Constructive Conflict Initiative -- Related MBI Materials

Constructive Conflict Statement Graphic

Constructive Conflict Initiative
Related Moving Beyond Intractability Materials

A joint call for a dramatic expansion of efforts to improve society's ability to constructively address the full scale and complexity of the challenges posed by destructive conflicts

May 2019 Draft -- v1.2

Constructive Conflict Initiative Homepage | Invitation to Participate | Initiative Summary | Full Initiative Statement | Related MBI Materials | Private Comments  | Public Discussion | Request for Financial Support

Prepared by
Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess
Co-Directors, Beyond Intractability Project, Conflict Information Consortium
University Of Colorado, UCB 580, Boulder, CO, USA burgess@colorado.edu, 303-492-1635

Moving Beyond Intractability Materials Related to the Constructive Conflict Initiative

Complex Conflict Logo   MPP Logo

Over the last 30 years, Beyond Intractability (and its various predecessor projects) have been building an ever more comprehensive knowledge base and collection of learning materials focused on strategies for more constructively handling the many challenges posed by intractable conflict. Our initial draft of the proposed "Constructive Conflict Initiative is based on this work.

In drafting this Initiative, we hope to be taking a significant step toward building broad support for a vastly expanded effort to address the many challenges posed by destructive conflict.  If this initiative is to succeed, however, it is going to have to quickly evolve into something that reflects the collective insights of a much wider circle of co-sponsors. For that reason, we feel that it is important that the Initiative be developed in ways that allow it to quickly move beyond its origins with Beyond Intractability and our particular approach to the problem.

That said, we do think that Moving Beyond Intractability's learning materials offer valuable insights on many of the issues raised in the Initiative. To provide a gateway to these materials, we have created a special MBI version of the Initiative Statement which includes, on a section-by-section basis, annotated links to relevant MBI materials.

We hope you find them useful.  And we very much look forward to opportunities to discuss and further develop these ideas.

The Climate Change Precedent

We believe that the effort to address the conflict problem is roughly where the effort to address climate change was in the early 1980s. Then relatively small numbers of people were focused on the danger and the critical need to promote a very large-scale effort to address it. What is needed now is a process that parallels (and learns from) the evolution of the climate change movement.

We need to bring together what we now know about the nature of intractable conflicts and strategies for addressing them.  As has been the case for climate change, we then need to promote a very large and multifaceted approach to the problem – one that includes basic and applied research, education and training, sophisticated policy analysis, moral leadership, grassroots political action, and adequate funding.

We believe that the destructive-conflict-as-usual way in which the U.S. and so many other societies now commonly address complex, large-scale, intractable conflict represents the single greatest threat to humanity and the planet.  Conflict problems are threatening all societies worldwide with some combination of three dystopian futures:

  • Anocracy – Failed systems of governance that prevent societies from wisely and equitably addressing key social, economic, and environmental problems;
  • Autocracy – The cynical exploitation of underlying social tensions by plutocratic and authoritarian actors using divide-and-conquer strategies to increasingly dominate and exploit citizens politically and economically; and
  • War – The escalation of tensions between deeply-divided social groups and between competing authoritarians and plutocrats to the point of large-scale and, potentially, catastrophic violence and destruction.

These conflict problems also undermine the ability of democracies to pursue the not-yet-realized ideal of governance that truly is "of the people, by the people, and for the people." After all, in successful democracies, conflict is the principal mechanism through which unwise and unjust policies are challenged (and unwise and unjust challenges are rejected).  

Our ability to resist ongoing dystopian trends will depend upon our ability to identify and take successful steps to correct the many weaknesses in today's democracies so that they can more successfully defend the common good from the forces of chaos and greed.  This will, in turn, require a sophisticated and dramatically-expanded look at the many tough challenges facing political systems and options for overcoming those challenges.  Right now, we spend staggering amounts of money fighting the same old destructive conflict games, and, by comparison, do almost nothing trying to change the system that leaves us with such terrible choices.  We must do better.

In an effort to stimulate more action, we have drafted this "Constructive Conflict Initiative"* and are beginning to circulate it to colleagues requesting suggestions for improving and promoting these ideas. We will also be looking for individuals and organizations who either are, or would be willing to become, actively involved in the kind of broad effort that we are advocating. 

Smaller Scale Disputes

As we focus on the dangers associated with intractable conflict at the society-wide level, it is important to remember that the dynamics that lead to intractability also cause immense pain and suffering at the level of small-scale disputes at the individual, organizational, and community levels.

Thus, any comprehensive effort to address intractable conflict must also address small-scale manifestations of the problem. In part, this is because the small-scale interactions are key to understanding large-scale social and psychological complexity.

The added bonus, of course, is an improved ability to deal with the everyday disputes that are such an important part of everyone's life.

We hope that a wide-ranging discussion of the many complex issues raised by the Initiative will emerge from this process, along with specific ideas for next-steps projects that would advance the goals implicit in the Initiative.  Where appropriate (and with the authors' permission), we plan to publicly post the comments we receive as part of an effort to broaden the discussion.  At this point, we do not know where this initiative will lead – that will emerge from our conversations over the next several months. Our only long-term commitment is to keep raising the issues and looking for better ways of addressing them.

We are doing this because we believe that while there are many ongoing, and quite laudable, efforts to help address the intractable conflict problem, these efforts still fall far short of what is required.  Decision makers and private citizens commonly fail to take advantage of the many existing insights of conflict resolution-related fields and, instead, rely on destructive conflict-as-usual practices. This is due in part to inadequate conflict education and training and a scarcity of skilled conflict intermediaries (and the funds to pay them).  But that isn't the only reason. The current generation of conflict resolution and peacebuilding strategies have yet to demonstrate the ability to deal effectively with the staggering scale, social and psychological complexity, and inherent intractability of today's big society-wide conflicts. We are even less able to successfully counter cynical actors who directly attack more constructive conflict-handling processes (such as collaboration and compromise).  

Our collective future depends upon figuring out how to overcome these challenges.  More specifically, we need to develop and rigorously test strategies for meeting the challenges listed below.  As more effective strategies are developed we, obviously, also need to promote the widespread implementation of those strategies, while simultaneously discouraging the use of more destructive, prevailing approaches.  These changes must come from the full range of conflict perspectives and "ways of knowing," as society's many communities (decision makers, conflict professionals, and "regular citizens" on both the left and the right) come to understand for themselves how a more sophisticated understanding of conflict dynamics can enable them to better protect and advance their interests. 

The Conflict Challenge

See also:

Scale, Complexity,
& Intractability
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An essential precondition for success, a realistic assessment the difficulty of the challenges that have to be addressed.

As will quickly become evident from the daunting nature of the challenges listed below, preserving democracy in our 21st-century globalized environment (like combating climate change) is going to be an extraordinarily difficult undertaking.  And, this is something that we are going to have to do in competition with emerging authoritarian leaders who are proving increasingly adept at controlling their populations through the use of sophisticated propaganda and rapidly-advancing information technologies.  However, most people still oppose such leaders, and are likely willing to join an effort to better their own lives if they can see how to do that.  We need to illuminate pathways that avoid dystopia by developing solutions to the following challenges:  

  • Scale – Perhaps the biggest challenge is to figure out how to "scale up" the conflict and peacebuilding field's small-group, table-oriented processes to the society-wide level where they can help many millions of people deal with the challenges posed below and, more generally, engage in conflict in more constructive ways.  This will require adapting small group interaction strategies to the various mass communication environments.
    • Related Conflict Frontiers Seminar Short Videos (with transcripts)
      • The Scale-Up Problem - The scale of intractable conflicts requires that we need to learn to do peacebuilding on a much larger scale than most conflict resolution strategies were designed for.
      • Identify--and Scale Up--Your Areas of Influence - A first step toward effective action is figuring out what you can do that will be maximum possible impact.
    • Related Beyond Intractability in Context Articles
    • Related Things You Can Do to Help Posts
    • Related Conflict Fundamentals Posts and Knowledge Base Essays
      • The Scale-Up Problem - To be effective at the societal level, traditional "table-oriented" processes must be scaled up to societal size. 
      • Leaders and Leadership - In this article Mark Gerzon talks (among other things) about how to "scale up" our notion of leadership.
  • Psychological Complexity – Compelling rational arguments that particular conflict strategies allow the parties to minimize their costs while maximizing benefits may seem to be enough to decisively persuade people to change their behavior. However, a wide range of cognitive biases often lead people to embrace behaviors that would, from a purely rational perspective, be seen as counter-productive. Yet these more subjective thought processes often pick up on important nuances that more quantitative and rational approaches miss (although they obviously can also lead us astray).  Since so much of decision making is non-rational, conflict resolution strategies need to work with the full complexity of human thought -- not just rationality.
  • Social Complexity –The difficulties associated with the enormous scale of society-wide conflict are further compounded by the social complexities associated with the staggering number of conflict interactions. Group beliefs about both facts and values arise from the cumulative effects of countless interactions between largely independent individuals.  In today's political environment, people are decreasingly likely to blindly follow traditional authority figures, and more likely to follow trending ideas on their social media feeds.  That said, some charismatic leaders (such as Donald Trump) do still command huge followings. This means we need conflict approaches that work with gigantic numbers of everyday citizens and not just a few elite negotiators.
    • Related Conflict Frontiers Seminar Short Videos (with transcripts)
    • Related Beyond Intractability in Context Articles
    • Related Things You Can Do to Help Posts
      • Play a "Third Side Role" "Third siders" are disputants and outsiders - united in a desire to transform conflicts for the better.
    • Related Conflict Fundamentals Posts and Knowledge Base Essays
      • Parties to Intractable Conflicts -- An essay examining the different roles conflict parties play, showing how even disputants can also be dispute resolovers. 
      • Ury's "Third Side"' -- Ury describes 10 third side roles that both conflict insiders and outsiders can play to help make conflicts more constructive. 
      • Leaders and Leadership -- An examination of the different meanings of the word "leader," what makes leaders good or bad, and the dynamics between a group and their leader. 
      • Lederach's Pyramid -- A well-known diagram from Building Peace,this essay explains the roles of top-level, mid-level, and grassroots leadership. 
  • "Divide-and-conquer" Authoritarians and Plutocrats – – Eisenhower's warning about the danger posed by the "military industrial complex" is but one example of cases in which those who profit from destructive approaches to conflict work to influence society's conflict behavior in ways that enhance their bottom line. Arms merchants who work to intensify conflict as a way of selling more weapons are the most obvious and extreme example. There is, unfortunately, a parallel political dynamic in which, for example, media companies base their business models around intensifying political divisions and then selling coverage of those divisions. Interest groups also tend to go beyond legitimate advocacy and unfairly demonize political opponents as a fundraising strategy. To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, it's hard to get people to understand their destructive conflict role if their job depends on not understanding it.
    • Related Conflict Frontiers Seminar Short Videos (with transcripts)
    • Related Beyond Intractability in Context Articles
    • Related Things You Can Do to Help Posts
    • Related Conflict Fundamentals Posts and Knowledge Base Essays
  • The "Destructive-Conflict-As-Usual" Industrial Complex – Destructive-conflict-as-usual practices have developed into gigantic industries, accounting for a substantial share of economic activity and employment opportunities. Any move away from these practices is likely to be widely seen as threatening the livelihoods of millions of people.  In the absence of a clearly better alternative, these people are likely to strenuously defend the institutions for which they work. Persuading them to pursue more constructive approaches to conflict will, therefore, require compelling arguments, economic incentives capable of removing financial penalties, and face-saving strategies that honor people and their willingness to change. 
  • Absence of a Shared Democratic Vision – We also need (and do not currently have) a shared vision for a 21st-century democracy that most everyone would like to live in and, therefore, be willing to work for.  Such a vision would need to build on the best of our democratic ideals, while also acknowledging and moving beyond the reality that democracy has, far too often, been used to sugarcoat the domination of the many by the few.  In short, our goal must be to make democracy great (not to make democracy great again). Such a vision needs at least three major components:
    • A Commonality That Enables Diversity – We need to cultivate a set of overarching and universally-supported moral beliefs that enable today's highly diverse (and, in many ways, competing) communities to work together to advance the common good, while simultaneously permitting these communities to live life as they choose in a spirit of tolerance, coexistence, mutual respect, individual freedom, and constructive competition.
    • A Positive-Sum, Not a Zero-Sum, Economy – We also need to limit and, where necessary, rollback the "zero-sum" aspects of our economy that focus efforts to "get ahead" on strategies for taking things from others (a process that obviously favors the most powerful).  In its place, we need to encourage a more "positive-sum" economy that focuses "get ahead" efforts on working together to expand and more equitably distribute the goods and services society produces. 
    • A Collective Defense of the Commons – We need to promote the more widespread recognition of the common stake that we all share in protecting the fundamental environmental, social, and economic resources upon which we all depend. This must, of course, be accompanied by the promotion of institutions that defend the Commons from those who threaten it with the excessive pursuit of individual self-interest.
  • Reconciliation -- Having a positive future vision that enjoys broad support among the many communities that characterize today's highly diverse societies is an important step toward reconciling deeply divided societies. Still, for societies characterized by long histories of terrible, unrightable wrongs, this is unlikely to be sufficient, as it is unrealistic to expect the victims of these wrongs (and their descendants) to simply move on as if nothing had happened.  There is, therefore, a need for reconciliation efforts that foster a common history that acknowledges the truth of what happened. In addition, perpetrators must acknowledge their responsibility and a societally-acceptable decision must be made about how perpetrators will be treated -- who will be tried for war crimes, and who might apply for and be granted amnesty (and under what conditions).  Further, all sides must endorse procedures that assure that the wrongs will not repeated, and, to the extent possible, those who still suffer should be granted compensation and other assistance to facilitate healing and a future successful life. Perpetrators who are not tried and convicted should be granted forgiveness, based on their sincere remorse and efforts to make amends.
    • Related Conflict Frontiers Seminar Short Videos (with transcripts)?
    • Related Beyond Intractability in Context Articles
    • Related Things You Can Do to Help Posts
    • Related Conflict Fundamentals Posts and Knowledge Base Essays
      • Reconciliation -- Reconciliation used to be a common conflict resolution goal. While it still may be for the peacebuilders, it isn't sought by disputants nearly as much.
      • Lederach's "Meeting Place" -- None of these are simple and it is very hard to have all four together. But doing so, says Lederach "is the meeting place of reconciliation." 
      • Principles of Justice and Fairness -- An examination of the many different meanings of justice: distributive, procedural, retributive, and restorative among others. 
      • Victimhood -- Often both sides see themselves as the victim and the other as the aggressor. This essay explores this complicated psychology and its impacts. 
      • Restorative Justice -- Restorative justice is justice that is not designed to punish the wrong-doer, but rather to restore the victim and the relationship to the way they were before the offense. Thus, restorative justice requires an apology from the offender, restitution for the victim, and forgiveness of the offender by the victim.
      • Retributive Justice -- Retributive justice promises punishment or "retribution" for wrongdoing.
      • Truth Commissions -- Truth commissions are official groups endowed with the authority to extensively investigate the human rights abuses and war crimes committed in a specific country or region during a specified time period.
      • Amnesty -- Many argue that amnesty can allow societies to wipe the slate clean after war crimes or other human rights abuses, to put the past behind them in favor of the future. Others argue, that this condones the perpetrators' actions and encourages such behavior.
      • International War Crimes Tribunals -- These are tribunals designed to prosecute war crimes such as genocide, torture, and rape. Such tribunals are becoming increasingly common and are used instead of or in conjunction with truth commissions to try to move beyond the violence of many ethnic conflicts and allow the society to build peace.
      • Apology and Forgiveness -- These are two sides of the mutli-faceted "diamond" of reconciliation. Both are necessary for true reconciliation to take place.
  • Fact Finding Challenges – Citizen images about the problems that societies face and the viability of options for its addressing those problems arise through the complex interaction of technical analyses (often by experts perceived as having clear conflicts of interest), cognitive biases, and the web of social interactions which determines who is and isn't seen as trustworthy. The error-prone nature of this process gives rise to a continuing challenge – how do we cultivate societal fact-finding processes that more closely conform to the characteristics of the "real" world. After all, we shouldn't expect problem-solving efforts based on unrealistic images to actually work.
    • Related Conflict Frontiers Seminar Short Videos (with transcripts)
    • Related Beyond Intractability in Context Articles
    • Related Things You Can Do to Help Posts
    • Related Conflict Fundamentals Posts and Knowledge Base Essays
      • Conflicts over "facts" -- Facts used to be simple "correct information."  Now it is hard to distinguish between "real facts" and "fake facts" and what is "real" to some people, is "fake" to others.  How can one sort all that out? 
      • Confusing Facts and Values -Facts and values are different--but they are often confused and values "color" things thought to be fact.
  • Escalation and Polarization – Escalation and polarization dynamics now commonly divide whole societies into competing, "us versus them" factions that so dehumanize one another that taboos against hate and violence collapse and the only goal becomes the utter defeat of the enemy (regardless of cost). These processes are routinely amplified by "divide-and- conquer" actors who also use the intensity of the resulting conflict to suppress criticism of their nondemocratic actions. It is critically important that we find effective ways of reversing this process to the point where we can restore respectful dialogue and collaborative problem-solving.
  • Miscommunication, Deception, and Misunderstanding – It is now common for competing social groups to have wildly inaccurate and usually unjustifiable negative images of one another. In part, these images arise from escalation dynamics and the need for contending parties to mobilize supporters by painting their adversaries in the most inflammatory way possible.  Divide-and-conquer propaganda also, obviously, plays an important role. These hostile images are further reinforced by the fact that we all tend to live in "bubbles" that largely eliminate the kind of direct, interpersonal experience that can correct serious misperceptions. 
    • Related Conflict Frontiers Seminar Short Videos (with transcripts)
    • Related Beyond Intractability in Context Articles
    • Related Things You Can Do to Help Posts
    • Related Conflict Fundamentals Posts and Knowledge Base Essays
      • Interpersonal Communication - We take it for granted, but so much can go wrong with our communication. In conflict, care is essential!
      • Channels of Communication -- In escalated conflicts, parties often cease communicating altogether, or they ignore each other, assuming the other is biased or simply wrong. Opening channels of communication is an important first step in conflict management or resolution.
      • Misunderstandings - Even if the misunderstandings do not cause conflict, they can escalate it rapidly once it starts.
      • Creating Safe Spaces for Communication -- Constructive communication between parties is often facilitated by creating a "safe space" for such communication.
      • Dialogue -- In dialogue, the intention is not to advocate but to inquire; not to argue but to explore; not to convince but to discover. 
      • Empathic Listening -- Richard Salem writes, "I spent long hours learning to read and write and even had classroom training in public speaking, but I never had a lesson in listening or thought of listening as a learnable skill until I entered the world of mediation as an adult."
      • I-Messages and You-Messages -- I-messages can be a useful tool for defusing interpersonal conflict. This essay describes how they can be used, their benefits, and their problems.
      • Cross-Cultural Communication -- Even with all the good will in the world, miscommunication is likely to happen, especially when there are significant cultural differences between communicators. Miscommunication may lead to conflict, or aggravate conflict that already exists.
      • Communication Tools for Understanding Cultural Differences -- Edward T. Hall writes that for us to understand each other may mean, "reorganizing [our] thinking...and few people are willing to risk such a radical move." This essay offers strategies for improving cross-cultural communication.
      • Conversation as a Tool of Conflict Transformation -- This essay examines the power of interpersonal conversation in helping people develop positive relationships and transform their conflicts.
  • Collaboration Challenges  – While many aspects of today's big conflicts can, in theory, be resolved through some type of mutually-beneficial agreement, the task of actually reaching those agreements is increasingly challenging because of the complexities of today's issues, the large number of competing interests, wide cultural differences, deep-seated distrust, and a general reluctance to make the required compromises. (The illusion of total victory is pretty hard to give up, particularly when one is repeatedly told that compromise is weakness or even a sin.)  The challenge, therefore is to develop multi-party negotiating strategies capable of navigating these difficulties, concluding enforceable agreements, and then persuading skeptical constituents that such agreements are truly advantageous.
    • Related Conflict Frontiers Seminar Short Videos (with transcripts)
    • Related Beyond Intractability in Context Articles
    • Related Things You Can Do to Help Posts
    • Related Conflict Fundamentals Posts and Knowledge Base Essays
      • Consensus Building -- Consensus building is used to settle conflicts that involve multiple parties and complicated issues. The approach seeks to transform adversarial confrontations into a cooperative search for information and solutions that meet all parties' interests and needs.
      • Compromise -- A solution to a mutual problem that meets some, but not all, of each of the parties' interests. While compromise is good for repairing damaged relationships, it can also leave both parties unsatisfied, prolonging conflict.
      • Integrative or Interest-Based Bargaining -- In integrative bargaining, the parties attempt to "enlarge the pie" or allocate resources in a way that everyone gets what they want.
      • Culture-Based Negotiation Styles -- In Asian, Canadian, and U.S. cultures, touching outside of intimate situations is discouraged. But, Mediterranean, Arab, and Latin American cultures allow more touching. Cultural differences like this can cause problems in cross-cultural negotiations. Such differences are explored in this essay.
      • Convening Processes -- Conflict interventions usually begin with a convening process, in which disputants come together with a third party to discuss the conflict and decide on a course of action. This essay outlines strategies for doing a conflict assessment, identifying and recruiting participants, obtaining resources, and designing the process.
      • Ripeness-Promoting Strategies -- A conflict is said to be ripe once both parties realize they cannot win, and the conflict is costing them too much to continue. However, if the parties have not yet reached that stage, steps can be taken to encourage them to consider negotiating.
      • Focusing on Commonalities -- Andrew Masondo wrote, "Understand the differences; act on the commonalities." This essay examines how that can be done.
      • Policy Dialogue -- Policy dialogues are convened to address major public policy disputes. Often used to constructively confront complex environmental conflicts, policy dialogues bring representatives of opposing groups together to open up discussion, improve mutual understanding, and assess the degree of consensus and controversy that exists.
  • Ineffective Institutions for Adjudication and Legislation – There are, of course, conflict issues that fall outside of the win-win "zone of possible agreement" because of the refusal of one or more parties to compromise, disagreements about the underlying facts or the rights of the parties, and the inherent win-lose character of the issues (common for moral issues). For such cases, the success of democratic institutions depends upon the availability of widely- trusted mechanisms for wisely and equitably making hard choices about who wins and who loses. Such mechanisms include systems of adjudication for determining who is "right" in particular circumstances and legislative systems for weighing values and revising the nature of those rights, as appropriate.
    • Related Conflict Frontiers Seminar Short Videos (with transcripts)
    • Related Beyond Intractability in Context Articles
    • Related Things You Can Do to Help Posts
    • Related Conflict Fundamentals Posts and Knowledge Base Essays
      • Procedural Justice -- Procedural justice describes approaches that define justice not by a fair outcome but by a fair process.
      • Rule of Law -- Particularly since the end of the Cold War, the rule of law has increasingly been recognized as an important aspect of international conflict resolution and post-conflict peace building. Similarly, the absence of the rule of law is often implicated as a source of violence, human rights violations, and intractability.
      • Arbitration -- Arbitration is a method of resolving a dispute in which the disputants present their case to an impartial third party, who then makes a decision for them which resolves the conflict. This decision is usually binding. 
      • Adjudication -- Adjudication is a judicial procedure for resolving a dispute. In the context of ADR, it usually means the traditional court-based litigation process.
      • Hybrid Processes -- A hybrid dispute resolution process combines elements of two or more traditionally separate processes into one. Hybrid processes are generally used when parties believe a dispute requires elements of multiple processes and a practitioner is skillful enough to fill two roles.
      • Grievance Procedures -- Grievance procedures are a standardized set of procedures to follow when someone has a complaint or a problem. These are frequently used in workplace conflicts. When used effectively, they can significantly reduce the outbreak of intractable conflict.
  • Collective Action – Many issues including, especially, the management of the Commons, require conflict-handling institutions that go beyond relatively routine disputes between parties and look at issues in a society-wide way. In some cases this requires bringing people together through a government program to do things that advance the common good (shared infrastructure projects, for example). In other cases it involves regulatory actions which promote the efficient and equitable functioning of markets by "leveling the playing field" and preventing various types of exploitive behavior. The ability of 21st-century democracies to perform these functions will require extensive reforms to roll back the kind of corruption that is now endemic in such systems. 
    • Integrative Power -- Integrative power is the power that binds humans together. Kenneth Boulding calls it "love" or, "if that is too strong," he said, "call it respect." Though seldom studied or discussed, Boulding argues that it is the strongest form of power, especially because the other two forms (exchange and coercive power) cannot operate without integrative power too.
    • Nonviolence and Nonviolent Direct Action -- Nonviolent direct action is action, usually undertaken by a group of people, to persuade someone else to change their behavior. Research shows it is actually more successful than violent action in attaining its goals.
    • Capacity Building -- In order to negotiate effectively, parties sometimes need to build their own or others' capacity to respond to their situation effectively by building knowledge, providing resources, or both.
    • Networking -- This essay describes how networking can be used to build relationships and empower individuals and groups to confront difficult conflicts more effectively.
    • Coalition Building -- Coalition building is the making of alliances or coalitions between individuals, groups, or countries who cooperatively work together to reach a common goal.
    • Activism -- This essay discusses ways that disputants can (and do) address intractable conflicts in constructive ways through activism.
    • Social Movements -- Social movements are groups of individuals who come together around an issue to bring about (or resist) change.

Making significant progress toward meeting the above challenges will be an enormous undertaking requiring large numbers of specialized efforts each focused on addressing one or more challenges in specific conflict situations and geographic locations.  What's needed now is a next-steps action plan to get us closer to this goal.

Needed Next Steps

See also:

Massively Parallel
Peacebuilding
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A decentralized, conflict handling strategy based on very large numbers of independent but mutually supportive efforts.

It is important that the daunting nature of the above challenges not lead us into a false sense of hopelessness and an acceptance of a dystopian future. While fully "solving" any of these problems is likely to remain an impossible goal, efforts to limit the problems in ways which dramatically improve the trajectory of human society are most certainly feasible. What's more, the level of improvement is likely to be proportional to the level of effort, the degree of creativity, and the persistence that we bring to the effort.

As is the case with all great challenges, it is important to start by pursuing a series of realistic near-term objectives. As these initial objectives are achieved, we can clarify and embark on a more ambitious set of efforts in a continuing learning cycle that is likely to involve major changes in the way we think about the intractable conflict problem and its possible solutions.

Role of Beyond Intractability

This Initiative was prepared by Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, Co-Directors of the Beyond Intractability Project, based upon their 30- year collaborative effort to build an online knowledge base and associated learning materials focused on the many facets of complex, large-scale, intractable conflict. (www.beyondintractability.org)

The extraordinary effort called for in this Initiative would obviously go far beyond anything that the Beyond Intractability project could possibly do. We see our role as simply trying to start a conversation and offer an initial set of ideas outlining what we see is a promising strategy for addressing the problem. 

The success or failure of this idea rests on the willingness of large numbers of other people and organizations to take up the challenge.

As we see it, a useful, early step would be to convene a broadly-based, but manageably-sized, group of people with expertise in various aspects of intractable conflict, a commitment to expanding efforts to address it, and, for some, experience in organizing large-scale efforts such as this.  This group should certainly include representatives of existing initiatives that are already working on these kinds of issues. 

We expect that such a group would be able to move beyond this preliminary "Initiative Statement" and develop plans for a series of next-steps activities. We anticipate that these plans would include the following mutually interdependent components.

  • Increasing Funding – Perhaps the most important near-term objective is to start expanding the level of funding available for this kind of work.  There is simply not much that people will be able to do by simply re-purposing existing resources.  As a starting point, we need a small group of individuals and organizations to commit a significant amount of money and issue requests for proposals that would make it clear to those with promising ideas that it would be worth their time to develop those ideas.  Existing funding programs already working in this general area are especially well positioned to push conflict-related fields into this more ambitious line of work. All that would be needed initially would be modest restructuring and expansion of existing programs. Over the longer term, success will depend upon the ability of people to earn increased support by doing good projects that make significant contributions. We must also be realistic about how much progress the inevitably modest initial projects should be expected to make. We don't want to put people in a position where they feel that they have to over promise.
  • Awareness Building – Nobody is going to try to solve a problem about which they are unaware. We, therefore, need a broadly-based campaign to help people in all sectors of society understand that their biggest enemy is not each other, but rather the destructive ways in which their society handles conflict. This, obviously, must be accompanied by credible explanations of how the development and use of more constructive alternatives would enable them to better defend their interests.
  • State-of-the-Art Inventory – It is obviously hard to get to where we want to go, if we don't know where we are starting from. So we must start with a kind of meta-inventory of how current intractable conflicts are being addressed; what seems to be working well, and what is not.  When things are not working well, it is important to determine if better conflict engagement processes and strategies are available, but are not being used (and why not).  We would then, of course, need to explore ways of overcoming these obstacles.  Alternatively, where current processes and strategies are simply not "up to the task," we would need to come up with practical strategies for encouraging people to develop, and ultimately implement, better ideas.  All of this will have to be done in a way that is seen as credible by people from as wide a range of political perspectives as possible and including, especially, those who do not stand to gain financially from the effort. This must be seen as a public service initiative, not just another fundraising strategy for peacebuilders.
  • Education and Training – Another challenge is that the general public is largely unaware of the seriousness of the threats associated with destructive conflict and the availability of more effective ways of dealing with conflict that limits such dangers.  This suggests the need for much better conflict education and training at all levels from kindergarten through college and professional schools. Rather than being an elective or a major that only a few students take, basic conflict skills should be a required course (or be integrated into other courses) for all students at all levels. These ideas should also be integrated into all types of popular media--including TV, radio, and social media so we can reach people who are no longer in the academic system. Doing this will, of course, require development of a broadly supported curriculum that is not seen as tilted in ways that advantage some groups over others. 
  • Recruitment – Right now only a tiny proportion of the society is actively working to address this cluster of problems.  Obviously, we need to persuade many, many more people and more organizations to become involved. This is not suggesting that most people make conflict their new profession.  Rather we are suggesting that people integrate better conflict knowledge and skills into what they are already doing.  But we have to provide them the training they need to do this, so they are not just "reinventing the wheel."  Again, adequate funding is essential.
  • Project Coordination, Governance, and Quality Control – Over the longer term, an ambitious effort like the one that we are proposing would need to be carefully organized and administered in order to assure quality, avoid wasteful duplication of effort, maintain focus on critical issues, limit debilitating internal conflicts, and prevent co-optation of the effort by those with a narrow, selfish agenda. Obviously, such quality control and governance measures should be a critical precondition for major funding.  Over the shorter term, however, we are likely to need something much less formal, with much less overhead and more focused on getting people involved, building the network, exchanging ideas, and encouraging individual initiative. 
  • Rising to the Challenge – If It's Been Done, It Must Be Possible -- Fostering a massive effort to address the extraordinarily difficult challenges posed above might seem to be an impossible task. The same was undoubtedly said about climate change 40 years ago. While we clearly haven't solved that problem, the formidable effort that has been assembled and the considerable progress that has been made (take solar and wind power, for example) demonstrates that large-scale efforts like this can make major progress (though ultimate success will undoubtedly require major advances in our ability to deal with conflict). 

It is clear that we need to start building a major effort to address the destructive conflict problem – one that builds on and learns from the experiences of the climate change movement. This is a case where Kenneth Boulding's First Law applies, "if it exists (or has been done), it must be possible."  It will, however, only be possible if we start working together to make it happen.  As a step Toward doing this, we ask you to tell us what you think about the idea using our Private Private Comment Form or our Public Discussion forum.

 

* We are indebted to Louis Kriesberg who in 1998 taught us the phrase "Constructive Conflicts" as the most succinct statement of what should be the goal of the conflict resolution and peacebuilding fields--promoting the constructive aspects of conflict while, at the same time, working to limit its many destructive aspects.  Lou recently published the fifth edition of his excellent book on the subject, Constructive Conflicts, with co-author, Bruce Dayton.