Newsletter # 11 --  April 4, 2018

About Moving Beyond Intractability Newsletters

Important information about the Newsletters, sign-up procedures, and strategies for overcoming possible delivery problems is found at the end of this Newsletter along with information about BI's recent security problems and our new web hosting service.  Also available are past newsletters: #9, #10, and the 2017 Newsletter Archive.

Things YOU Can Do To Help Blog

• Sound the Alarm -- People don't realize how destructive their conflict behaviors often are: we must sound the alarm to spur change!

Conflict Frontiers Seminar

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!
• 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 confliict 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?

Conflict Fundamentals Seminar

Unit 2: Core Concepts

• Conflicts and Disputes -- This article explains the difference and why it matters--you can't address conflicts the same way you resolve disputes.
• Interests, Positions, Needs, and Values -- An explanation of the meaning of each of these terms and why the difference matters.
• Settlement, Resolution, Management, and Transformation -- An examination of another important distinction. Each process is useful at different times.
• John Paul Lederach on Transformation -- More detail about how conflict transformation is different than resolution--and much more applicable to intractable conflicts.
• Reconciliation -- Reconciliation used to be a common conflict resolution goal. While it still may be for the peacebuilders, it isn't sought by disputants nearly as much.

Beyond Intractability in Context Blog

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• Fifteen Years Ago, America Destroyed My Country -- From an Iraqi, another reflection on the 15-year-old Iraqi War--one that asks hard questions worthy of consideratio -- 03/30/2018
• Trump Hacked the Media Right Before Our Eyes -- For those tempted to blame it all on Facebook & Cambridge Analytica, an argument for remembering television's role. -- 03/30/2018
• The Iraq War and the Inevitability of Ignorance -- "The Iraq War and the Inevitability of Ignorance," a thoughtful reflection on a war that began 15 years ago. -- 03/29/2018
• The Cambridge Analytica Files -- An in-depth profile of data war whistleblower who created "Steve Bannon's psychological warfare tool." -- 03/28/2018
• The Patterns in Global Terrorism: 1970-2016 -- From the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a giant report, "The Patterns of Global Terrorism 1970-201 -- 03/29/2018
• A Parable of Self-Destruction -- The story of Easter Island, a classic example of what happens when a society fails to protect the "Commons." -- 03/28/2018
• The Bobby Kennedy Pathway -- Bobby Kennedy, another example of a political leader who found a way to bridge the red/blue divide. -- 03/28/2018
• Worthy is The Lamb -- What can Conner Lamb tell us about building a political movement that can bring the left and right closer together? -- 03/27/2018
• Students think they can suppress speech -- An interesting explanation of much that is wrong (and right) with higher education--treating students as customers. -- 03/27/2018
• What is this new bill focused on fine print clauses exactly?! -- An interesting effort in Colorado to address the risk that mandatory arbitration clauses "sugarcoat injustice." -- 03/26/2018
• Americans used to compromise all the time -- Since national unity seems impossible, might we learn something from the grand compromises in US history? -- 03/26/2018
• FrameLab Hacks: One Simple Way to Instantly Power Up Your Communications -- From George Lakoff's Frame Lab: One Simple Way to Instantly Power Up Your Communications--Cut the word "not." -- 03/25/2018
• Americans unify against foreign threats. Can we unify without one? -- A tough question worth asking: Can Americans unify without foreign threats? -- 03/25/2018
• What Steven Pinker gets wrong about economic inequality — and the Enlightenment -- "What Pinker gets wrong about inequality"--an exploration of what enlightenment thinkers thought about inequality. -- 03/23/2018
• The optimists are striking back. Good. -- Welcome news that optimists are starting to make their voices heard in the great debate over our common future. -- 03/23/2018
• YouTube, the Great Radicalizer -- YouTube is, apparently, pushing viewers towards ever more radical videos. What happened to Google's motto "Don't be -- 03/22/2018
• The Last Temptation -- A big Atlantic story on evangelicals and politics that offers a case study of how conflict can effect moral beliefs -- 03/22/2018

BI Newsletters and General Announcements

Late March Website Problems -- During the last week of March our web hosting service suddenly failed to administer our SSL Certificate correctly.  This meant that site visitors received one of several possible of "Danger – Insecure Website" errors.  The inability of the hosting service to fix this forced us to switch traffic to an emergency site (mbi-moos) while we relocated Beyond Intractability to a new web hosting service. During this transition, we suspended publication of new seminar and blog content.  The new system is now up, secure, and everything is working correctly.  This newsletter highlights our latest postings.  That said, there is still a small possibility that you could encounter website problems. If you do, please contact  us and we can get them fixed.  We apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused.

Every week or so, we will compile posts from the Frontiers Seminar, the Fundamentals Seminar, the Things Everyone Can Do to Help Blog, and the Beyond Intractability in Context Blog into a Newsletter that will be posted here and sent out by email to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy on our Newsletter Sign Up Page and find all past newsletters on our Newsletter page.

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