The full Conflict Frontiers Seminar Series is acctually a series of shorter seminars, organized into several different topic areas. Each of the individual seminars includes a set of short (~15 min) videos, supplemented with related written materials from other BI and MBI sections (Conflict Fundamentals, the BI Knowledge Base, Things YOU Can Do to Help, BI in Context, and at times, Colleague Activity posts.)  Only the videos are listed here, but a link to each full seminar provides access to all the associated written materials on each topic. 

We continue to develop and refine the ideas presented below in the context of an online discussion that Beyond Intractability is convening in partnership with the Conflict Resolution Quarterly. For our latest thinking, we recommend these articles and invite you to follow and contribute to the discussion.  You can also sign up for our free Substack Newsletter and receive periodic updates on this discussion as well as links to new BI content.

Currently available seminars include:

• BI/CRQ Hyper-Polarization Discussion
• Topic Area 1: Scale, Complexity, & Intractability
  • Seminar 1: Understanding the Intractable Conflict Problem
  • Seminar 2: Pushing the Frontier: Limits of Business as Usual Approaches
  • Seminar 3: Introduction to Complexity and "Systems Thinking" -- Theoretical Antecedents
  • Seminar 4: Moving Toward a Complexity-Oriented Paradigm
• Topic Area 2: Massively Parallel Peacebuilding
  • Seminar 5: Introduction to Massively Parallel Peacebuilding
  • Seminar 6: Figuring Out What is Going On (MPP Challenge 1)
• Topic Area 3: Authoritarian Populism
  • Seminar 7: The Trump Years – Using MPP to Understand the Authoritarian Populism Problem
  • Seminar 8a: The Trump Years – MPP-based Strategies for Addressing the Authoritarian Populism Problem
  • Seminar 8b: The 2020 US Election – What Happens When We Have an Election That Both Sides Absolutely Positively Can't Afford to Lose?
  • Seminar 8c: The Biden Transition – Saving Democracy and Biden’s Challenge to the Conflict and Peacebuilding Fields
  • Seminar 8d: Bad-Faith Actors -- Challenging "Bad-Faith" Actors Who Seek to Amplify and Exploit Our Conflicts
• Topic Area 4: Constructive Confrontation
  • Seminar 9: Constructive Confrontation

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.  

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The Hyper-Polarization Crisis: A Conflict Resolution Challenge

We continue to develop and refine the ideas presented below in the context of an online discussion that Beyond Intractability is convening in partnership with the Conflict Resolution Quarterly. For our latest thinking, we recommend these articles and invite you to follow and contribute to the discussion.

•  Applying conflict resolution insights to the hyper-polarized, society-wide conflicts threatening liberal democracies
  • Executive Summary: Applying Conflict Resolution Insights to Today's Hyper-Polarized Societies
• The Key to Revitalizing Liberal Democracy: Think of It As a Conflict Handling System 

Return to List of Seminars 

The Conflict Frontiers Seminar series starts by arguing that the destructive way in which society handles intractable conflict is the single greatest threat facing humanity. We then explore the factors that make intractable conflict so difficult including, especially, the challenges posed by the enormous scale of society-wide conflict and the many problems posed by the social and psychological complexity of these conflicts. We also examine the limitations of current strategies for addressing the conflict problem and suggest a broad strategy for getting around those limitations. 

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar #1 

Understanding the Intractable Conflict Problem

Here we introduce the Conflict Frontiers Seminar and discuss what we mean by the term "intractable conflict." We then explain why we think our inability to successfully address such conflicts is the single greatest threat facing humanity today.  This seminar goes on to explore the factors that make intractable conflict so difficult including, especially, the challenges posed by the enormous scale of society-wide conflict and the many problems posed by the social and psychological complexity of these conflicts. 

Frontiers Seminar 1 Videos

• 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.
• 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! 
• What Are Intractable Conflicts? -- Intractable conflicts aren't impossible to resolve--they are just very difficult. Recognizing their true nature is the first step towards transformation.
• What Makes Conflicts Intractable? -- Why are intractable conflicts like the earth and an onion? They all have multiple layers that hide the core. 
• 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. 
• 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." 
• Constructive Conflict Initiative Video - A class-length video describing the Initiative--what it is and why the issues it addresses is so important. (The video also shows why studying conflict is so important and is a good resource to show at the beginning of any peace and conflict course.)

The full Frontiers Seminar 1 Syllabus contains many more written materials relating to these topics (in addition to the videos shown above).

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar #2

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

Low-Cost Textbooks We ask educators who use Beyond Intractability as a major part of their courses or training programs to ask their students / trainees to donate roughly 25% of the cost of a comparable textbook. (For example, we ask our students to donate $5-$30 depending upon the amount of material used.) More information is available on our Using BI as a Textbook page.

Part of our inability to successfully address intractable conflicts is that we try to treat them as if they were like other more "normal" conflicts.  But our "business-as-usual" conflict resolution and management strategies don't work.  Often such approaches actually make things worse. Here we explain why--and start discussing what can be done instead. 

Frontiers Seminar 2 Videos:

• Business-as-Usual Introduction -- Business-as-usual strategies don't work for intractable conflicts--they often make them worse!
• 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?
• Part 2: "Boys Will Be Boys" -- Are conflict and war inevitable? Is "compromise" bad? Common attitudes turn us into cynics and block learning. 
• 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. 
• 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.)
• Part 5: The Interplay of Reason and Emotion -- Can you be "rational" about conflict? 
• Part 6: More Bad Assumptions -- If they'd just talk, they could work it out! Exploring this and other bad assumptions. 
• 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?
• Part 8: The Backlash Effect and Coefficient -- If your backlash coefficient is more than one, your cause cannot be won! Learn why! 
• Part 9: Recent Peace and Conflict Paradigms -- Peace cultivation and massively parallel peacebuilding: two ideas for a new complexity-oriented conflict paradigm. 

The full Seminar 2 Syllabus contains many more written materials relating to these topics (in addition to the videos shown above).

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar #3

Introduction to Complexity and "Systems Thinking" -- Theoretical Antecedents

Seminar 2 ended by explaining the shortcomings of the past conflict resolution paradigms, and calling for a new "complexity" or "systems" paradigm for conflict and its resolution. This seminar introduces a number of conflict theories and theorists who have been developing such an approach to conflict over the last 20 or so years.

Frontiers Seminar 3 Videos:

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

The full Seminar 3 Syllabus contains many more written materials relating to these topics (in addition to the videos shown above).

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar 4

Moving Toward a Complexity-Oriented Paradigm

This seminar continues our discussion of a complexity-oriented approach to peacebuilding, drawing from the work of Kenneth Boulding and Wendell Jones, and then adding a "Burgess spin" on the topic. Posts in this seminar include:

Frontiers Seminar 4 Videos:

• 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. 
• Complex vs. Complicated Systems -- Intractable conflicts are complex adaptive systems, so they need complex, adaptive responses. 
• System Levels -- Simple models won't work! We must develop conflict intervention models for higher-level complex systems.
• The Really Big Picture Ecodynamics and Planetary Evolution -- An exploration of how understanding ecodynamics and evolution can help us deal with complex conflict. 
• Meeting the Adaptation Challenge -- Speeding society's ability to rapidly adapt to changing conditions should be a key goal of the conflict field.
• 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).
• 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.
• The Complex Causes of Social Problems -- We need to think about social problems as complex adaptive systems requiring massively parallel problem-solving. 
• Social and Psychological Complexity -- Those who seek power-over others are dealing better with social and psychological complexity. This needs to change!
• Engineering and Medical Troubleshooting -- Complexity-oriented approaches to conflict are more like medicine and less like engineering. 
• The Scale Up Problem -- We need to stop thinking in terms of mediation triads, and scale up conflict work to societal levels.
• The Google Traffic Metaphor -- Google traffic and other traffic control activities can teach us a lot about dealing with conflict.
• The Decentralized, "Markets Plus" Metaphor -- Harnessing the power of markets: a strategy for scaling up efforts to deal with complex, intractable conflict. 

The full Seminar 4 Syllabus contains many more written materials relating to these topics (in addition to the videos shown above).

Return to List of Seminars

In the next part of the Frontiers Seminar we explain how we think that a strategy of Massively Parallel Peacebuilding (MPP) can help address these problems.  MPP is a highly-decentralized strategy for meeting the scale and complexity challenge. Building on what we now know (and can reasonably expect to find out), MPP identifies an Action List over 100 steps we can all take to help address ten big challenges that lie at the core of the intractable conflict problem. 

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar 5

Introduction to Massively Parallel Peacebuilding

Here we introduce Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess's concept of Massively Parallel Peacebuilding (MPP) as a systems approach to intractable conflict.  MPP introduces ten "challenges" that need to be met to overcome intractability, and suggests over 100 things (10 or so per challenge) that need to be done (by 1000s of people and organizations) working in parallel to successfully address any intractable conflict. (The last Frontiers video explains how this isn't a totally crazy idea.)

 

Frontiers Seminar 5 Paper and Videos:

• Massively Parallel Peacebuilding (MPP) Paper -- A text overview of the big ideas underlying MPP — ideas that are explained in greater detail in the following videos.
• Frontiers Seminar Part II: Introduction to Massively Parallel Peacebuilding - Part II of the Frontiers Seminar shows how EVERYONE can and must get involved in solving today's big problems. 
• The Risk of Large-Scale Civil Unrest and Violence in the United States -- Are we on the brink of catastrophe...and if so, can we step back...or will we fall (or jump)? 
• The Peace and Democracy-Building Continuum -- In 1978, it looked as if democracy and peace were advancing globally.  Now they are both retreating. Can we reverse that trend? 
• The Peacebuilding / Constructive Confrontation Synthesis -- Good conflict resolution skills are not just for peacebuilders--they are crucial for disputants as well.
• Massively Parallel Peacebuilding (MPP) -- Massively Parallel Peacebuilding enlists everyone engaged in or affected by conflict to help change its destructive course.
• Why MPP Isn't Such a Crazy Idea - The civil rights movement, & the environmental movement are both successful "massively parallel" precedents to MPP. 
• Massively Parallel Peacebuilding: "Things You Can Do" Actions - Here's a start of a list of things you can do to be a part of MPP.
• 2nd, 3rd, 4th… Order Problems - Cynicism, reinventing the wheel, information friction and overload are among the problems that need to be tackled.

The full Seminar 5 Syllabus contains many more written materials relating to these topics (in addition to the videos shown above).

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Massively Parallel Peacebuilding Action List

Massively Parallel Peacebuilding Action List (text) - The ten challenges of MPP are daunting, but there is a role here for everyone. 

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar 6

Figuring Out What is Going On (MPP Challenge 1)

One of the common traps of intractability is that there is a tendency to over-simplify a conflict to a simple "us-versus-them" struggle.  But they are always much more than that. The first challenge in Massively Parallel Peacebuilding is simply figuring out what is really going on in any particular conflict. 

Frontiers Seminar 6 Videos

• See the Complexity It's not Just "Us versus Them" -- Parties, issues, dynamics, power, and relationships are among the conflict elements one must clearly understand.
• Map the Basic Conflict Elements -- Conflict mapping lets you see what's going on in a conflict, so you can figure out how to engage to have the most positive impact. 
• Identify the Core Issues -- Wonder why conflict mapping matters?  This video shows how it can totally change your approach to a conflict.
• Identify the Overlay Issues -- This, too, shows why conflict mapping matters as it helps explain why simple, quick "solutions," never work in intractable conflicts.  At the same time it explores what DOES need to happen to tackle such conflicts effectively.
• Identify--and Scale Up--Your Areas of Influence - A first step toward effective action is figuring out what you can do that will have maximum possible impact.

The full Seminar 6 Syllabus contains many more written materials relating to these topics (in addition to the videos shown above)

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Authoritarian Populism is a term that we and others use to refer to the rise of "light" or "would-be authoritarian leaders" who purport to be "men of the people," who are, indeed, being elected by popular vote in a number of democracies around the world. Their behavior, once in office, however, is much more like an autocrat than a democratic leader. In this unit, we explore how our ideas of Massively Parallel Peacebuilding can contribute to an understanding of this problem, as well as suggesting constructive responses to it.

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar 7

The Trump Years – Using MPP to Understand the Authoritarian Populism Problem

As an example of how MPP can be used, in this seminar we explore one of the greatest threats to world and national peace today -- what we (and others) call "authoritarian populism."  The following are a series of posts explaining what this is, and how and why it has developed in the U.S. and elsewhere. Then we will be utilizing the MPP approach to explore avenues for reversing or resisting such tendencies.

Frontiers Seminar 7 Videos:

• Using the MPP Action List: The Authoritarian Populism Example (Part I) -- Here we introduce a set of posts we plan to show how the MPP Action List can actually be used to address a problem that is high on people's minds in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere around the world. 
• Using the MPP Action List: The Authoritarian Populism Example (Part II)  -- This video highlights a few of the actions from each of the ten challenges on the MPP Action List that are particularly important for addressing the U.S. Authoritarian Populism problem.
• Mapping the Authoritarian Populism “Conflict Complex," an Overview -- Authoritarian populism is actually a complex array of complex conflicts. This post introduces a series of posts designed to make it easier to understand what's going on.
• Mapping the Continuum between Democracy and Authoritarianism -- First things first, what do we mean by authoritarianism and how does it relate to democracy.
• The Red/Blue Cultural Divide -- In the first of a set of posts, we will explore how conflict mapping (and later, the other action steps) can be used to address a real-world problem--in this case the core moral conflict in the U.S. and elsewhere between right-leaning "traditionalists and left-leaning "cosmopolitans over cultural, social, and political change.
• The Purple/Gold Distributional Divide -- This will look at another core aspect of the authoritarian populism problem:  the distributional conflict between four major groups: the "1%"; the "99%", the "left behinds", and the "protected classes"--a U.S. legal term for race, color religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, and veteran status.
• Red, Blue, Gold Interactions, Destructive Polarization and the Peacebuilding Imperative -- Using a triangular, graphical map of the above, interlocking conflicts, this post will explain how things have polarized into an all out left versus right conflict and outline how peacebuilding strategies could constructively "repolarize" the conflict as a struggle between the authoritarians and those who want to make democracy work.
• The Divide and Conquer Authoritarian / Plutocratic Threat   -- One example of overlay issues is understanding how the cultural and distributional core conflict issues are being exacerbated (and sometimes initiated) by authoritarian "wannabes" for selfish purposes unrelated to the core issues of the parties.

The full Seminar 7 Syllabus contains many more written materials relating to these topics (in addition to the videos shown above).

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar 8a

The Trump Years – MPP-based Strategies for Addressing the Authoritarian Populism Problem

Seminar 7 introduced and explained the nature of the "Authoritarian Populism Problem."  In this seminar we introduce a series of posts that begin to explore ways to constructively address the problem.

Frontiers Seminar 8 Videos

• Meeting the Authoritarian Populism Challenge 1: Authoritarian and Partisan Conflict - An appeal for us all to put our partisan differences in perspective and work together to strengthen democracy.
• Meeting the Authoritarian Populism Challenge 2: “Hate Bait,” Framing, and Escalation - Learn about things small groups can do to push back against "hate bait," distraction-based propaganda, scapegoating, and other conflict problems.
• Meeting the Authoritarian Populism Challenge 3: Communication, Governance, and Economics - Strategies for limiting the destructiveness of red/blue conflicts based on better communication, fact-finding, collaboration, governance, and economics.
• Meeting the Authoritarian Populism Challenge 4: The "Super Rich" and the "Meritocratic Elite" - A look at things that those at the top of the hierarchy are doing to make things worse and strategies for persuading them to change.
• Meeting the Authoritarian Populism Challenge 5: The "Protected Classes" and the "Left Behind"  - A look at strategies for helping grassroots citizens on the left and the right come together to advance their common interests.
• Why Relationships Matter - This video explores how social media is driving conflict & why real human relationships are so important.
• Limit "Us-vs-Them" Language, Thinking and Action - This video explains why and how to think of and treat "the other" as a partner, not as an adversary.
• Counter Hate and Malevolence - Part 1 - Hate is a cause and consequence of escalation that almost always makes conflicts worse. Don't help it along!
• Counter Hate and Malevolence - Part 2 - The second of two videos, this focuses on how to respond constructively to people who (seem to) hate you.
• Promote Escalation Awareness - This video shows what escalation is, how the damage happens, and suggests the first line of defense is prevention--don't "jump in the pot!"
• Promoting De-Escalation – Part 1: Conciliatory Gestures - Conciliatory gestures are a way to break down stereotypes and start de-escalating conflicts with surprise overtures of kindness.

The full Seminar 8 Syllabus contains many more written materials relating to these topics (in addition to the videos shown above).

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar 8b

The 2020 US Election – What Happens When We Have an Election That Both Sides Absolutely Positively Can't Afford to Lose?

• The Continuing Election Nightmare
  • What Happens When We Have an Election That Both Sides Absolutely Positively Can't Afford to Lose? -- Seeing the possibility of electoral defeat as totally unacceptable justifies the use of the most extreme and dangerous forms of political combat.
  • The Base-Mobilization Trap -- The inflammatory tactics that make mobilize-the-base politics so effective are tearing us apart In ways that will be very difficult to reverse
  • U.S. Hyper Polarization—Over the Edge? -- Hyperpolarization at the level of hateful, but entertaining, rhetoric could easily escalate into large-scale 1960s-style civil unrest and violence.
  • Exponential Growth in Pandemics, the Economy, and Escalation -- Economic panic and/or escalating political violence threatens to upend society even more rapidly than the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Where Does The Nightmare of Continuing Hyper-Polarization End? -- Social processes like hyperpolarization can't continue indefinitely without leading to catastrophe. We desperately need an exit strategy.
  • Hyper-Polarization, the Pandemic, and the Need for a "Lifeboat Ethic" -- We are all, in a sense, on one giant lifeboat. Surviving the storm will require us to figure out how to work together more effectively.
• Bridging Differences
  • Heidi Burgess and Guy Burgess: Framing the Events of Spring and Summer 2020 -- It's time "we, the people," start taking control of our frames, focusing on shared frames instead of the polarizing ones we are being fed.
  • Constructive Demonstration Strategies -- Primal screams don't change policy or public opinion. Demonstrators should know their goals--and the best way to accomplish them.
  • Pragmatic Compassion/Empathy -- A "conflict mirror" can help us see ourselves as others see us in ways that often reveal the things we unconsciously do that unnecessarily intensify the conflicts we face.
  • Finding Common Ground / Constructive Addressing Differences: a Discussion Guide -- For students (and everyone else) a strategy for unpacking our conflicts that illuminates common ground and constructively addresses differences.
  • Living with Uncertainty in the COVID-19 Era -- An overview of common mistakes that people make when trying to deal with uncertain situations like COVID-19 (and strategies for avoiding them).
• Constructive Advocacy
  • (When) Should We Escalate? -- What can conflict professionals, politicians, business leaders, the media, and the general public do to be constructive?
  • Dehumanization in Politics -- Political rhetoric has been moving toward increasingly dehumanized enemy images. If we want to save democracy we have to reverse this trend--NOW!
  • What does "Justice" Mean? -- The political discussions about justice this summer of 2020 are very narrow; they should take a much wider view of what encompasses "justice."
  • The "Two Taproot (or Fuses) Theory" of Social Unrest -- To prevent violence, you need to respond to more than the immediate incident. You need to look at the structures and processes that led to it.
  • Disproportionality Trap and Counter Trap -- It is not enough to address the disproportionate impact of social problems, you also have to equitably address the problem itself.
  • The Crane Brinton Effect -- 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.
  • Fighting Today's Oppression, Not Yesterday's Oppression -- Opposing today's injustices will require cooperation across the racial divides that were a focus of many of the unrightable wrongs of the past.

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar 8c

The Biden Years – Saving Democracy and Biden’s Challenge to the Conflict and Peacebuilding Fields

• The Biden Challenge
  • Saving Democracy and Biden’s Challenge to the Conflict and Peacebuilding Fields – Part I -- An argument that the key to saving democracy is assuring political adversaries that, even in defeat, their interests will be protected.
  • Saving Democracy and Biden’s Challenge to the Conflict and Peacebuilding Fields – Part 2 -- Repairing democracy will require both sides to replace today's winner-takes-all / loser-loses-all approach to politics with coexistence, tolerance, and mutual respect.
  • A Guide to More Constructive Approaches to Intractable Conflict -- A Introduction to a five-part strategy for overcoming the conflict problems that are preventing us from building a society in which we would all like to live.
• Reconciliation
  • Small Scale Reconciliation – Part 1: De-escalate Destructive Us-versus-Them Confrontations -- Reframing us-vesus them, conciliatory gestures, and using the optimal power strategy mix are several approaches that can further reconciliation.
  • Small Scale Reconciliation – Part 2: Promote Effective Communication -- By first listening, and second speaking in respectful and surprisingly "reasonable" ways, people can de-escalate conflicts and begin to work on reconciliation.
  • Small Scale Reconciliation – Part 3: Develop a Unifying Vision for Society -- Small groups can use the tools of large groups to develop consensus visions of their future relationship--often with even more success.
  • Small Scale Reconciliation – Part 4: Leveling the Playing Field -- Equalizing power actually helps both the powerful and the powerless, as it makes negotiation and mutually-beneficial outcomes possible for all.
  • Small Scale Reconciliation – Part 5: Take Advantage of Opportunities for Mutually-Beneficial Joint Actions -- Even when conflicts are stalemated, some common ground is likely to give disputants a toe-hold onto transformation.

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar 8d

Challenging "Bad-Faith" Actors Who Seek to Amplify and Exploit Our Conflicts

• "Bad-Faith" Actors
  • Part 3: Challenging "Bad-Faith" Actors Who Seek to Amplify and Exploit Our Conflicts -- A big part of why democracy is in so much trouble is that "bad faith" actors are actively working to subvert it. We need to understand and learn how to stop them.
  • “Bad-Faith” Actors -- Our Sources of Vulnerability -- Like the vulnerable US football players, we need better ways to protect ourselves from destructive efforts to undermine our ability to work together.
  • Types of “Bad-Faith” Actors -- While it is always hard to make good-faith democratic governance work, it is even harder when people are actively trying to make it fail.
  • “Bad-Faith” Actor Tactics -- We need to better understand how to see and avoid the many traps (and sinister cons) that are dragging us into ever more destructive conflict.
  • The Blood-Boiling Trap -- Our tendency to focus on things that make us furious distorts the way we look at the world in ways that threaten rather than advance our interests.

 

 

This fourth Frontiers Topic Area builds on our earlier "Constructive Confrontation Initiative." Unlike the other topic areas, which combine several individual Conflict Frontiers Seminars, this Topic Area only has one seminar of the same name.

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Conflict Frontiers Seminar 9: Constructive Confrontation

This seminar is set up somewhat differently than the previous ones.  It and combines materials from (primarily) our Things You Can Do to Help Blog and our Conflict Fundamentals Seminar. Links to each of this Seminar's sections are given below; and all the details can be found in the full Seminar 9 Syllabus.

• Constructive Confrontation Introduction - This post introduces the idea of "constructive confrontation," explaining how it is a way that disputants can constructively engage in conflicts without the help of a mediator or other intermediary.
• First Steps: Things to Think about Before you Jump into the Fray  Before you engage it is worth figuring out if engagement is worth it, and what it is likely to accomplish.
• Next Steps: Once You Are In—Plan your Strategy  Once you decide to engage, you need to assess the situation and plan your strategy--keeping in mind the importance of flexibility when things don't go as expected.
• How to Communicate Constructively A number of suggestions of ways to de-escalate, rather than escalate, conflict through effective communication.
• Roles Each of Us Can Play Intractable conflicts are so complex, they cannot be resolved by one person, no matter how powerful.  Everyone can (and should) play a role in making these conflicts more constructive.

The full Seminar 9 Syllabus contains many more written materials relating to these topics.

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