Field Of Conflict Resolution Research Articles

Some Minor Reflections on Conflict Resolution: The State of the Field as a Moving Target

Based on several recent meetings between the scholarly and practice communities of the conflict resolution field, the author observes that our understanding of what we consider to be conflict resolution is changing rapidly, and that the context of a particular dispute is often determining. To continue to build knowledge in the field, scholars and reflective practitioners should examine such topic areas as the nature of practice; differences between in‐house and external mediation; expectations of all parties about change and outcomes; and the ethics of intervention.

Ethics and field building: The chicken and the egg

AbstractIn this article, the author explores the connection between developments in the field of conflict resolution and the evolution of effective comprehensive ethics to guide and measure practitioners. He argues that development of field requires clarification of both broad social values and specific professional rules. Further, he suggests that the field must soon address questions of definition and quality if it wishes to remain vital and growing.

CONTACT: Training a New Generation of Peacebuilders

The new field of peacebuilding has emerged in response to identity‐based local and regional conflicts. With this emerging field arises the need to train peacebuilders, those who will carry out the work of conflict prevention and resolution in the next generation. CONTACT, an innovative and person‐centered education and training program, is one such response. This article explains the theory and research behind peacebuilding training and the author’s experience with such training, outlining a vision for the future of the field of international conflict resolution.

Integration in environmental conflict

AbstractThe environment and public policy conflict resolution (ECR) field currently faces four challenges. The first three identified here are continuing issues: the purposes and goals of ECR work, how practitioners are organized to conduct ECR work, and who decides how ECR work should be conducted. The fourth challenge concerns significant criticism of collaborative processes by environmental advocates. A new research consortium that invites participation from all parties interested in these criticisms and other questions is described.

A Framework for Nonviolence and Peacebuilding in Islam

Today, there is little debate that a paradigm shift is occurring in the field of international conflict resolution; where experts laud the effectiveness of peaceful means ending disputes compared with the use of force or violence. This paradigm shift is reflected in the increasing number of peacebuilding academic and applied programs in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, South and East Asia, and the Middle East, including conflict resolution workshops, projects for building civil societies, and nonviolent resistance mobilization. In peacebuilding contexts, scholars and practitioners are seeking to integrate authentic, indigenous and local cultural methods of conflict analysis and intervention, which are replacing the generic conflict resolution applications developed by western practitioners in United States and Europe.

Conflict Resolution and Distributive Justice: Reflections on the Burton-Laue Debate

From its inception, the field of conflict resolution has appealed strongly to practitioners, researchers, and theorists interested in social betterment. Most conflict resolvers would probably agree that their efforts are motivated, at least in part, by the conception of a Good (or at least a Better) Society considerably less violent and contentious, more peaceful and cooperative, than the existing social order. Many would also affirm that in order to reach this goal, the sources of violence and contention, which include cultural norms sanctioning or glorifying violence, invidious and discriminatory "isms" (racism, sexism, etc.), gross socioeconomic and political inequities, and over-reliance on formal, adversarial decision-making procedures need to be eliminated or, at least, mitigated. And many would assert, in addition, that the methods of making these changes should be consistent, so far as possible, with the aims sought to be achieved: that is, they should rely on nonviolent conflict resolution.2

Exploring Deeper Wisdoms of Mediation: Notes from the Edge

Mediation draws many people into the field of conflict resolution with a promise of rewards like an income stream added to an existing professional practice or agreements pulled from the fires of bitterness and frustration. But for Jim Laue there was more. As a consummate mediator, Jim was equally comfortable mediating technically complex regional disputes, potentially explosive community disputes, and emotionally charged interpersonal disputes. His career began years before a well defined field existed. He came to this work as did others of his and the next generation, determined to address issues of social justice. His mediations during the civil rights era explicitly leveled playing fields and reshaped political tables in every community he touched. Later work with President Carter, in Texas, Indiana, and the Washington, D.C. area continued intervention models established decades earlier.

Why Conflict Transformation Matters: Three Cases

This essay begins with an examination of the importance of conflict transformation. The failings of an ideology of management currently dominating the conflict resolution field are contrasted with components of a transformative practice. I then offer three cases from my own experience and draw lessons from them to illustrate the potential of conflict resolution in three distinct areas: fostering community, building a responsive governance, and resolving public conflict. The examples are the following: A school redistricting dispute, where a return to the sense of common purpose and community was the primary goal of the convenors; A tri-jurisdiction community visioning process, illustrating ways of strengthening the nexus between citizenry and government; The Virginia Mental Health Insurance Parity process, where mediation helped end continuing legislative stalemate and address key health and economic issues.

Democracy as joint problem solving: Addressing interests and identities in divided societies

Competitive democratic practices whether they rest on majoritarian or proportional principles can be highly problematic in ethnically divided societies exacerbating political tensions, polarizing groups, and threatening stability and prosperity. In contrast to adversarial democracy with its emphasis on divisive institutions such as political parties and elections, this article suggests that an understanding of democracy as joint problem‐solving with a focus on common interests and empowerment may be more appropriate in severely divided societies. My argument emphasizes the constructive contributions democracy can make in societies with real, or potentially, high levels of ethnic division drawing on Mansbridge's concept of unitary democracy and theorizing in the field of conflict resolution.

Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies

A major work from a seminal figure in the field of conflict resolution, Building Peace is John Paul Lederach's definitive statement on peacebuilding. Marrying wisdom, insight, and passion, Lederach explains why we need to move beyond traditional diplomacy, which often emphasizes top-level leaders and short-term objectives, toward a holistic approach that stresses the multiplicity of peacemakers, long-term perspectives, and the need to create an infrastructure that empowers resources within a society and maximizes contributions from outside.Sophisticated yet pragmatic, the volume explores the dynamics of contemporary conflict and presents an integrated framework for peacebuilding in which structure, process, resources, training, and evaluation are coordinated in an attempt to transform the conflict and effect reconciliation.Building Peace is a substantive reworking and expansion of a work developed for the United Nations University in 1994. In addition, this volume includes a chapter by practitioner John Prendergast that applies Lederach's conceptual framework to ongoing conflicts in the Horn of Africa.

Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation Programs in Elementary and Secondary Schools: A Review of the Research

Concern about violence in schools has been increasing, and, correspondingly, conflict resolution and peer mediation training programs have been proliferating. These programs have been developed by researchers in the field of conflict resolution, advocates of nonviolence, anti-nuclear-war activists, and members of the legal profession. It is unknown, however, whether the programs are needed and whether or not they are effective. While there are numerous methodological and conceptual problems with the research on conflict resolution and peer mediation programs, the current evidence indicates that (a) conflicts among students do occur frequently in schools (although the conflicts rarely result in serious injury); (b) untrained students by and large use conflict strategies that create destructive outcomes by ignoring the importance of their ongoing relationships; (c) conflict resolution and peer mediation programs do seem to be effective in teaching students integrative negotiation and mediation procedures; (d) after training, students tend to use these conflict strategies, which generally leads to constructive outcomes; and (e) students’ success in resolving their conflicts constructively tends to result in reducing the numbers of student-student conflicts referred to teachers and administrators, which, in turn, tends to reduce suspensions.

Promoting Optimal Adolescent Development through Conflict Resolution Education, braining, and Practice

The purpose of this article is to examine how the problem-solving approach taken by the emerging field of youth-oriented conflict resolution is developmentally appropriate for a full range of adolescents and thereby promotes optimal development. The application of conflict resolution modalities to adolescents is conceptualized within an educational/developmental, preventive, and remedial framework that provides the context for reviewing the positive effects of conflict resolution on adolescents. A comprehensive approach to the use of conflict resolution modalities with adolescents as a basis for promoting optimal development is proposed, with attention given to the issues of culture and diversity. The potential interface between the fields of counseling and conflict resolution and the role that counseling psychologists can play in the development of this emerging field is discussed.

Exploring peace education in South African settings

The Youth Project of the Centre for Resolution (CCR)-formerly known as the Centre for Intergroup Studies, an autonomous institute associated with the University of Cape Town-focuses on the field of constructive conflict resolution and peacemaking empowerment for young South Africans and is one of the pioneers in this field in South Africa. In 1992, the Human Sciences Research Council initiated a cooperative research program into South African youth and the problems and challenges they face. Among the program objectives were the initiation and support of research into South African youth, and the generation of academically sound research results with significant policy implications. CCR was commissioned to participate and submit a report titled Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking Among Youth. The report was

Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation Programs in Elementary and Secondary Schools: A Review of the Research

Concern about violence in schools has been increasing, and, correspondingly, conflict resolution and peer mediation training programs have been proliferating. These programs have been developed by researchers in the field of conflict resolution, advocates of nonviolence, anti-nuclear-war activists, and members of the legal profession. It is unknown, however, whether the programs are needed and whether or not they are effective. While there are numerous methodological and conceptual problems with the research on conflict resolution and peer mediation programs, the current evidence indicates that (a) conflicts among students do occur frequently in schools (although the conflicts rarely result in serious injury); (b) untrained students by and large use conflict strategies that create destructive outcomes by ignoring the importance of their ongoing relationships; (c) conflict resolution and peer mediation programs do seem to be effective in teaching students integrative negotiation and mediation procedures; (d) after training, students tend to use these conflict strategies, which generally leads to constructive outcomes; and (e) students’ success in resolving their conflicts constructively tends to result in reducing the numbers of student-student conflicts referred to teachers and administrators, which, in turn, tends to reduce suspensions.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Empowerment and Disempowerment

From the standpoint of the left, the field of conflict resolution can no longer be summarily dismissed, nor can it be uncritically appropriated into theory and practice. It must be given its due place between the abandonment of socialist ideals and perspectives on the one hand and a stifling, dogmatic clinging to past certainties on the other. Conflict resolution has its place in the theoretical revision of socialist thought and in the debate over shifting modes of struggle as witnessed by the recourse to civic, electoral engagement in South Africa, El Salvador, and elsewhere.

Integrating conflict resolution training and consultation: A cyprus example

The Cyprus situation is an example of a protracted social conflict now frozen in time with a ceasefire but no long-term resolution. Many current violent conflicts, such as those in the former Yugoslavia, may soon enter such a phase, and intervenors will be looking for appropriate methodologies to help move them toward resolution. In that vein, both projects described here are relevant and useful interventions in their own right. However, the interface between them demonstrates a greater potential for effective collaboration and synergy which can bring added value to the parties in conflict. A collaborative approach to interventions can be part of a powerful model of a systems approach to peace. Thus, collaboration is enhanced among different external intervenors, among official and unofficial actors, and among external and internal change agents. To increase coordination and usefulness, it is incumbent upon external intervenors to build collaboration into their planning and funding proposals. There is much potential for more systematic and sophisticated integration of different methods than exists at present in the field of conflict resolution.

The roles of the intervenor: A client‐centered approach

AbstractThis article examines the complex nature of the field of conflict resolution. Case examples are utilized to demonstrate the clashes between professional ethics and uniform standards of practice, and the client‐centered approach to interventions. The author cautions against movements to universalize ethics and standards.

Articulating an alternative: the contribution of John Burton

Taken together, these four volumes comprise the Conflict Series, and represent the fruits of work completed by John Burton, with others, in the last years of his formal academic career in the United States, at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, and at the Center for Conflict Resolution at George Mason University in Virginia. Burton has now ‘retired’ (though he still writes vigorously) to his native Australia, and that event, together with the appearance of these works, prompts this synoptic evaluation of them in the context of Burton's life and previous work. What makes this particularly interesting in the case of John Burton is that his career has been less than singular; first a civil servant, then a diplomat, then an academic, he moved from Australia, then to the United Kingdom and thence to the United States, with various stops along the way. Though he has written a great deal—books, articles and conference papers—and was a key participant in the organization of the peace research movement in the 1960s, especially the International Peace Research Association and the Conflict Research Society in the United Kingdom (and is described on the back cover of CRP as ‘the founder of the field of conflict resolution’), he was never a professor during his extended residence i n the United Kingdom at, first, University College, London, and then at the University of Kent, achieving that status only later, at George Mason University.

Conflict resolution: a recontextualization

Challenges one of the dominant assumptions of the current cultural paradigm, namely that conflict is inevitable between people and groups with differing goals, values and priorities. Given that conflict is seen as inevitable, the field of conflict resolution has arisen to resolve conflict through a variety of techniques and behavioural tools. Two main schools of thought exist on the issue: (1) the traditional school, whose approach sees conflict as “bad” and its elimination as desirable; (2) the interactionist or modern school, whose approach sees conflict as functional and in need of being “managed” effectively. Virtually no one in the field would even suggest that a conflict‐free state could be reached. Argues that the technology for understanding and creating such a state exists and is available for use.

The persistence of conflict in Africa: Management failure or endemic catastrophe?∗

Abstract In tracing the history of the development of the African nation‐states from the dismantling of the British colonial empire in 1960 onwards, this paper sets out to identify the underlying reasons for the almost perpetually conflict‐ridden state of the continent. The findings are then considered in the light of the extensive literature in the field of conflict management and resolution.