Beyond Intractability
Hyper-Polarization Blog
Includes BI/CRQ Discussion
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Things You Can Do To Help | Conflict Frontiers | Conflict Fundamentals
Beyond Intractability in Context | Colleague Activities
- Deborah Lauffer and Katja Rieger on Peacebuilding, Israel/Hamas, and Future Visioning -- Two more readers contribute thoughts about the Israel/Gaza war and ways of envisioning a future we would all want to live in.
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of January 7, 2024 -- Readings on Israel/Hamas war recommended by readers, more colleague activities articles and news, and writing from people in allied fields.
- Growing Strawberries on Coconut Trees: The Nature of Peace and Peacebuilding in a Collectivist and Illiberal World -- To understand why the peacebuilding field has failed to live up to its lofty ambitions, we have to unpack the world we inhabit today. Peacebuilding is not possible in many societies, and peacebuilders need to understand where their processes can work and where they cannot.
- U.S. Election BI in Context Posts for January 3, 2023 -- A compendium of ideas from conflict strategists about the nature of the US hyper-polarization problem and ways to address that.
- A New Year's Gift from Jay Rothman: 31 Definitions of Peace and You -- An exercise to help us all appreciate our inner and social experiences of peace, wholeness, and connection, as defined by many cultures around the world.
- What Happens When We Have ANOTHER Election That Both Sides Absolutely Positively Can't Afford to Lose? -- The US 2024 presidential election is shaping up to be extremely challenging to U.S. democracy, but there are things that can be done to make sure it is both trustworthy and trusted.
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of December 17, 2023 -- More thoughtful articles from colleagues, the media, and writers in allied fields.
- Jack Williams and the Burgesses Discuss the Israel/Hamas War - Part 1 -- An exchange between the Burgesses and Jack Williams examining how the Burgesses have come to make the several controversial assertions with respect to the Israel and Hamas war.
- Envisioning a Future (Almost) Everyone Will Want to Live In -- How much could we change if we could just accept the fact that "America belongs to all who live here" and we set about the task, as South Africans did, to figure out how we could make that work for everyone?
- Intersectionality Can Be Beneficial to Peacebuilding: Jay Rothman -- Jay Rothman shared his 2013 article in which "intersectionality" is seen as aiding intergroup cooperation, not harming it.
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of December 10, 2023 -- Reports from colleagues and others in allied fields about US democracy and related topics.
- Is Intersectionality Dangerous or Benign? Colin Rule Weighs In -- Colin Rule says that intersectionality means that all oppressed people should support each other in their mutual efforts to realize their basic human rights to live in peace and have self determination, and hence is good.
- Lisa Schirch's 5-Point Peace Plan for Israel, Hamas, and the Palestinians More Broadly + Katja Rieger's Comments -- Both Israelis and Palestinians deserve safety, justice, and dignity. They will only find these basic human rights when they can give them to each other.
- Massively Parallel Peacebuilding: A Strategy for Building a Democracy That Lives Up to Its Ideals -- A summary of the Burgess's latest thinking about massively parallel peacebuilding and democracy building explaining how it is already taking place on a large scale.
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of November 26, 2023 -- More important ideas from our colleagues and writers in allied fields.
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of November 19, 2023 -- More articles from our friends, colleagues and others about hyper-polarization as well as the Israel/Hamas war.
- The Israel/Hamas War: A Perfect Storm of Complexity and Chaos -- A consideration of the factors that are making the Israel/Hamas war so exceptionally difficult even to talk about (civilly at least) let alone solve.
- Intersectionality, Israel, and Peacebuilding: How Do They Mix? -- Reflecting on messages from readers about our Israel/Hamas writing and why we see this as differently as we do from many of our colleagues.
- More On the Israel/Hamas War from Contributors -- New comments from Israeli peacebuilder Julia Chaitin and U.S. psychotherapist Madeline Taylor about the Israel/Hamas war.
- The Hyper-Polarization Discussion: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going -- A review of what we've focused on and what we've learned since starting this newsletter 20 months ago, and a discussion of where we plan to go in the months ahead.
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of November 5, 2023 -- Colleague and context articles on U.S. hyperpolarization, Israel/Hamas, and other conflicts from around the world.
- Colleagues' Thoughts about the Israel/Hamas War - Part 1 -- A compilation of the first comments we have received about our Israel/Hamas war discussion posts. There is much to think snd debate about here!
- Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty -- Risk and uncertainty are scary, and are often avoided by cognitive traps which pretend we have certainty when we don't. Better to remain flexible, so we can respond effectively as the situation clarifies.
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of October 29, 2023 -- A mixture of U.S. and Israel colleague and context posts for this week.
- Julia Chaitin, Israeli Peacebuilder, on the Israeli-Gazan War -- Chilling testimony from an Israeli peace activist living near the Gaza/Israeli border, and her thoughts about ways forward.
