing with Intractability
Understanding the difference between complicated and complex systems is key to understanding that no one is in charge in intractable conflicts.
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Robert Ricigliano: Making Peace Last
Complex conflicts require complex responses: the SAT and PAL models are linked approaches for doing just that.
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Other Takes on Systems and Complexity: Peter Coleman – Part 2
Different from linear approaches, Coleman says intractable conflicts can still be tamed by 3 steps.
- -- American Politics are Radicalizing
- -- How 12 experts would end inequality if they ran America
- -- Republicans and Democrats Just Did Something Big Together
- -- A debt crisis is coming. But don’t blame entitlements.
- -- The Middle East’s Age of Innocence Is Over
- -- Corruption Corrupts
- -- A debt crisis is on the horizon
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Competitive and Cooperative Approaches to Conflict
Self-fulfilling prophecies keep us stuck in destructive conflict styles.
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Process Frames
Your process frame is a blinder that lets you see a solution...or forces it away.
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Humiliation
Evelin Lindner calls humiliation the "atom bomb of emotions" because it does such profound damage to relationships.
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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.
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Power
If power were one-dimensional, we could agree who has more and who has less. But we are often surprised at how power struggles come out.
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Social Status
Social status is intrinsically linked with ideas of power, humiliation, dignity and hierarchy--all of which drive conflict.
