Beyond Intractability
Hyper-Polarization Blog
Includes BI/CRQ Discussion
Selected Recent Posts
You can subscribe to Selected Posts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Or, if you prefer, you can subscribe to the more extensive series of All Posts, also on
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
In addition, lists of recent posts are available separately for each BI Section:
Things You Can Do To Help | Conflict Frontiers | Conflict Fundamentals
Beyond Intractability in Context | Colleague Activities
- Conflict Frontiers Seminar 6--Figuring Out What Is Going On (MPP Challenge 1) -- Widespread, and overly simplistic, "us vs. them" ways of thinking about conflict underlies much of its destructiveness.
- Conflict Frontiers Seminar 5 -- Introduction to Massively Parallel Peacebuilding (MPP) -- While there is no simple way to "resolve" intractable conflicts, a complexity-oriented approach can make them less destructive.
- Conflict Frontiers Seminar 4 -- Moving Toward a Complexity-Oriented Paradigm -- We need a new strategy tailored to intractable conflict's gigantic, tangled web of causes and consequences.
- Conflict Frontiers Seminar 3 -- Introduction to Complexity and "Systems Thinking": Theoretical Antecedents -- Nests, cycles, attractors, and paradigms -- new ways of thinking about conflict and its resolution.
- Conflict Frontiers Seminar 2 -- Pushing the Frontier: the Limits of Business-as-Usual Approaches -- More of the same isn't enough--we need new approaches to successfully address intractable conflicts.
- Conflict Frontiers Seminar 1 -- Understanding the Intractable Conflict Problem -- Destructive dynamics associated with intractable conflict are as big a threat as climate change. Find out why!
- Massively Parallel Peacebuilding Action List -- The ten challenges of MPP are daunting, but there is a role here for everyone.
- Factual Disputes -- An overview of the many kinds of disputes over facts that arise in conflicts--and what to do about them. Although getting worse, this problem isn't new!
- Cognitive Dissonance -- Cognitive dissonance can escalate or de-escalate conflict depending on how it is used.
- Siege Mentality -- North Korea's siege mentality is particularly dangerous as the US is exhibiting a siege mentality too!
- Minimize the Use of Force -- Exchange and respect are more powerful than force--they persuade without causing backlash.
- Seek Co-existence, Not Total Victory -- The demand for total victory is a recipe for continuing and deepening strife--co-existence is essential for peace.
- Be Willing to Consider the Possibility That You May Be Wrong -- Most of us are so enmeshed in our own worldviews that we don't consider that we might be wrong. It helps to listen to outsiders and consider that possibility.
- Listen Actively and Empathically -- Empathic listening is amazingly powerful--sometimes that is all that is needed to defuse destructive conflicts.
- Practice - and Preach - Civility in Public and Private Discourse -- Incivility begets more of the same, while civil discourse can help de-escalate conflict and improve relationships.
- Allow Your Opponents to "Save Face" -- No one likes to be humiliated--allowing your opponent to save face will help defuse a conflict.
- Focus on Fixing the Problem, Not Attacking People -- Attacking people makes them angry. Enlisting their help to solve a mutual problem is more likely to work as hoped.
- If You're Not Part of the Solution, You're Part of the Problem -- Conflict is created by everyone--it becomes better or worse depending on what all of us do.
