Recent Beyond Intractability Posts

Including Hyper-Polarization Posts

Protest Graphic

Posts by BI Section

Lists of recent posts are also available separately for each BI Section:
Hyper-Polarization Discussion Posts | Earlier Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog
Things You Can Do To Help | Conflict Frontiers | Conflict Fundamentals
Beyond Intractability in Context | Colleague Activities

 

  • Life in the Metaverse -- For those who can't quite wrap their mind around Zuckerberg's vision of the metaverse, an especially clear statement of what it is, its promise, and the danger it could pose to our future. -- Dec 07
  • The Most Consequential First Amendment Case This Term -- An enlightening look at the issues the Supreme Court is considering in 303 Creative v. Elenis and the possibility that the government will increasingly be able to tell us what we can and can't say. -- Dec 07
  • 6 Reasons Why Liberatory Leaders Need to Take Play Seriously. -- Play is valuable because it helps fuel innovation, promotes wellness, creates new models of strategic thinking, expands leadership opportunities, builds community, and invites wholeness. -- Dec 06
  • Review of Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America -- An in-depth review and summary of an important new book exploring the complex, bewildering, and often indefensible mechanics underlying programs designed to correct racial disparities. -- Dec 06
  • Harvard, Herschel Walker and ‘Tokenism’ -- A thought-provoking essay on racism, strategies for opposing it, and the multi-faceted issue of "tokenism." -- Dec 06
  • Matt Legge: When Polarization is Beneficial -- Issue polarization can help people come closer to understanding "the truth" about controversial events or issues. How information is presented to parties in conflicts makes a big difference to the quality of the conflict that ensues. -- Dec 05
  • Digital Peacebuilders Guide -- An online guidebook for peacebuilders interested in using digital tools to advance their work. -- Dec 04
  • How Fundamentalism Fails -- From a Christian perspective, a more universal explanation of the limits of fundamentalism and the belief in absolute self-righteousness -- "a closed fist can’t overcome the open hand." -- Dec 04
  • After Intersectionalism -- An argument worth considering -- the possibility that the intersectional struggle against oppression will lead to an era of widespread conflict between the various identity groups. -- Dec 04
  • Essential Elements of Successful Democracies - Part 2 -- Boulding's First Law is ""If it exists, it must be possible." All of the essential elements of democracy exist--though sometimes in other contexts. We need to implement them in our governance systems. -- Dec 04
  • The Dignity Index -- An eight-point scale that scores speech on its power to unite or divide. Start your own journey by taking the Dignity Pledge. -- Dec 04
  • The People Cheering for Humanity's End -- Truly terrifying news that, rather than appreciating the wonders of the modern world and applying themselves to the task making it better, people are giving up on the human enterprise altogether. -- Dec 04
  • Enough about democracy’s weaknesses. Let’s talk about its strengths. -- Amid our continuing frustrations with chaotic democratic systems that repeatedly fail to live up to their ideals, a welcome look at democracy's strengths and its advantages over authoritarianism. -- Dec 04
  • The public has a role in defending and sustaining democracy -- Places to start: strengthening the electoral system, encouraging the value of public service, and focusing less on identity that divides us and more on commonalities that unite. -- Dec 03
  • More than 1,000 professors sign on to ‘Stanford Academic Freedom Declaration’ -- For those interested in defending academic freedom and the ability of universities to help us really solve problems, a report on the campaign to build support for the "Chicago Trifecta." -- Dec 03
  • What Makes Life Meaningful? Views From 17 Advanced Economies -- A statistical look at a critical dimension of cultural diversity -- differing assessments of what makes life meaningful. -- Dec 03
  • Is Polarization Good or Bad? -- Rising heat is not necessarily bad--it shows changes are needed. But we need to pursue those changes constructively, as attempts to overpower or destroy the other will also destroy ourselves. -- Dec 03
  • Institute for Negotiation Innovation -- INI is a new nonprofit which bridges negotiation research and practice, provides negotiation thought leadership, and mobilizes capacity for highler levels of negotiation competence and excellence. -- Dec 02
  • When Partisans Cry Wolf -- An exceptionally clear explanation of how democracy is actually being undermined by the many ways in which the left and the right frame their political opponents as existential threats to democracy. -- Dec 02
  • A Dispatch from the Exhausted Majority -- A comprehensive look at how the extreme us-vs-them rhetoric of the hard left and the hard right is viewed by the majority of voters who inhabit the political center. -- Dec 02
  • AfP Seminar--Toxic Polarization: What's the Left Got to Do with It? -- The language used to refer to the right is just making things worse, not better. The substance of the left's arguments matters too. -- Dec 02
  • CBT and Peacebuilding -- A Chip Hauss blog post looking at how cognitive behavioral therapy can be brought "to scale" and used for conflict resolution and peacebuilding. -- Dec 01
  • Slouching Towards Utopia -- A review of an important new book, "Slouching Towards Utopia," that offers a complexity-oriented view of the chaotic forces that have produced widespread economic prosperity. -- Dec 01
  • The New Woke Discrimination Demands a New Law -- From the Wall Street Journal, a carefully reasoned explanation of what those on the right see as today's big civil rights issue (and a proposed remedy) -- a controversial viewpoint worth understanding. -- Dec 01
  • Hybrid Warfare: Fighting Back with Whole-of-Society tactics -- This webinar reflected on the implications of this new type of warfare for liberal democracies. It highlights the need to build resilience and to increase collaboration between the public and private sectors. -- Nov 30

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