Alternative Goals

Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict

Alternative Goals

	Interests, Positions, Needs and Values Interests are people's desires, concerns, and fears. In their best-selling book, Getting to Yes, Roger Fisher and William Ury assert that almost all adversaries have negotiable interests, it is only when the conflict becomes about rights, values, or power that it become intractable.
	Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) BATNA is a term invented by Roger Fisher and William Ury which stands for "best alternative to a negotiated agreement." Any negotiator should determine his or her BATNA before agreeing to any negotiated settlement.
	Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA) The ZOPA is the common ground between two disputing parties. The ZOPA is critical to the successful outcome of negotiation, but it may take some time to determine whether a ZOPA exists.
	Ripeness A conflict is said to be ripe once both parties realize they cannot win, and the conflict is costing them too much to continue. This tends to be a good time to open negotiations.
	Settlement, Resolution, Management, or Transformation This essay refers to four different goals for a conflict intervention. It defines the four terms and explains how their meanings have evolved over time.
	Tolerance William Ury explained, "tolerance is not just agreeing with one another or remaining indifferent in the face of injustice, but rather showing respect for the essential humanity in every person."
	Coexistence In a state of coexistence, the parties agree to respect each other's differences and resolve their conflicts nonviolently.
	Legitimacy It is important to take legitimacy into consideration in the formation of any conflict resolution process. Otherwise, any agreement reached, no matter how visionary, is unlikely to hold. Leaders, too, must have legitimacy; otherwise their power is tenuous.
	Security Security, or sense of safety, is one of several "fundamental human needs" that must be met if conflict resolution is to be successful according to human-needs theorists.
	Stable Peace This essay introduces the idea of a stable peace, or "a situation in which the probability of war is so small that it does not really enter into the calculations of any of the people involved."

The maxim that people should not have a right till they are ready to exercise it properly, is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. -- Macaulay

Featured Links
Organizations Making Noteworthy Contributions to Efforts to Promote More Constructive Conflict

KM World

Other Resources from
Beyond Intractability

Stable Peace
Kenneth Boulding's classic vision of what stable peace might look like.

Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Medecins Sans Frontieres
1999 Nobel Peace Laureate; also known as Doctors Without Borders

Beyond Intractability Version IV
Copyright © 2003-2007 The Beyond Intractability Project
Beyond Intractability is a Registered Trademark of the University of Colorado
Project Acknowledgements

The Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project
Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, Co-Directors and Editors
c/o Conflict Information Consortium (Formerly Conflict Research Consortium), University of Colorado
Campus Box 580, Boulder, CO 80309
Phone: (303) 492-1635; Fax: (303) 492-2154; Contact