Listing of Seminar Topics 

All posts can be found here or you can sign up to receive them on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Alternatively, you can get an email compliation of each unit by signing up for our newsletter.

A Note about Post Order:  We should note that this list is inherently linear, but this set of ideas is not linear. Rather, it is a web.  We have (as usual) had a very difficult time deciding what to post first, what later, what toward the end.  Conflict, and particularly complex systems, are very much chicken-and-egg affairs--everything relates to everything else.  So we will be presenting a lot of different ideas up front, and then circling back to them over time as we explore earlier ideas further and present related ideas that need to be linked to something that came before.  On this page we present the posts in a "Table-of-Contents" order, meaning from the first to the last.  The Conflict Frontiers Blog has the same posts, but like all blogs, lists the most recent post first.

Other Notes: 

• The MBI Overview and Unit 1 are the same in this seminar and the Fundamentals Seminar. Starting with Unit 2, the two seminars diverge.
• The dates shown are the dates that these posts will be (or were) sent out on social media.  However, all through Unit 4 are available here, now.  We are now starting to work on Unit 5, and will post those posts here when they become available as well. 

Moving Beyond Intractability Overview

• The Challenge of Complex, Intractable Conflicts -- Our inability to constructively handle intractable conflict is making societal problem solving impossible. -- February 28, 2018
• Beyond Intractability, CRInfo, and Moving Beyond Intractability -- BI is completely redesigned with new materials added daily. For students, conflict professionals, and anyone who wants to deal with conflict more effectively. -- February 28, 2018
• Constructive Confrontation Initiative -- MBI's Constructive Confrontation Initiative is starting! Use it to learn how to confront everday and difficult conflicts more constructively! -- March 1, 2018
• Things You Can Do To Help Limit Destructive Conflict -- Wonder what YOU can do to help counter destructive conflicts? This blog is for EVERYONE! -- March 1, 2018
• Conflict Frontiers Seminar/Blog -- Our standard interest-based solutions to conflicts aren't working for today's complex, intractable conflicts. We need something new! -- March 2, 2018
• MBI Discussions -- All the MBI Seminars (and one blog) have discussions open to our users. Please join them! -- March 2, 2018
• Peacebuilding in the Era of Trump -- How do we build peace and resolve conflict in the age of hyper-partisanship and Donald Trump? -- March 3, 2018
• Conflict Fundamentals Seminar/Blog -- Do you want to know what drives conflicts and disputes and how to resolve them? -- March 3, 2018
• Beyond Intractability in Context Blog -- Intractable conflicts permeate the news--in uplifting as well as disturbing ways. We highlight particularly interesting stories and articles here. -- March 4, 2018
• Colleague Activities Blog -- A conference without the travel--see here what others are doing to address the intractable conflict challenge. -- March 4, 2018
• BI/CRInfo Knowledge Base -- What happened to "The Old" Beyond Intractability and CRInfo? It's still all here--it's called the Knowledge Base! -- March 5, 2018

Unit 1: Understanding the Intractable Conflict Problem

• Welcome and Introduction to the Frontiers Seminar -- Limiting the destructiveness of today's big and intractable conflicts will require majors advances at the frontiers of the peace and conflict fields. -- March 6, 2018
• Why Can't We Fix Anything Anymore? -- Why can't we fix our serious social, economic, political, and environmental problems? Because we don't know how to deal with the underlying conflicts! -- March 7, 2018
• What Are Intractable Conflicts (A Frontiers Video)? -- Intractable conflicts aren't impossible to resolve--they are just very difficult. Recognizing their true nature is the first step towards transformation. -- March 7, 2018
• What Makes Conflicts Intractable (Frontiers Post)? -- Why are intractable conflicts like the earth and an onion? They all have multiple layers that hide the core. -- March 8, 2018
• Intractable Conflict: A "Climate Change-Class" Problem -- What are the parallels between intractable conflicts and climate change? There are many--and much to be learned from studying them. -- March 9, 2018
• Limits to Growth, Tragedies of the Commons, and the Conflict Problem -- Conflict problems associated with wisely and equitably managing the social, political, economic, and environmental "commons" are society's real "limit to growth." -- March 10, 2018

Unit 2: Pushing the Frontier: the Limits of Business-as-Usual Approaches

• Business-as-Usual Introduction -- Business-as-usual strategies don't work for intractable conflicts--they often make them worse! -- March 11, 2018
• Part 1: Same Old Approach, Just More or Better -- Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Why do we do that with conflict? -- March 12, 2018
• Part 2: Boys Will Be Boys" -- Are confliict and war inevitable? Is "compromise" bad? Common attitudes turn us into cynics and block learning. -- March 13, 2018
• Part 3: The "Blame Game" -- In conflict, we often blame the other. But then that person or group gets defensive, and the conflict often escalates. -- March 14, 2018
• Part 4: Power and the Power Strategy Mix -- What is power? The ability to get things done? The ability to push other people around? Which is right? (Actually, they both are.) -- March 15, 2018
• Part 5: The Interplay of Reason and Emotion -- Can you be "rational" about conflict? -- March 16, 2018
• Part 6: More Bad Assumptions -- If they'd just talk, they could work it out! Exploring this and other bad assumptions. -- March 18, 2018
• Part 7: The Return of I'll Fight-you-for-it Rules -- Are efforts to solve problems collaboratively now losing to naked contests of Machiavellian power? -- March 19, 2018
• Part 8: The Backlash Effect and Coefficient -- If your backlash coefficient is more than one, your cause cannot be won! Learn why! -- March 20, 2018
• Part 9: Recent Peace and Conflict Paradigms -- Peace cultivation and massively parallel peacebuilding: two ideas for a new complexity-oriented conflict paradigm. -- March 21, 2018

Unit 3: Introduction to Complexity and "Systems Thinking" -- Theoretical Antecedents

• Developing a Systems/Complexity Paradigm -- An introductory look at a developing new paradigm for peacebuilding: using systems thinking and complexity analysis -- April 3, 2018
• Dugan's "Nested Theory" of Conflict -- Conflicts exist in many levels at once - seeing these helps you see the entire conflict system. -- April 4, 2018
• Lederach's Pyramid -- Leaders at three levels of society all contribute to peace, but those at the middle-level are often the most effective. -- April 6, 2018
• Lederach's Big Picture of Conflict Transformation -- Lederach's circle of conflict transformation shows how to design change processes that work. -- April 7, 2018
• Diamond and McDonald's Multi-track Diplomacy -- Diplomats are not just officials, but include 9 different types of people--all contributing towards peacebuilding. -- April 8, 2018
• Ury's "Third Side" -- Everyone can play at least one of Ury's 10 "Third Side" roles--even the disputants themselves. -- April 10, 2018
• Coleman's "Five Percent" Part 1 -- Peter Coleman says intractable conflicts are formed by powerful "attractors" or seemingly inescapable traps. -- April 11, 2018
• Coleman's "Five Percent" Part 2 -- Different from linear approaches, Coleman says intractable conflicts can still be tamed by 3 steps. -- April 12, 2018
• Ricigliano's SAT model -- Complex conflicts require complex responses: the SAT and PAL models are linked approaches for doing just that. -- April 13, 2018
• Hauss's "New Paradigm" -- Intractable conflicts are "wicked problems" that need an entirely new paradigm to deal with, says Chip Hauss. -- April 15, 2018

Unit 4: Moving Toward a Complexity-Oriented Paradigm

• 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. -- April 16, 2018
• Complex vs. Complicated Systems -- Intractable conflicts are complex adaptive systems, so they need complex, adaptive responses. -- April 17, 2018
• System Levels -- Simple models won't work! We must develop conflict intervention models for higher-level complex systems. -- April 18, 2018
• The Really Big Picture Ecodynamics and Planetary Evolution -- An exploration of how understanding ecodynamics and evolution can help us deal with complex conflict. -- April 19, 2018
• Meeting the Adaptation Challenge -- Speeding society's ability to rapidly adapt to changing conditions should be a key goal of the conflict field. -- April 20, 2018
• 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). -- April 22, 2018
• Our Most Important Conflict: Coexisters vs. Fighters vs. Divide-and-Conquerors -- We need to resist "divide and conqueror's" efforts to control society by exacerbating left/right tensions. -- April 23, 2018
• The Complex Causes of Social Problems -- We need to think about social problems as complex adaptive systems requiring massively parallel problem-solving. -- April 24, 2018
• Social and Psychological Complexity -- Those who seek power-over others are dealing better with social and psychological complexity. This needs to change! -- April 25, 2018
• Mari Fitzduff's An Introduction to Neuroscience for the Peacebuilder-Part 1 -- Neuroscience can explain why so many peacebuilding interventions don't work as hoped--and how to do better. -- April 26, 2018
• Mari Fitzduff's An Introduction to Neuroscience for the Peacebuilder-Part 2 -- How can peacebuilders use a knowledge of neuroscience to do their jobs better? We are just beginning to learn. -- April 28, 2018
• Engineering and Medical Troubleshooting -- Complexity-oriented approaches to conflict are more like medicine and less like engineering. -- April 29, 2018
• The Scale Up Problem -- We need to stop thinking in terms of mediation triads, and scale up conflict work to societal levels. -- May 1, 2018
• The Google Traffic Metaphor -- Google traffic and other traffic control activities can teach us a lot about dealing with conflict. -- May 2, 2018
• The Decentralized, "Markets Plus" Metaphor -- Harnessing the power of markets: a strategy for scaling up efforts to deal with complex, intractable conflict. -- May 3, 2018

Unit 5:  Massively Parallel Peacebuilding (MPP)

37. Massively Parallel Peacebuilding – Introduction
38. Constructive Confrontation - Parts 1 and 2
39. Keys to Making MPP Work
40. Precedents for MPP
41. Complexity-oriented Capacity Building 
42. Ways of Knowing and Learning
43. Learning and Teaching in Different Settings
44. Institutional and Structural Capacity Building

Unit 6: Owning the problem

45. Starting at Home
46. Mega Worry How Bad Could It Get 
47. Routine Worry: Why We Can't Fix Anything (Again and Still)
48. Background: Peacebuilding at Home and Abroad - Part 1
49. Peacebuilding at Home and Abroad Part II: "Wearing the Others's Shoes"
50. US Focus/International Applications
51. Open Goals and Accountability
52. Meta-proposal for the Field
53. Further Ownership Issues
54. Examining Our Own Assumptions: What We Don't See and Talk About Does Hurt Us.
55. Compassion and Empathy
56. Building and Using Mirrors
57. Beyond the Binary Frame

Unit 7: Examining US Politics

58. Red/Blue Cultural Divide
59. The Role of Culture in Conflict
60. Constructive Responses to Cultural Differences
61. Neuroscience and Cultural Lag
62. The Gold/Purple Divide Parts I and II
63. The 2016 Presidential Election
64. Unmet Human Needs
65. Mirror: Cosmopolitan Meritocracy/Distributional Conflict
66. Mirror: Cosmopolitan Progressive Cultural Values
67. Mirror: Government/ Blank Industrial Complex
68. Mirror: Environmentalism
69. Mirror: Trump supporters
70. Mirror: Business Excesses/Caveat Emptor Values
71. Fighters and Compromisers
72. Divide and Conquer Strategy
73. Power Strategy Mix (reprise)
74. Backlash (reprise)
75. Legitimate and Illegitimate Power
76. Justice in the Red/Blue/Gold Divide
77. The many elements of Democracy and Avoiding Dystopian Tyranny
78. Partisan Structures
79. Partisan Frames

Section II: Moving Beyond Intractability: Defining Goals, Objectives, and Make-a-Difference Actions

Unit 8: Exploring Goals

80. Exploring Alternative Goals
81. First Focus: Violence-limited Societies
82. Big Picture Prequel
83. Distributional Goals
84. Moral Goals
85. Identity Goals
86. Type I and Type II Cultural Issues and Conflicts
87. Constructive Responses to Cultural Differences
88. Security Goals
89. Justice Goals
90. Peace Goals
91. Forgiveness Goals
92. Lederach's "Meeting Place" - Balancing Peace, Justice, Truth, and Mercy 
93. Distinguishing Core Goals from "Astroturf Goals"
94. Visioning

Unit 9: Examining Objectives: Traps and Opportunities

95. Section Introduction
96. Framing traps and opportunities
97. Identity and Characterization Framing
98. Win/lose, Competitive & Into-the-sea Framing
99. Power Frames
100. Spoilers  
101. Risk frames
102. Process frames
103. Bad Communication
104. Misunderstandings
105. Cognitive Dissonance, Confirmation Bias, and Sacrifice Trap
106. Narrowcasting and Media Bias
107. Propaganda and Disinformation and "Alt-Facts"
108. Cultural Blinders
109. Bandwidth Stereotype Problem
110. Fact-Finding Problems (Introduction)
111. Confusing Facts and Values
112. Risk and Uncertainty
113. Distrust of Science/News/Facts/Experts
114. Analysis Paralysis, Certainty Trap, Ilnumeracy, QED Syndrome
115. Escalation 
116. Escalation Spirals
117. Riding the Tiger
118. Polarization
119. Ineffective Negotiation and Decision Making
120. Ineffective Negotiation
121. Ineffective Agreement Implementation
122. Ineffective Governance
123. Market pathologies
124. Mission creep

Unit 10: Make-a-Difference Actions - Principles

125. Identifying First-order and Second-order "Make-a-difference" Actions
126. Implications of the "Massively Parallel" Approach - Simultaneous Micro, Meso, and Macro Efforts
127. Use of Mapping to Identify "Ripe Places" for Intervention
128. Beyond Crisis Response: Working in the Short, Intermediate, and Long-term Simultaneously
129. Matching Actions to Objectives
130. Avoiding
     Traps
131. Grabbing Opportunities
132. Forming Coalitions
133. Insider and Outsider Roles
134. Third Sider Roles
135. Large-Scale Actions
136. Defining  "Good Governance" 

Unit 11: "First-order" Actions

137. Empowering “Power-With” Compromisers So That They Can Successfully Resist The “Power Over” Machiavellians.
138. Mirror Building, Compassion, Pragmatic And Principled Empathy
139. Face-Saving Actions
140. Crisis Response
141. Rumor Control
142. Tolerance and Coexistence
143. Constructive Confrontation of Moral Differences
144. Community-Building Actions
145. Expert/Non-Expert Trust-Building
146. Islands Of Collaboration Within Conflict
147. Ripeness, Compromise And Interest-Based Bargaining
148. Fighting Fair/Referees
149. Peacekeeping
150. Nonviolent Direct Action
151. Implementing "Good Governance"
152. Election Reform And Monitoring
153. Market Reform to Limit Fraud
154. Market Reform to Reduce Inequality
155. Market Reform to Limit Tragedies of the Commons
156. Peacebuilding Social Entrepreneurship

Unit 12: Second-order Actions - - Peacebuilder Mobilization Strategies

157. Review Of Difference Between First-Order and Second-Order Actions
158. Match-Making (E-Bay Approach)
159. Diagnostic Questionnaires
160. Social Movement Organization
161. University Reform
162. Peacebuilder Support
163. Mobilizing And Legitimizing Expertise 

Unit 13. Second-order Actions - Capacity Building 

164. Section Introduction - Second Order Capacity Building
165. Media strategies
166. Traditional Education and Training
167. Identity-Group Training
168. Cross-Fertilization Opportunities and Events
169. Cost Containment
170. Big Picture Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation 

Unit 14: Where Do We Go From Here?

171. Section Introduction: Where Do We Go From Here?
172. Things Individuals Can Do
173. Things Grassroots Leadership Can Do
174. Things Mid-Level Leadership Can Do
175. Things Elite Leaders Can Do
176. Things The Conflict-Resolution and Peacebuilding Field Can Do

Conflict Frontiers  Spring 2017 Syllabus