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
- Building The Bridge To Peace: Reframing Peace And Peacebuilding -- A discussion of existing mindsets around peacebuilding plus research-based suggestions for reframing the way we present this work to outsiders so they understand what it involves. -- Apr 30
- The ‘Diploma Divide’ Is the New Fault Line in American Politics -- For a time when so many believe that the United States' principal fault lines revolve around race and gender, an argument that education is even more important. -- Apr 28
- A Pivot To Prevention: How The 118th Congress Can Prevent Violent Conflict & Build Peace Globally -- A briefing book for the U.S. Congress (and interested others) on what Congress can do to further peace in 2023. -- Apr 27
- America’s economic outperformance is a marvel to behold -- A good news story that challenges the popular belief that the US economy (and the larger society) is collapsing and won't be able to meet the needs of its citizens. -- Apr 26
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of April 23, 2023 -- More stories about our colleague's efforts to defuse polarization and strengthen democracy, along with similar stories from outside the conflict/peacebuilding field. -- Apr 23
- 3 Collaborative Practices for Advancing Social Impact -- Know what you're good at and what your partners can do better, find the most powerful leverage point, and allow for failure and learn from it. -- Apr 23
- ChatGPT — Can It "Listen" Better Than We Can? -- Can ChatGPT "listen to" and understand the other side better than we can? And if so, is that useful for de-polarization? -- Apr 21
- Civity & the "Tough Issues" -- Learn how Civity is addressing really tough social issues by improving civic relationships. -- Apr 19
- Sharing Ideas From Around the Globe on Ways to Strengthen Democracy - A BI/IGN Discussion -- A summary of ideas generated by the joint BI/IGN discussion on ways to strengthen democracy using negotiation, conflict resolution, and related processes. -- Apr 18
- The New Truth -- When the moral imperative trumps the rational evidence, there’s no arguing -- A provocative essay exploring the conflict over whether the truth is an end in itself or whether it must be adjusted to meet some higher purpose. -- Apr 18
- The New National American Elite -- For a time in which we all like to think that we are one of the good guys struggling against the oppressive elites, a provocative article that asks us to consider whether we are part of that elite. -- Apr 17
- Polarization's Toll on US Credibility, Progressives' Reverse CBT, and Other Colleague and Context Links -- Our readers share their thoughts: how progressive attitudes are deeply hurting progressives themselves, and how polarization is damaging US credibility abroad. Plus normal colleague and context posts. -- Apr 16
- Our Problem Isn't "Them" -- We need to learn more about the other side--not about how bad they are, but why they believe what they believe, why they respond to us the way they do, and why they advocate for the things we think are so awful. -- Apr 13
- This element is critical to human flourishing — yet missing from the news -- An exploration of the dangers of focusing exclusively on the intractable nature of our problems. To get people to work to help solve those problems there has to be hope that the solutions will work. -- Apr 11
- Carrie Menkel-Meadow: Freedom of Speech and Freedom to Protest -- Who has the right to speak how and when? The Stanford Law School controversy has lessons for all of us. -- Apr 11
- Colleague and Context posts for the week of April 9 -- Ideas and announcements from several of our colleagues, as well as observations from people in allied fields about stresses to our democracy, and how to address them effectively. -- Apr 09
- 7 Ideas to Reduce Political Polarization. And Save America from Itself. -- Sensible things that we could all do to actually help limit the polarization that we complain so much about. -- Apr 08
- Can Humanism Save Us? -- As we continue to struggle to find a vision for a future in which we would all like to live, thoughts on what the long tradition of humanistic philosophy has to teach us. -- Apr 08
- We’ll never solve our many crises without this one ingredient -- Important insight into the complex psychological effects of thinking too much about the world's big problems and not enough about its many wonders. -- Apr 07
- PeaceCon 2023 -- The "Skinny Agenda" is out for the Alliance for Peacebuilding annual meeting to be held May 3-5 in-person and online. -- Apr 07
- The Power Strategy Mix — Empowering the Pursuit of the Common Good -- Power is not just force. It is the ability to get things done. And that usually is maximized by using integrative and exchange power to encourage collaboration whenever possible, with force used little if at all. -- Apr 05
- Alan Yarborough: Getting to Meaning -- To better understand both others and even ourselves, we must dig deeper into the words and terms we use to ensure we are conveying precisely what we want to convey and nothing more. -- Apr 04
- "Entangled" Social Change: From Inter-action to "Intra-action" -- An insightful look at how we are all part of the conflict system, and how simply observing it is also an intervention. So HOW we observe and interpret is key. -- Apr 04
- Colleague and Context posts for the week of April 2 -- Notable organizations working to strengthen democracy and reduce hyper-polarization, along with important readings on those topics from within and outside the conflict/peacebuilding field. -- Apr 02
- Do You Live in a ‘Tight’ State or a ‘Loose’ One? Turns Out It Matters Quite a Bit. -- Yet another way of thinking about the social and economic factors underlying our divisions. -- Mar 31
