Newsletter #377 — August 20, 2025
 

by Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess

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Highlighted Links

A few suggestions about links that we think are especially interesting.

• Class Inequity
  America’s New Segregation — The critically important observation that should do much to shape our thinking about ways of escaping our current political predicament - we are now more segregated by class than we were ever segregated by race.
• Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
  Governing Is Difficult When Few Americans Agree on Basic Facts — A look at the enormous implications of fact-based disagreements and their ability to divide people of good will -- people who also agree on basic values.
• Trust / Trust Earning
  The Virtue of Integrity — A look at one of the keys to solving the ongoing crisis of distrust -- leaders and experts need to re-earn that trust by acting with integrity.
• Artificial Intelligence
  AI on the Frontline: Evaluating Large Language Models in Real-World Conflict Resolution — A study that argues major large language models (LLMs) are providing dangerous conflict resolution advice without conducting basic due diligence and meeting basic thresholds for conflict sensitivity.
• Domination and Oppression
  Might Unmakes Right — From Foreign Affairs, a report on the ongoing and catastrophic collapse of norms against the use of force.
• Violence
  Are There More Nazis Than Before? — Sofia Scarlat and Jonathan Stray of Better Conflict Bulletin says "no," but it is easy to see why people think there are more. "Most people are persuadable, not irredeemable," they say. So most political problems require communication, not denunciation.
• Trust / Trust Earning
  The twilight of liberal credentialism — More food for thought as we struggle to understand the full implications of the public's lost confidence in society's educated, meritocratic, elites.

Reader Suggested Links

Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.

• Civic Education
  Restoring Power and Agency to the Public for Civic Studies and Renewal feat. Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Harry Boyte — This civics podcast illustrates how the principles of George Washington's Farewell Address (patriotism, civility, faith, education, national unity, and fiscal responsibility) apply to today.
• Israel / Hamas War
  While politicians bash Israel, their militaries take notes. — Amid all the social and political turmoil surrounding Israel's ongoing wars, there are military developments that are likely to have a much wider impact on the nature of war.
• US Politics
  This World-Renowned Negotiator Says Trump’s Secret Weapon Is Empathy — From an experienced negotiator, thoughts about how President Trump (despite his commonly inflammatory behavior) has been so successful in building a broad and solid base of support.
• Authoritarianism
  This 19th-Century Novel Is a Playbook for Surviving Autocracy — Over the centuries, those unfortunate enough to live in autocratic societies have devised numerous strategies for constraining the power of the autocrat. For our difficult times, a reminder about what has worked in the past.
• Theories of Change
  The Idea Fairies: When Help Hurts and Allyship Misses the Mark — Idea Fairies are often well-meaning. But they rarely come with the context, humility, or deep understanding required to engage in authentic collaboration.
• Israel / Hamas War
  The protests in Israel are not what they want you to think. — In the wake of recent mass protests in Israel against the Netanyahu government's war fighting strategy, an Israeli perspective on the current state of that country's hyper-polarized politics.
• Israel / Hamas War
  Occupation of Gaza — From an Israeli with an especially clear understanding of the military aspects of the ongoing war -- an examination and a critique of plans to reoccupy Gaza.

Colleague Activities

Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.

• Peacebuilding
  Summary Report - Democracy in the 21st Century: Fragility and Resilience — A report summarizing the key discussions and outcomes of the 2025 annual meeting of the Toda Peace Institute’s Global Challenges to Democracy Working Group.
• Peacebuilding
  Reconceptualizing Atrocity Prevention — A policy brief that introduces a new framework for understanding atrocity prevention, focusing on three non-mutually exclusive approaches: proactive, responsive, and redressive.
• Networking
  Putting Relationships First — This monograph from the Relationships Project assembles the evidence base for putting relationships first, describing why relationships matter, what great relationship-centered practice looks like, and how it could make an impact in your context.
• Peacebuilding
  Alive and Whole in a World of Hurt: the below and beyond of well-being — A short essay by John Paul Lederach and colleagues at Humanity United, in which they reflect on the tensions that often exist within and between the calls for resilience, resistance, and accompaniment in peacebuilding and allied work.
• Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
  The is No Right Answer — Thoughtful reflections on the degree to which conflict and peacebuilding efforts require the abandonment of the notion that there are "right answers."
• US Politics
  6 Surprising Beliefs Democrats and Republicans Share — There are six core values that almost all Americans, regardless of political party, still believe in. But here’s the catch: most of us think the other side doesn’t care about these values.
• US Politics
  The Sultanization of US Politics — As an alternative to seeing Trump's USA as either plutocratic or fascist, an argument that it more closely resembles what the German sociologist Max Weber described as patrimonial, or more precisely, sultanistic.
• Media Reform
  The Fourth Estate — A timely essay explaining why a free press is essential to democracy, with thoughts on how best to defend it.
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  A Conversation with Joolz Casey — What if…the world were a kinder place? What would it look like? What would it feel like? How would a kinder world begin?
• The Hyper-Polarization Threat
  Polarisation: The ‘Hyper-Problem’ Transitional Justice Can No Longer Ignore — As a ‘hyper-problem’ that makes political and social challenges harder to resolve, polarisation is both a barrier to addressing a violative past and a leading indicator of future risks of conflict and violence.
• Making Collaborative Democracy Work
  Today, We Launch Generation Refresh — and Invite America to Imagine a Refreshed Constitution — An announcement of a new nationwide campaign to crowdsource a proposed Citizen’s Constitution.
• Artificial Intelligence
  Can AI break the engagement trap? — Integrity Institute Co-Founder Jeff Allen reflects on TrustCon 2025, the evolution of trust and safety, and why regulatory pressure—and transparency—still matter most.
• Making Collaborative Democracy Work
  Introducing Block / Bridge / Build / Belong — Block / Bridge / Build / Belong is a clear map of the democracy ecosystem—four complementary modes that run in parallel and help us act together without demanding we all act the same.
• Media Reform
  Want a less polarized society? Support local news — Local newspapers, news websites, and TV and radio stations are a necessary part of public infrastructure that must be supported.
• Peacebuilding
  Healing Memories, Forging Peace — An article describing Fr. Leonel Narváez Gómez tireless work in Colombia’s peacebuilding efforts, focused on healing, hope, justice, and peace.
• Peacebuilding
  Mercy Corps: The Human Toll of U.S. Foreign Aid Cuts Six Months On  — An article documenting the devastating and mounting human consequences of the U.S. foreign aid cuts, with millions of people around the world cut off from food, water, shelter, health care, and other life-saving support.
• Constructive Communication
  Where Myth & Reality Merge: How Storytelling Can Carry Us Through & Beyond the Polycrisis — Through the lens of story, we can see the polycrisis of our time as a pivotal crossroads in a timeless battle between the path of separation, exploitation, and destruction or unity, creation, and regeneration?
• Israel / Hamas War
  The fear of peace: Iran, Israel, and the path away from their forever war. — Sir Richard Dalton, former British Ambassador to Iran, discusses rising tensions in the Middle East, exploring what it would take to move beyond endless war, and why dialogue and diplomacy offer the best path toward a collective future.
• Peacebuilding
  Briefing Paper : Health, Peace and Security Nexus — The Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (CSPPS) published a briefing paper that examines how peace, conflict, and health are interlinked.
• Constructive Communication
  Monitoring Dialogue in Conflict-Affected Contexts: Guide for Practitioners — This guide merges theoretical insights with practical tools to present an innovative dialogue monitoring approach designed to help practitioners identify and track meaningful progress made by dialogue programs in conflict-affected contexts.
• Peacebuilding
  Shadow Report to Congress on Section 5 of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-441) [as amended] — A report to Congress on US atrocity prevention work, written by experts who were fired by the Trump administration's "Reduction in Force."

News and Opinion

From around the web, more insight into the nature of our conflict problems, limits of business-as-usual thinking, and things people are doing to try to make things better. (Formerly, Beyond Intractability in Context.)

• Violence
  The Most Nihilistic Conflict on Earth — For those who want to know what catastrophic social breakdown looks like in the 21st-century -- Hobb's vision of life that is "nasty, brutish, and short."
• Israel / Hamas War
  Half-Time for Hamas — Reflections on the current state of the Israeli / Hamas war -- which sees the conflict as nowhere close to ending.
• Progressive Left
  How “Sensitivity Readers” Made Publishing More Racist — An argument that the sensitivity readers now commonly employed by publishers have made things worse, rather than better.
• Freedom of Speech 
  Europe’s Free-Speech Problem — For those who assume that the United States' free-speech traditions are shared by other liberal democracies, an enlightening look at the conflict that has emerged over free speech in Europe.
• Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
  Not all men (are in crisis) — An in-depth examination (with lots of charts and statistics) of the complex problems facing men and boys ,plus a look at how these problems are unevenly distributed through society.
• Class Inequity
  Elon Musk and the Decline of Western Civilization — Important reflections about the emergence of a new 21st-century style of oligarchy within Western liberal democracies.
• Violence
  Barbarism Yesterday and Today — An historical look at the nature of barbaric violence and how, over time, it has become increasingly taboo (with thoughts on the worrying possibility that these taboos are eroding).
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  The Deformist Tendency — A review of an important new book, The New Conservatives: Restoring America’s Commitment to Family, Community, and Industry, that argues against conforming with prevailing norms.
• Saving Democracy
  Rules Matter More Than Rulers — An essay based on a provocative hypothetical question: which would be worse: a Trump presidency that was actually constrained by the law or a Democratic presidency that was not?
• Social / Economic Complexity
  A Nation of Lawyers Confronts China’s Engineering State — An argument that the United States has become a legalistic economy focused primarily on claiming value while China has evolved into an engineering economy focused on creating value.
• The Scale and Complexity Problem
  Unreliable parts make a reliable whole — Food for thought for those looking for more realistic and sensible ways of thinking about the staggering complexity of contemporary society.
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  Trump Just Reminded Me of Why I’m Still a Neocon — A defense of neoconservatism, for those looking for a more attractive political alternative that falls somewhere between the woke left or the MAGA right,
• Climate / Environment / Health
  The Truth About Climate Change ‘Lies Somewhere in the Middle’ — A rare effort to try to honestly sort through all of the competing arguments regarding the immediacy of the threat posed by climate change in the efficacy of proposed solutions.
• US Politics
  Why the Trump Tariff Merry-Go-Round Won’t Stop — From the Wall Street Journal, good reason to believe that the tariff turmoil will not, under Trump, settle down around a new status quo.
• Artificial Intelligence
  The AI Takeover of Education Is Just Getting Started — Food for thought for educators and students struggling to understand how AI is going to reshape the institution within which they live and work.
• Class Inequity
  Mamdani May Herald a New Kind of Class Struggle — Thoughtful reflections on Mamdani's stunning political rise and what it says about class conflict in the United States.
• Israel / Hamas War
  Muslims made me Islamophobic. — Thought-provoking and doubtless controversial reflections on the complex relationship between Islamaphobia, Islam, and the very real threat posed by the kind of radical Islamism that was behind 9/11, 10/7, and ISIS.
• Saving Democracy
  When Lawmakers Aren’t Allowed to Make Laws — A detailed description of just how far the US lawmaking process that we were taught about in civics classes differs from today's reality.
• Saving Democracy
  How Not to Fix American Democracy — A critical review of an important new book, The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding.
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  Bringing Human Nature Back In — From Francis Fukuyama, reflections on building a democracy that works within the constraints posed by "human nature."
• Saving Democracy
  Proportional representation is the solution to gerrymandering — Amid the all of the current fury over gerrymandering, a concrete, sensible proposal for reforming this aspect of representative democracy.

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About the MBI Newsletters

Two or three times a week, Guy and Heidi Burgess, the BI Directors, share some of our thoughts on political hyper-polarization and related topics. We also share essays from our colleagues and other contributors, and every week or so, we devote one newsletter to annotated links to outside readings that we found particularly useful relating to U.S. hyper-polarization, threats to peace (and actual violence) in other countries, and related topics of interest. Each Newsletter is posted on BI, and sent out by email through Substack to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy here and find the latest newsletter here or on our BI Newsletter page, which also provides access to all the past newsletters, going back to 2017.

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