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

Introduction: "The presenting problem and issues that people talk about are rarely the ones that are most significant. What looks like one set of issues will almost always end up being another set of issues." Frank Dukes of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation at the University of Virginia talks about the dangers of an intervenor assuming he or she knows what a particular conflict is about.

This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).

Lessons Learned
Frank Dukes
Director, Institute for Environmental Negotiation, University of Virginia

Interviewed by
Julian Portilla
2003

...Don't assume I know. I assume just the opposite because I don't really understand until I have really had a chance to talk with people. The presenting problem and issues that people talk about are rarely the ones that are most significant. Two lessons I have learned are: what looks like one set of issues will almost always end up being another set of issues and learning over and over again the value of preparation.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies

Columbia University : Institute of War and Peace Studies

Other Resources from
Beyond Intractability

Red State/ Blue State: US Political Polarization
Though US politics has long been divided along ideological lines, the last two presidential elections have created increased polarization between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans. How did this happen? Is it good for the country? Can anything be done to reunited us?

Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov
Soviet nuclear physicist, and 1975 Nobel Peace Laureate

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