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The Hyper-Polarization Challenge to the Conflict Resolution Field
We invite you to participate in an online exploration of what those with conflict and peacebuilding expertise can do to help defend liberal democracies and encourage them live up to their ideals.
Follow BI and the Hyper-Polarization Discussion on BI's New Substack Newsletter.
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Things YOU Can Do To Help Blog
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This blog contains posts highlighting things everyone--not just powerful people, not just important or rich people--but everyone of us --can do to help limit the dynamics that lead to destructive and intractable conflicts. It includes a series of short posts explaining each idea, links to additional information, and supporting Infographics.
The massively parallel approaches to hyper-polarization and intractable conflict being explored in the
Hyper-Polarization Discussion
focus around specific things that individuals and organizations can do to help.
There are four ways to participate in BI Seminars and Discussions.
- Visiting and Searching: Browse the BI homepage or particular seminar landing pages (particularly the right side) to see what's new (or what you may have missed), or use our search tool if you are looking for specific information.
- Subscribe to Our Free Substack Newsletter: You can sign up for Beyond Intractability's newsletter and get updates about everything that is new sent directly to your email.
- Discuss: We are inviting anyone with thoughts on how to better meet the many challenges posed by hyper-polarization to contribute their ideas to the ongoing BI/CRQ discussion on the topic. The invitation to participate contains more details.
- Contribute: We, of course, appreciate financial contributions which we are now collecting with a GoFundMe Page. We also welcome suggestions about anything that might be done to strengthen Beyond Intractability, as well as information about things that you are doing that relate to BI. (We add information about these activities to our Colleague Activities Blog.)
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A complete listing of all "Things You Can Do To Help" posts is available as is a listing of supporting Infographics.
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Conflict Frontiers Seminar Series & Blog
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This seminar series takes a complexity-oriented approach to examining frontier-of-the-field issues related to difficult and intractable conflicts. After examining why "business-as-usual" conflict resolution approaches aren't working, we explore the nature of complex systems and the implications of that for conflict analysis, engagement, and intervention. Adopting an approach which we call "massively parallel peacebuilding," we suggest a new set of ideas that can be used by disputants and third parties to more effectively address intractable conflicts in the U.S.and worldwide.
Frontiers Seminar posts offer articles and video lectures that offer a more in-depth look at many of the ideas being discussed in the
Hyper-Polarization Discussion
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We examine the nature of intractability and why business-as-usual conflict resolution approaches don’t work well for these kinds of conflicts. A big part of the reason is the complexity and scale of these conflicts—which makes traditional “table-oriented” approaches (such as negotiation, mediation, dialogue, and problem-solving) less successful (they just can't involve enough people). After exploring the implications of complex systems on conflict analysis and intervention, we suggest a complexity-oriented approach to intractability which we call Massively Parallel Peacebuilding (MPP).
The second part of the seminar series fleshes out what this means and how it can be applied, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. We examine the goals and objectives of MPP, and traps and opportunities intractable conflicts provide for MPP. We then examine what we call "first-order make-a-difference actions" which are actions intended to directly alter the course of the conflict, and second-order actions. which are those intended to overcome the obstacles to successfully taking the first order actions—lack of capacity and cost being two examples. We end with a discussion of how to move forward and apply these principles in “the real world.” All of this is done in over 100 short videos (with transcripts) plus supporting materials from other BI sections (Things You can Do to Help, Conflict Fundamentals, BI Knowledge Base, and BI in Context.
Seminars in the series currently include:
- Topic Area 1: Scale, Complexity, & Intractability
- Topic Area 2: Massively Parallel Peacebuilding
- Topic Area 3: Authoritarian Populism
- Topic Area 4: Constructive Confrontation
- Seminar 9: Constructive Confrontation
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See the Syllabi for the entire Frontiers Seminar Series with short descriptions of all posts.
Quick links to the four Frontiers Seminar Series for major topic areas: Scale, Complexity, and Intractability, Massively Parallel Peacebuilding (MPP), Authoritarian Populism, and Constructive Confrontation as well as the MPP Action List with a comprehensive list of things that need to be done to address the intractable, problem.
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Conflict Frontiers Videos
are now vailable on:
and
Vimeo videos are downloadable for offline viewing.
There are four ways to participate in BI Seminars and Discussions.
- Visiting and Searching: Browse the BI homepage or particular seminar landing pages (particularly the right side) to see what's new (or what you may have missed), or use our search tool if you are looking for specific information.
- Subscribe to Our Free Substack Newsletter: You can sign up for Beyond Intractability's newsletter and get updates about everything that is new sent directly to your email.
- Discuss: We are inviting anyone with thoughts on how to better meet the many challenges posed by hyper-polarization to contribute their ideas to the ongoing BI/CRQ discussion on the topic. The invitation to participate contains more details.
- Contribute: We, of course, appreciate financial contributions which we are now collecting with a GoFundMe Page. We also welcome suggestions about anything that might be done to strengthen Beyond Intractability, as well as information about things that you are doing that relate to BI. (We add information about these activities to our Colleague Activities Blog.)
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Conflict News and Opinion Blog
From around the web, more insight into the nature of our conflict problems, limits of business-as-usual thinking, and things people are doing to try to make things better.
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Beyond Intractability's efforts to promote more constructive approaches to conflict occur within the larger context of efforts to promote wise and equitable solutions to a broad range of social problems. This blog highlights readable news and opinion articles, "infographics" and reports that help us understand the costs--and hence, urgency -- of the conflict problem, the dynamics that make it so difficult, alternative responses, and innovative success stories about people who have successfully confronted various aspects of the problem in different settings.
Frontiers Seminar posts offer articles and video lectures that offer a more in-depth look at many of the ideas being discussed in the
Hyper-Polarization Discussion
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There are four ways to participate in BI Seminars and Discussions.
- Visiting and Searching: Browse the BI homepage or particular seminar landing pages (particularly the right side) to see what's new (or what you may have missed), or use our search tool if you are looking for specific information.
- Subscribe to Our Free Substack Newsletter: You can sign up for Beyond Intractability's newsletter and get updates about everything that is new sent directly to your email.
- Discuss: We are inviting anyone with thoughts on how to better meet the many challenges posed by hyper-polarization to contribute their ideas to the ongoing BI/CRQ discussion on the topic. The invitation to participate contains more details.
- Contribute: We, of course, appreciate financial contributions which we are now collecting with a GoFundMe Page. We also welcome suggestions about anything that might be done to strengthen Beyond Intractability, as well as information about things that you are doing that relate to BI. (We add information about these activities to our Colleague Activities Blog.)
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As BI tries to understand the broader context surrounding today's most divisive and intractable conflicts, we have started to compile a list of Newsletters that offer important perspectives that supplement those provided by mainstream news sources.
The full text of the Beyond Intractability system, external articles cited by the Beyond Intractability In Context, and other useful conflict-related articles can be searched using our Google Custom Search Engine.
We welcome your suggestions of articles and other materials that we should post in this blog. If they are things written by yourself, though, please also consider contributing them to the "Colleague Activities Blog"
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Conflict Fundamentals Seminar/Blog
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As conflicts have been heating up and becoming both more destructive and intractable, many of our friends who are not in the conflict resolution field have been asking me "what can I do?" or "What can be done to defuse the deepening level of distrust, hostility, and even hate that we see growing daily in the United States and elsewhere around the world?" We created the Conflict Fundamental seminar series -- along with the "What Everyone Can Do" Blog -- to try to help answer that question.
These seminars go into more detail than the Blog, presenting the core knowledge from the conflict resolution and peacebuilding fields---knowledge that is, to a large extent, considered a "starting point" for our more advanced Conflict Frontiers Seminar Series. These posts, which cover both "normal" conflicts and conflict resolution processes as well as complex intractable conflicts, are also likely to be of use and interest to students of conflict resolution and peacebuilding as well as a more general audience.
Key to addressing the tough challenges posed by the
Hyper-Polarization Discussion
is the more widespread utilization of the fundamental insights of the conflict and peacebuilding fields.
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As of March, 2019, the Fundamentals Seminar has been re-organized and expanded. It now has twenty units, covering introductory concepts, and then a deeper examination of typical conflict problems and solutions, or at least ways of addressing such problems constructively if "solution" to too high a goal. Posts in the first five units are mostly ones that were in the earlier seminar. The units after that are new. Right now they are primarily populated with BI Knowledge Base essays. We will soon begin adding "Current Implications Sections" for these, which is what we had done previously when we included Knowledge Base materials in the Fundamentals Seminar. But we decided linking to the original essays in the interim was still useful. Current Seminars include:
- Seminar 1: Understanding the Problem of Destructive Conflict
- Seminar 2: Core Concepts
- Seminar 3: Conflict Assessment and Mapping
- Seminar 4: Core Conflict Elements
- Seminar 5: Conflict Overlay Factors
- Seminar 6: Parties
- Seminar 7: Framing
- Seminar 8: Communication Pitfalls and Corrections
- Seminar 9: The Abuse and Use of Real and "Fake" Facts
- Seminar 10: Escalation and De-Escalation Processes
- Seminar 11: Procedural Problems/Solutions
- Seminar 12: Power- It's Uses and Abuses
- Seminar 13: Exchange Power and Negotiation
- Seminar 14: Collaboration and the Power of Working Together
- Seminar 15: Alternative Dispute Resolution Processes
- Seminar 16: Culture and Conflict
- Seminar 17:Unrightable Wrongs and Reconciling the Past
- Seminar 18: Developing an Attractive Common Future
- Seminar 19: Promoting Good Governance
- Seminar 20: Peace Processes
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See syllabi for the entire seminar series with a list and short descriptions of all posts including a collection of teaching materials and erercises.
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There are four ways to participate in BI Seminars and Discussions.
- Visiting and Searching: Browse the BI homepage or particular seminar landing pages (particularly the right side) to see what's new (or what you may have missed), or use our search tool if you are looking for specific information.
- Subscribe to Our Free Substack Newsletter: You can sign up for Beyond Intractability's newsletter and get updates about everything that is new sent directly to your email.
- Discuss: We are inviting anyone with thoughts on how to better meet the many challenges posed by hyper-polarization to contribute their ideas to the ongoing BI/CRQ discussion on the topic. The invitation to participate contains more details.
- Contribute: We, of course, appreciate financial contributions which we are now collecting with a GoFundMe Page. We also welcome suggestions about anything that might be done to strengthen Beyond Intractability, as well as information about things that you are doing that relate to BI. (We add information about these activities to our Colleague Activities Blog.)
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Beyond Intractability / CRInfo Knowledge Base
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The newly-combined CRInfo and Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base contains 1000s of pages of material on the nature of and ways of constructively addressing both "regular," negotiable conflicts, and highly challenging intractable conflicts. The knowledge base was begun in 2000 and has been growing ever since. It now has theoretical and practical articles and case studies written by over 400 academic and practical experts, along with about 70 audio interviews of leading conflict resolution scholars and practitioners, key book and article summaries, practitioner profiles and personal reflections of peacebuilders. All of this material is browsable (by topic category or type of information) and searchable.
The knowledge base does not advocate or teach one particular approach. Rather, it provides access to information on many approaches which can then be adapted to many different situations. Our goal is to give people new ideas to think about and new hope. As a free Internet service, BI provides information that is much more affordable and accessible than traditional training programs or hard-to-find books. BI is also constantly growing and changing, making the breadth, depth, and potential of the peacebuilding field more clearly visible.
More about the Knowledge Base:
- Using the Knowledge Base
- Reusing BI/MOOS Resources
- Citing BI / MOOS Resources
- Affordable Republication Rights
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Browse BI Resources
- Teaching Materials
- Essays
- CRInfo Core Knowledge Articles
- Case Studies
- Interviews and Interview Segments
- Book and Article Summaries
- Peacebuilder Profiles
- Peacebuilder Reflections
- Education & Training Opportunities
- Career & Funding Opportunities
- User Guides
- Affiliate Projects
Browse MBI Resources
- Things You Can Do To Help
- Conflict Frontiers Seminar/Blog
- Conflict Fundamentals Seminar/Blog
- BI in Context Blog
- Colleague Activities Blog
Search
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Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
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Many other people are doing important and interesting work in an effort to move beyond intractability--in theory and in practice, in different locations and on different conflicts. Please share what you are doing here so we can all learn from each other.
Things we are interested in hearing about, for instance, include (but are not limited to)
- Books and articles you have written or are writing that relate to either intractable conflict theory, intervention practice, or both.
- Practice activities you have undertaken or know about that are likely to be of interest to others.
- Constructive advocacy efforts.
- Any other work that relates to our topics here that might be of interest to our visitors.
Links to things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing to better address the tough issues being raised by the
Hyper-Polarization Discussion.
There are four ways to participate in BI Seminars and Discussions.
- Visiting and Searching: Browse the BI homepage or particular seminar landing pages (particularly the right side) to see what's new (or what you may have missed), or use our search tool if you are looking for specific information.
- Subscribe to Our Free Substack Newsletter: You can sign up for Beyond Intractability's newsletter and get updates about everything that is new sent directly to your email.
- Discuss: We are inviting anyone with thoughts on how to better meet the many challenges posed by hyper-polarization to contribute their ideas to the ongoing BI/CRQ discussion on the topic. The invitation to participate contains more details.
- Contribute: We, of course, appreciate financial contributions which we are now collecting with a GoFundMe Page. We also welcome suggestions about anything that might be done to strengthen Beyond Intractability, as well as information about things that you are doing that relate to BI. (We add information about these activities to our Colleague Activities Blog.)
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Although we initially created a form for blog submissions, we also accept regular emails via our contact form.
We ask only that participants follow a few simple and common sense ground rules:
- The suggested submission must address some aspect of the intractable conflict problem in a constructive way.
- Advocacy projects must reflect an honest effort to be as constructive as possible, trying to understand and work with –or at least not further alienate--adversaries wherever possible.
- We understand that there are likely to be significant differences of opinion regarding what is "constructive" or not, and we will err on the side of inclusion. We are simply trying to avoid highly inflammatory posts which are so rampant in social media, and making the conflict problem worse.
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Internal BI Site Search Plus Search of External "Linked To" Resources
This is Beyond Intractability's Google Custom Search Engine, an ad supported system from Google. It searches the entire BI system, plus links to external pages that we cite. To get the search results scroll past the ads.
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