Tool For Conflict Resolution Research Articles

Participatory approaches to environmental conflict resolution in Cyprus

AbstractThere are four conceptual relationships between the environment and conflict: the environment as a tool for conflict resolution, or as a source of conflict, environmental damage as a result of conflict, and the creation of de‐facto ecological havens in demilitarized zones. The focus of this article is on Cyprus, which has been divided since 1974, and where since the late 1990s the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been involved in testing different methodologies for leveraging environmental issues as entry points for conflict resolution. This has involved a growing realization that environment is at its most powerful as a peace‐building tool when it is combined with a focus on citizen participation.

Federalism as a Tool of Conflict-Resolution: The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Résumé Le fédéralisme a été utilisé comme instrument pour mettre fin au violent conflit de Bosnie-Herzégovine et pour assurer la coopération politique après la guerre. Cependant, l’idéologie du fédéralisme comme les institutions de l’État fédéral furent bâties par les acteurs internationaux et non par les acteurs internes à la Bosnie. En conséquence, on constate aujourd’hui que l’idée même d’État fédéral est remise en cause par toutes les parties de la Bosnie-Herzégovine. Bien qu’il y ait eu un nombre important de réformes en Bosnie depuis 1995, celles-ci se sont en général concentrées sur le renforcement du niveau central aux dépens des entités membres. Les réformes n’ont pas pu créer un environnement dans lequel l’État bosniaque en tant que tel ne serait plus remis en cause. Ainsi, l’Union européenne a dû accepter de considérer que la conditionnalité qu’elle imposait ne fonctionne pas en Bosnie, car les élites locales continuent à considérer la politique comme un jeu à somme nulle. Ce dont la Bosnie a besoin est une réforme constitutionnelle, dans laquelle les groupes les plus importants s’accordent sur la nature de l’État bosniaque, sur leurs relations à cet État et sur leurs relations réciproques. Ces réformes doivent être réalisées au travers de compromis locaux et de coopération, et ne peuvent être imposées de l’extérieur. Enfin, cet article démontre en quoi le fédéralisme a contribué à bâtir la paix et à construire un État fédéral en Bosnie, mais aussi en quoi il n’a pas réussi à créer un consensus au sujet de l’État et à assurer que toutes les parties acceptent l’État et sa nature fédérale.

Why they die: civilian devastation in violent conflict

Why do civilians suffer most during times of violent conflict? Why are civilian fatalities as much as eight times higher, calculated globally for current conflicts, than military fatalities? In Why They Die, Daniel Rothbart and Karina V. Korostelina address these questions through a systematic study of civilian devastation in violent conflicts. Pushing aside the simplistic definition of war as a guns-and-blood battle between two militant groups, the authors investigate the identity politics underlying conflicts of many types. During a conflict, all those on the opposite side are perceived as the enemy, with little distinction between soldiers and civilians. As a result, random atrocities and systematic violence against civilian populations become acceptable. Rothbart and Korostelina devote the first half of the book to case studies: deportation of the Crimean Tatars from the Ukraine, genocide in Rwanda, the Lebanon War, and the war in Iraq. With the second half, they present new methodological tools for understanding different types of violent conflict and discuss the implications of these tools for conflict resolution.

Decision support systems for air traffic controllers based on the analysis of their decision-making processes

The growth of air traffic generates a multitude of data and parameters that makes it increasing difficult for air traffic controllers to choose rapidly and safely what to decide. The study of air-traffic control of full or partial automation over the past years highlights the need for better tools to meet the challenges of modern air-traffic management. Initial attempts of full automation have mistakenly side lined air-traffic controllers in their role as key players in air-traffic management. This has led to human-machine cooperation studies that actively involve air-traffic controllers in the resolution of problems. Such studies show the advantages of creating cooperative tools in concert with the conflict management process. The designing of conflict resolution tools in this way implies, however, detailed knowledge of air traffic controllers’ decision-making processes. To do this, we have developed a cooperative multi-criteria approach based on data taken from case study interviews. This shows how it is possible to extract criteria and preferences in designing bottom-up decision aiding tools. In doing this, we have laid down the foundation for the creation of decision support system.

Social Network Analysis as Conflict Resolution Tool – A Practical Approach

Many companies in recent past have experienced labor unrest. The negotiations between the union leaders and management have often failed. Organizations are thus trying to use better tools for negotiation to reduce labor unrest. One of the tools used is SNA or Social Network Analysis. This study was carried out at a major two wheeler manufacturer in Chennai. The objectives of the study were: identify the most influential personnel in the 3 unions, identify key union member who forms the central figure in the 3 unions, identify the member who has access to information flow in the 3 unions and identify the member who can be used to disseminate information among the 3 unions.19 factory worker level employees were selected from 3 unions for Social Network Analysis. The network was analyzed for Degree Centrality, Closeness Centrality and Betweenness Centrality and key personnel were identified to fulfill the study objectives.

Transcultural Memory in Conflict: Israeli-Palestinian Truth and Reconciliation

Transnational discourse, models, and tools for conflict resolution and post-conflict reconciliation are often transmitted from the international community of experts and state agencies to the local...

Should We Care About the Needs of Non‐humans? Needs Assessment: A Tool for Environmental Conflict Resolution and Sustainable Organization of Living Beings

ABSTRACTThis article extends the Human‐scale Development methodology to include non‐humans. We found this wider approach to be helpful in analysing the conflict of interest between fish farming and otter protection in the Natural Reserve of the Sado River estuary in Portugal. Our analysis of this environmental conflict goes beyond the anthropocentric view restricted to human needs to include all stakeholder needs, i.e. both human and non‐human ‘actants’. The needs‐based analysis aims to ensure that local development strategies are more sustainable, improving interactions between all living beings, not just humans. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Technology of the principle negotiations as effective tool of conflict resolution

Technology of the principle negotiations as effective tool of conflict resolution

Behavior of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in a land-use mosaic: conservation implications for human-elephant coexistence in the Anamalai hills, India

Understanding behavior of elephants in human-dominated landscapes can facilitate creation of management tools for conflict resolution and help foster human-elephant coexistence. We studied behavior of Asian elephants (Elephas Maximus) in the Valparai plateau, a 220 km² landscape matrix of rainforest fragments, tea, coffee, and Eucalyptus plantations, and in relation to humans in the Anamalai Hills of the Western Ghats of India. We employed scan sampling method for data collection. Feeding by elephants was lowest in open canopy habitat of tea, and it gradually increased in canopy covered plantations of coffee and Eucalyptus and in densely covered natural vegetation. Vigilance behavior of elephants was lowest in forest fragments and riverine vegetation as they could avoid encountering humans. This behavior peaked in tea plantations due to intense human activity there. Elephants maintained closer inter-individual distances in tea and this distance gradually increased in canopy habitats of coffee, Eucalyptus and natural vegetation. Predictor variables such as human presence and proximity to elephants resulted in reduced feeding and increased agitation in elephants while distance of settlements to elephants did not influence behavior of elephants. We found that fewer than 10 people at a threshold distance of more than 30 m had minimum impact on feeding, resting, and movement and decreased vigilant behavior in elephants. We, therefore, suggest that protection and non-conversion of canopy habitats and maintaining minimum threshold distance of humans from elephants would foster normal activities of elephants and help promote human-elephant coexistence in such landscapes.

Beyond the Meeting: How Community Activists Construe Idea Transfer from Intercommunity Encounters ‐ The Cases of Northern Ireland and Kosovo

AbstractIntercommunity dialogue encounters are a crucial tool for constructive conflict resolution. This research examines grassroots dialogue encounters with regard to the societal position of the participants, as well the situation ‘on the ground’ as influential to the transfer process. Interviews in Northern Ireland and Kosovo with community activists stressed the effectiveness of personal characteristics of dialogue participants when it came to transfer. Moreover, the readiness ‐ affected by socio-economic conditions as well as external/secondary conflict parties ‐ of the peer group to listen to its participant seemed fundamental.

Caught between Different Legal Pluralisms: Women Who Wear Islamic Dress as the Religious ‘Other’ in European Rights Discourses

Legal pluralism is a phenomenon defined differently by scholars researching European law and scholars researching issues concerning cultural and religious accommodation. Whereas European law scholars focus on possible theoretical tools for conflict resolution between intersecting European legal systems, scholars focusing on multiculturalism argue that cultural and religious legal pluralism conveys a dynamic relationship between official and unofficial law drawn out by migration and issues of accommodating a primarily Muslim diaspora in Europe. Yet, seemingly differently defined, these pluralisms have an equally important impact on the understanding of fundamental human rights in Europe. They both influence national law and shape the boundaries of rights, such as freedom of religion.Building upon established notions of legal pluralism, the paper provides a critical analysis of the application of human rights standards in European normative orders and argues that the rights of the religious ‘other’ are caught in an interplay of various types and forms of legal pluralism(s) in which issues of inclusion often remain secondary. It focuses upon the key example of women who wear a hijab (headscarf) or a jilbab (a long coat like garment which covers the body except the hands and face) and who were the central focus of European Court of Human Rights cases such as Dahab v Switzerland and Sęhin v Turkey, and of domestic cases, for example, R (on the application of Begum) v Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School. The paper re-orders and re-constructs certain forms of legal pluralism and also focuses on the relationships between them.

Mediated conflicts: Capacities and limitations of ‘mediative journalism’ in public diplomacy processes

Based on the concept of public diplomacy, this article analyses the possible contributions of journalism to international political conflict resolution processes and, more specifically, asks if quality journalism can take on mediative functions in foreign policy. The approach of this article is to consider the concept of ‘mediative journalism’, which means that first of all links and differences between journalism and mediation as a conflict resolution tool have to be recognized. An explicit link between mediation and quality journalism has not been tested yet, although both show partly similar mindsets and attitudes concerning, for example, balance, the plurality of perspectives and critical reflection, as the article clearly shows.

Conflict resolution in the twenty-first century: principles, methods, and approaches

This is a textbook for students and a must-have guide for practitioners. In the past, arbitration, direct bargaining, the use of intermediaries, and deference to international institutions were relatively successful tools for managing interstate conflict. In the face of terrorism, intrastate wars, and the multitude of other threats in the post-Cold War era, however, the conflict resolution tool kit must include preventive diplomacy, humanitarian intervention, regional task-sharing, and truth commissions. Here, Jacob Bercovitch and Richard Jackson, two internationally recognized experts, systematically examine each one of these conflict resolution tools and describe how it works and in what conflict situations it is most likely to be effective. Conflict Resolution in the Twenty-first Century is not only an essential introduction for students and scholars, it is a must-have guide for the men and women entrusted with creating stability and security in our changing world.

Evaluación de la Madurez de la Función Mantenimiento para Implementar Innovaciones en su Gestión

In this paper is presented a validated and implemented model in Excel, to evaluate the state of maturity, understanding for that the organization is well conditioned to deal with their projects, based on aspects of commitment to change, organizational culture, communication inside and outside the department, use of tools for project management and conflict resolution. The results are given in a graphic-narrative form which is a starting point to implement strategies for innovation in maintenance management process. One of the principal points of the methodology is the use of a questionnaire, elaborated under the MCDA procedure, designed to characterize the aspects named in the form of quantifiable variables, that is, assimilate a value or a well-defined concept for each state in which the variables that modeling the system under study may arise. Keyword: maintenance management, maturity, organizational culture, innovation

UN Constitutional Assistance: An Emergent 'Policy Institution'

This paper is the first to analyze UN constitutional assistance as a stand-alone theme and trace its emergency as a policy institution (established practice). It draws from the author’s ongoing doctoral research on the evolution of the United Nations Constitutional Assistance from a historical and post-colonial perspective where she examines the purposes served by UN constitutional assistance through the ‘policy institution’ ‘established practice’ concept, using the methodology of “purposive analysis” (based on the official purposes advanced for the projects). The concept and methodology are drawn from Ralph Wilde, International Territorial Administration - How Trusteeship and the Civilizing Mission Never Went Away (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). ‘Policy Institution’ as used in Wilde’s teleological study, combines an ‘institution’ as an ‘established practice’ focusing on ‘policy’, that is, the purposes for which the practice is associated. This paper’s overarching argument is that our scholarly understanding and imagination of UN constitutional assistance will benefit by moving beyond the post-conflict or peace-building tableau. And indeed, today, the United Nations offers constitutional assistance to “post-conflict” countries and others as a component of its development assistance under the broader “democratic governance” framework. This paper analyzes the salient features of that body’s constitutional assistance policy and argues that in providing constitutional assistance, the UN sets standards for the process of constitution making and, broadly, for its contents, thus influencing the constitutional outcome. It highlights the high-level policy attention that constitutional assistance as a democracy-promotion and conflict-resolution tool has received. Since constitution making is quintessentially a domestic political process and involves a profound reshaping of a state’s politico-economic order, this paper argues that the legitimization of the UN’s constitutional assistance as a practice, and the consequent internationalization of constitution making, must be critically examined.

Conflict, Conflict Resolution and Peace-Building: The Role of Religion in Mozambique, Nigeria and Cambodia

Confounding the expectations of secularists, religion has a strong – perhaps growing – significance as a key source of identity for millions of people, especially in the developing world. In recent years, religion has made a muted but tangible impact in Western development circles, most commonly reflecting the view that religious hatreds and differences are central to many recent and current conflicts in the developing world. This paper argues that religion can both encourage conflict and build peace, reflecting growing evidence that religious forces can play a constructive role in helping to resolve conflicts. Religious individuals and faith-based organisations, as carriers of religious ideas, can play important roles, not only as a source of conflict but also as a tool for conflict resolution and peace-building, providing early warnings of conflict, good offices once conflict has erupted, and contributing to advocacy, mediation and reconciliation. Brief case studies of religious peacemakers – from Mozambique, Nigeria and Cambodia – demonstrate attempts, characteristically partially successful, to reconcile previously warring communities, thereby helping to achieve greater social cohesion, and providing a crucial foundation for progress in enhancing human development.

Social Cartography as a Tool for Conflict Analysis and Resolution: The Experience of the Afro-Colombian Communities of Robles

The field of conflict resolution is in constant evolution. Every day, theories are defined and redefined, and new contributions are made to the field. This continuous process challenges scholars, researchers, and practitioners to develop new conceptual and methodological frameworks for the analysis of conflict. This article highlights the potential of social cartography (participatory mapping) as a tool for the transformation of environmental and social conflicts at the household, community, national, and international levels. The advantages of social cartography as an appraisal, planning, and analytical tool for conflict transformation are illustrated here with a case study of the Afro-Colombian community of Robles.

Conflict resolution in supply chain security

Right after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the US government defined and implemented several security-oriented initiatives to prevent another terror attack. Two of the most known are the Container Security Initiative (CSI) and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terror (C-TPAT). The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the United Nations (UN) have implemented collaborative, multination initiatives to promote security awareness worldwide and increase the resilience of supply chains to terror attacks. The results achieved to date in the international crusade against terrorism suggest that supply chain security is a global, multidisciplinary issue that must be addressed through collaboration and partnerships. Collaboration, however, involves conflict situations, which result naturally from the interaction of cooperating parties. These conflicts must be timely resolved through cost-effective and well-synchronised actions. This paper introduces a mathematical tool for conflict resolution based on conflict modelling and analysis.

A knowledge‐based conflict resolution tool for en‐route air traffic controllers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a knowledge‐based decision support tool used for assisting en‐route air traffic controllers by generating resolutions for dual aircraft conflicts after being integrated into a model‐based conflict detection and conflict resolution system.Design/methodology/approachAir traffic controller knowledge, which was obtained from the literature research, about solving aircraft conflicts is represented in a decision tree. Then it is written in Visual Basic programming language. With reference to several rules form the expert air traffic controller knowledge and some factors which affect controller conflict resolution process, the tool generates advisories consisting of eight kinds of separation strategies.FindingsThe paper finds that it is expected to increase the safety of air traffic system by supporting air traffic controller in conflict resolution process. Controller workload can be reduced by fast, reliable and acceptable resolution advisories of the tool.Research limitations/implicationsThe accuracy of decision tree is limited with the adequacy and quality of knowledge obtained from references, several assumptions and interpretation. Because of the unavailability of a model‐based conflict detection and resolution tool, the tool could not be evaluated in simulations.Originality/valueAfter being integrated into a model‐based decision support tool, it can reduce the deficiencies of the model‐based tool such as low degree of resolution acceptance by controllers and low‐resolution speed by providing expert air traffic controller knowledge to the tool.

For practical and legal reasons, an apology when things go awry is a good idea, but beware of the dangers

AbstractMichael B. Rainey, of Malibu, Calif., Kit Chan, of Montebello, Calif., and Judith Begin, of Los Angeles, revisit the use of apologies as a conflict resolution tool in the first of two parts.