Recent Beyond Intractability Posts
Including Hyper-Polarization Posts
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
- The Threat of Political Violence in the United States -- The number of people supporting political violence is not nearly the 30% that has been often reported, but it is still much higher than it should be. We all need to try to calm down our rhetoric so things don't get out of hand. -- Sep 25
- The Distance between September and October is Far More than a Month -- Important reflections on the differing ways in which the world has responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11 and October 7 -- Sep 22
- Could Congress Leverage AI to Help Restore Faith in US Democracy? -- One of those rare stories that asks how AI might actually be used to strengthen democracy and limit political dysfunction. -- Sep 21
- U.S. Shrugs as World War III Approaches -- A quick summary of the report of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy -- a politically neglected, but critically important, warning about the West's declining ability to deter war and defend itself. -- Sep 21
- Taking Democracy for Granted: Philanthropy, Polarization, and the Need for Responsible Pluralism -- A new report written by Daniel Stid in which he asserts that philanthropy, as it is currently practiced, has increased polarization. He urges philanthropists to practice "responsible pluralism" instead. -- Sep 20
- The Enduring Wisdom of America's Founding Documents -- For a time in which faith in US democracy is plummeting, a review of the reasons why so many people have, throughout history, found the United States' founding principles to be so inspiring. -- Sep 20
- Revisiting BI's Constructive Conflict Initiative - Part 1 -- Looking back on the 5-year old Constructive Conflict Initiative, a lot has happened to bring it to fruition. But a lot of challenges remain. -- Sep 19
- Going All The Way: The loneliness of the long-distance thinker -- Ashok Panikkar reflects on the "cognitive state" of the US citizenry, observing that it is "abysmal. " It "wouldn't be out of place in feudal and despotic societies where we would be proud serfs and well-behaved subjects." -- Sep 18
- Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments -- For those who find themselves engaged in free-speech debates, a review of strategies for rebutting common arguments against free speech. -- Sep 17
- Reprise: The Power Strategy Mix — Empowering the Pursuit of the Common Good -- Power takes three forms that can be mixed and matched: coercion, exchange, and integration. The "recipe" for the optimal "power strategy mix" changes depending on whom you are trying to influence. -- Sep 17
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of September 15, 2024 -- We've been on vacation, so, to cover what we've missed, this is a long set of news, opinion, colleague, and recommended readings from our followers. -- Sep 15
- Matti Friedman: When We Started to Lie -- A look at how journalism evolved from a field devoted to truth telling to a field focused on supporting the "right way of looking at the world." -- Sep 14
- The Normalization of Terrorism in the West -- Reflections on the very different way in which Western societies have responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11 and October 7. -- Sep 14
- Reprise: Planning a Constructive Confrontation Strategy: Understanding the Relationship between Negotiation and Power -- Constructive confrontation calls for resolving most disputes through interest-based negotiation; only if that fails should one try a contest of rights, reserving nonviolent power contests as a very last resort. -- Sep 11
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of September 8, 2024 -- Readings on Israel, the U.S. political scene, and other intractable conflicts of note. -- Sep 09
- Debate Without Hate: A Podcast to Help You Navigate the Election -- A podcast series with experts delving into our nation’s division, threats that arise from this division, and how we can all engage in healthier, more productive political discourse. -- Sep 09
- Reprise: Constructive Confrontation: Applying Conflict Insights from a 1st Party (Not 3rd Party) Perspective -- A reprise of an old newsletter on constructive ways of engaging in conflict that is less likely to create backlash and more likely to achieve one's goals than typical adversarial approaches are likely to do. -- Sep 07
- The Return of History: Liberal Values and Global Realities -- A must-read essay that raises a critically important question, does human society naturally gravitate toward power-with, egalitarian democracy or power-over authoritarianism? -- Sep 07
- The Distinctiveness of Human Aggression -- A review and brief summary of the thought-provoking new book, "The Goodness Paradox -- The Strange Relationship between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution." -- Sep 07
- For Students to Change the World, Colleges Must First Teach Them to Bridge Differences -- A commentary from our colleague Shamil Idriss observing that the spring's turmoil on campuses highlights what’s not on the curriculum: Young people need conflict resolution skills to lead us to a better future. -- Sep 06
- Guy and Heidi Burgess Talk with David Eisner about Threats to Democracy and How to Address Them -- The Burgesses talked with David Eisner about what he thinks the threats to democracy are, and how (and when) we might respond to them. We agreed, citizen involvement in governance is key. -- Sep 04
- Deep Reading Will Save Your Soul -- A critique of higher education and a strategy for learning the things that you should have learned in college. -- Sep 04
- Updating Our Impartiality Discussions - Part 1 -- The Burgesses update their 2-year old discussion of impartiality, adding to it Martin Carcasson's notion of "principled impartiality" which adds in quality information and "small-d" democracy. -- Sep 02
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of September 1, 2024 -- More in our regular set of links from readers, about colleague's activities, and from outside news and opinion sources. -- Sep 02
- The West’s Next Challenge Is the Rising Axis of Autocracies -- The dynamics of hyper-polarization are also playing out on a global scale with autocracies increasingly forming alliances to help them more effectively challenge Western democracies. -- Aug 31
