All Recent Posts
Recent Posts are also available seperately for each BI Section:
Things You Can Do To Help | Conflict Frontiers | Conflict Fundamentals
Beyond Intractability in Context | Colleague Activities
- Polarization -- Polarization is insidious and dangerous. Steps should be taken to avoid it when possible, and reverse it when it has already developed.
- Maintaining Oppression -- Oppression is maintained through superior power, control of meaning, self-fulfilling prophecies, and distorted relationships.
- 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.
- Morton Deutsch on Understanding and Overcoming Oppression -- Oppression has been with us through the ages. Fortunately we have learned many strategies for overcoming it.
- The Return of "I'll Fight You for It" Rules -- Today's biggest question is whether collaborative problem-solving can resist the ongoing and aggressive reassertion of Machiavellian power. #mbi_frontiers
- The US Election, COVID, Racism, and the Constructive Conflict Initiative -- If ever the "peacemakers time is at hand," this is it! Join our effort to help share what peacebuilders know that can help.
- 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. #mbi_cci
- Power Strategy Mix -- Success is usually obtained by using a combination of two or three strategies, not just one--especially not just coercion! #mbi_cci
- 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." #mbi_cci
- Suzanne Ghais: Bridging the Police Community Divide -- A reflection on the dangerous escalation between police and their communities and how to address that effectively for all constituencies. #mbi_cci
- 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. #mbi_cci
- 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. #mbi_cci
- Promote Escalation Awareness -- Conflict escalation is, arguably, "the most destructive force on the planet." It is what leads us into war and catastrophic acts of inhumanity. #mbi_cci
- 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. #mbi_cci
- 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. #mbi_cci
- Confronting NIMBYs by Polling Community Interests -- By broadening their understanding of their "backyard" to include their whole community, citizens can be much more powerful in their advocacy efforts.
- Constructive Demonstration Strategies -- Primal screams don't change policy or public opinion. Demonstrators should know their goals--and the best way to accomplish them. #mbi_cci
- 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 #mbi_cci
- (When) Should We Escalate? -- What determines whether escalation of the conflicts over police brutality and systemic racism is beneficial? What can be done to make it as constructive as possible? #mbi_cci
- The Crane Brinton Effect -- The key to successful revolutionary (or evolutionary) change a broadly agreed-upon vision for a better society in which most everyone would like to live. #mbi_fundamentals
- Conflict Styles -- Competition, collaboration, compromise, avoidance, and accommodation all have costs and benefits. Know which is best when! #mbi_fundamentals
- 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. #mbi_fundamentals
- Mass Media -- Everything we know about world events is filtered through the media. When those filters are flawed we can wind up fighting against our interests. #mbi_fundamentals
- Constructive Escalation -- By choosing one's conflict strategies carefully, it is possible to build support without the destructive consequences that usually accompany escalation. #mbi_fundamentals
- Destructive Escalation -- Destructive escalation is the most dangerous force on the planet. The "enemy" is not the other side, it's the escalation. We must learn how to control it. #mbi_fundamentals
