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106 Conflict Resolution Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Conflict resolution is an essential skill that plays a crucial role in various aspects of our lives. Whether it is in personal relationships, the workplace, or even on a global scale, conflicts are inevitable. However, it is how we address and resolve these conflicts that determines the outcome and impact they have on our lives and the world around us.

Writing an essay on conflict resolution can provide a deeper understanding of this skill and its significance. To help you get started, here are 106 conflict resolution essay topic ideas and examples:

The importance of conflict resolution in personal relationships.
Conflict resolution techniques used in international diplomacy.
The role of empathy in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution strategies for parents and children.
The impact of unresolved conflicts on mental health.
Conflict resolution in the workplace: best practices.
The role of effective communication in resolving conflicts.
Conflict resolution in multicultural societies.
The influence of gender on conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution and negotiation skills in business.
The role of compromise in resolving conflicts.
Conflict resolution in online communities.
The impact of conflict resolution on organizational productivity.
Conflict resolution and its effect on community building.
The role of forgiveness in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution in educational settings.
Conflict resolution in the criminal justice system.
The impact of cultural differences on conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution in the healthcare industry.
Conflict resolution in sports teams.
Conflict resolution and human rights.
The role of power dynamics in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution and social media.
The impact of conflict resolution on economic development.
Conflict resolution in environmental disputes.
Conflict resolution and international cooperation.
The role of mediation in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution in the family business.
The impact of conflict resolution on personal growth.
Conflict resolution and social justice.
Conflict resolution and restorative justice.
The role of negotiation in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution in political campaigns.
The impact of conflict resolution on romantic relationships.
Conflict resolution in the classroom.
Conflict resolution and conflict prevention.
The role of compromise in international conflicts.
Conflict resolution and the media.
Conflict resolution in the digital age.
The impact of conflict resolution on community engagement.
Conflict resolution and public policy.
Conflict resolution and mental health stigma.
The role of leadership in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution in the family court system.
Conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
The impact of conflict resolution on employee satisfaction.
Conflict resolution in the nonprofit sector.
Conflict resolution and social inequality.
The role of trust in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution in the music industry.
Conflict resolution in urban planning.
The impact of conflict resolution on interpersonal relationships.
Conflict resolution in the military.
Conflict resolution and workplace diversity.
The role of emotions in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution and environmental conservation.
Conflict resolution in international trade disputes.
Conflict resolution and community policing.
The impact of conflict resolution on team dynamics.
Conflict resolution in diplomatic negotiations.
Conflict resolution and conflict transformation.
The role of dialogue in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution and social change.
Conflict resolution in healthcare teams.
Conflict resolution and human rights violations.
The impact of conflict resolution on organizational culture.
Conflict resolution in online gaming communities.
Conflict resolution and the justice system.
The role of compromise in interpersonal conflicts.
Conflict resolution and urban development.
Conflict resolution in the tech industry.
The impact of conflict resolution on workplace communication.
Conflict resolution and gender equality.
Conflict resolution in community organizations.
Conflict resolution and sustainable development.
The role of active listening in conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution in international peacekeeping missions.
Conflict resolution and social entrepreneurship.
The impact of conflict resolution on employee well-being.
Conflict resolution in the film industry.
Conflict resolution and environmental justice.
The role of negotiation in interpersonal conflicts.
Conflict resolution in public health emergencies.
Conflict resolution and poverty reduction.
Conflict resolution in online dating.
The impact of conflict resolution on family dynamics.
Conflict resolution and international human rights law.
Conflict resolution and workplace ethics.
The role of compromise in political conflicts.
Conflict resolution in the fashion industry.
Conflict resolution and sustainable agriculture.
Conflict resolution in international aid organizations.
The impact of conflict resolution on organizational effectiveness.
Conflict resolution in online marketing campaigns.
Conflict resolution and racial justice.
The role of empathy in interpersonal conflicts.
Conflict resolution in disaster response efforts.
Conflict resolution and social media activism.
The impact of conflict resolution on team performance.
Conflict resolution in international business transactions.
Conflict resolution and sustainable tourism.
Conflict resolution in humanitarian interventions.
The role of compromise in environmental conflicts.
Conflict resolution and sustainable energy.
Conflict resolution in international sports competitions.
The impact of conflict resolution on community empowerment.

These essay topics cover a wide range of areas where conflict resolution plays a significant role. Whether you are interested in personal relationships, international affairs, or social justice, there is a topic that suits your interests. Remember to conduct thorough research and provide examples to support your arguments. Good luck with your essay!

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Introduction to Conflict Resolution: Concepts and Definitions

Related Papers

Tom Woodhouse

Working paper CEsA CSG 164/2018

Ricardo Sousa

This paper provides a brief review of almost one century of academic research within the discipline of International Relations with a focus on the thinking about Peace and Conflict and its links to approaches in Conflict Resolution. The framework of analysis is based on the definition of science, what is studied and how it is studied, which delimits the analysis into the four debates in IR: between 1919 and the 1940s, the idealist versus realist debate; in the 1950s and 1960s, the traditionalist versus behaviourist debate; in the 1970s and 1980s, the inter-paradigm debate, and, since the 1990s, the rationalist versus reflectivist debate. This paper identifies how the classical conception of security centred on the state, the military and external threats was broadened by different approaches to include other actors (individuals, groups, societies, civilizations), other sectors (economic, political, social, environmental) and internal threats. In tandem, it maps the epistemological and sometimes ontological challenges to positivism and rationalism found in (Neo) Realism, (Neo) Liberalism and Marxism, by a set of post-positivist and reflective theories or approaches, such as the cases of Human Security, Feminism, Post-structuralism, Constructivism, Post-Colonialism, Critical Studies, and the Copenhagen School. The emergence and development of all these theories and approaches are historically contextualized alongside developments of Conflict Resolution approaches.

Negotiation Journal

Eileen Babbitt

Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security, Vol. 2 n.2

Alexandros Nafpliotis

Anthony Wanis , Suzanne Ghais

Richard E Rubenstein

Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Volker Franke

Meera Sabaratnam

Dr.Ayman Zain Hayajneh

[…] In this work, we are focusing on the recognition of the ripe moment for a third-party’s intervention to a conflict, or, on the other hand, the moment when the conflicting parties get in an uncomfortable and costly predicament. Briefly, we try to find that specific time when the involved parties seek or are amenable to proposals that offer a way out. It is, besides, clear that the conflicting parties resolve a conflict only when they are ready to do so. […]

16 Conflict Analysis and Resolution

Ronald J. Fisher is Professor of International Peace and Conflict Resolution in the School of International Service at American University, Washington, DC, USA. His primary interest is interactive conflict resolution, which involves informal third party interventions in protracted and violent ethnopolitical conflict. His publications include a number of books at the interface of social psychology and conflict resolution as well as numerous articles in interdisciplinary journals including Political Psychology.

Herbert C. Kelman is the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Emeritus, at Harvard University. A pioneer in the development of interactive problem solving, he has been engaged for some forty years in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His publications include INTERNATIONAL BEHAVIOR: A SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS (editor and co-author, 1965) and CRIMES OF OBEDIENCE: TOWARD A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY (with V. Lee Hamilton, 1989). He is past president of the International Studies Association, the International Society of Political Psychology, and several other professional organizations.

Susan Allen Nan is Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Director of the Center for Peacemaking Practice at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. Her main focus is on reflective practice and research that emerges from practice contexts. She has substantial expertise in intermediary roles and coordination amongst intermediaries, evaluation of conflict resolution initiatives, and theories of change and indicators of change in conflict resolution practice. She has engaged long-term in conflict resolution in the Caucasus, as well as contributing to a variety of conflict resolution initiatives in the United States, Eastern Europe, Eurasia, the Caribbean, South America, and Africa.

Published: 16 December 2013
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The social-psychological approach to the nature and resolution of international conflict places emphasis on the perceptual and normative processes that contribute to conflict escalation and perpetuation, and is grounded in propositions about international conflict that go beyond the assertions of traditional analyses, particularly realism. This analysis has clear implications for the efficacy of methods for addressing international conflict, and supports the utility of interactive conflict resolution, as exemplified by the problem-solving workshop, for analyzing and resolving existential conflicts between identity groups that have an ethnopolitical or ideological character. A description of the assumptions and procedures of the problem-solving workshop is illustrated through three case applications on which the authors have worked. The conclusion acknowledges the potential of the method, while identifying a number of challenges confronting scholar-practitioners in the field of conflict analysis and resolution with particular reference to interactive conflict resolution.

This chapter presents a social-psychological approach to the analysis and resolution of international and intercommunal conflicts. At the level of practice, its central focus is on interactive conflict resolution (cf. Fisher, 1997 ), a family of models for intervening in deep-rooted, protracted conflicts between identity groups, which is anchored in psychological principles At the level of analysis, the social-psychological approach gained increasing favor in the 1960s and is now more or less an accepted part of the multidiscipline of international relations and the interdisciplinary field of political psychology ( Kelman, 1965 ; Jervis, 1976 ; Levy, 2003 ; Rosati, 2000 ; Stein, 2001 ). Given that political psychology involves the application of human psychology to the study of politics, the social-psychological perspective has relevance to many of the areas of political psychology, including the study of images, threat perception, decision-making, foreign policy, political communication, intergroup relations, and political mobilization. The social-psychological approach assumes that (1) subjective elements are central in determining perceptions of reality and responses to that reality; (2) perceptual and cognitive processes need to be understood in the context of group dynamics and intergroup relations; (3) interaction between the parties is fundamental in understanding the course and outcomes of conflict; and (4) a multilevel systems analysis is necessary to understand the phenomenon ( Fisher, 1990 ; Fisher & Kelman, 2011 ).

The chapter begins with a presentation of a social-psychological perspective on the nature of international conflict and a discussion of the perceptual and normative processes that contribute to its escalation and perpetuation. The analysis has clear implications for the outcomes that accrue and for the practice of interactive conflict resolution. To illustrate the family of approaches subsumed under this rubric, we proceed to a more detailed description of the assumptions and procedures of its primary prototype, the problem-solving workshop, and describe applications of the method to three different ethnopolitical conflicts on which the authors have worked. The chapter concludes with an identification of some of the challenges confronting scholar-practitioners in the field of conflict analysis and resolution with particular reference to interactive conflict resolution.

1. The Nature of International Conflict

A social-psychological perspective can expand on the view of international conflict provided by the realist and neorealist schools of international relations or other, more traditional approaches focusing on structural or strategic factors ( Kelman, 2007 ). Social-psychological approaches enrich the analysis in a variety of ways: by exploring the subjective factors that set constraints on rationality; by opening the black box of the state as unitary actor and analyzing processes within and between the societies that underlie state action; by broadening the range of influence processes (and, indeed, of definitions of power) that play a role in international politics; and by conceiving international conflict as a dynamic process, shaped by changing realities, interests, and relations between the conflicting parties.

Social-psychological analysis suggests four propositions about the nature of international conflict that are particularly relevant to existential conflicts between identity groups—conflicts in which the collective identities of the parties are engaged and in which the continued existence of the group is seen to be at stake. Thus, the propositions apply most directly to ethnopolitical or ideological conflicts, but they also apply to more mundane interstate conflicts insofar as issues of national identity and existence come into play—as they often do.

First, international conflict is a process driven by collective needs and fears , rather than entirely a product of rational calculation of objective national interests on the part of political decision-makers. Human needs are often articulated and fulfilled through important collectivities, such as the ethnic group, the national group, and the state. Conflict arises when a group is faced with nonfulfillment or threat to the fulfillment of basic needs: not only such obvious material needs as food, shelter, physical safety, and physical well-being, but also, and very centrally, such psychological needs as identity, security, recognition, autonomy, self-esteem, and a sense of justice ( Burton, 1990 ). Moreover, needs for identity and security and similarly powerful collective needs, and the fears and concerns about survival associated with them, contribute heavily to the escalation and perpetuation of conflict. Even when the conflicting parties have come to the conclusion that it is in their best interest to put an end to the conflict, they resist going to the negotiating table or making the accommodations necessary for the negotiations to move forward, for fear that they will be propelled into concessions that in the end will leave their very existence compromised. The fears that drive existential conflicts lie at the heart of the relationship between the conflicting parties, going beyond the cycle of fears resulting from the dynamics of the security dilemma ( Jervis, 1976 ).

Collective fears and needs combine with objective factors—for example, a state’s resources, the ethnic composition of its population, or its access to the sea—in determining how different segments of a society perceive state interests, and what ultimately becomes the national interest as defined by the dominant elites. Similarly, all conflicts represent a combination of rational and irrational factors, and in each type of conflict the mix may vary from case to case. Furthermore, in all international conflicts, the needs and fears of populations are mobilized and often manipulated by the leadership, with varying degrees of demagoguery and cynicism. Even when manipulated, collective needs and fears represent authentic reactions within the population and become the focus of societal action. They may be linked to individual needs and fears. For example, in highly violent ethnic conflicts, the fear of annihilation of one’s group is often (and for good reason) tied to a fear of personal annihilation.

The conception of conflict as a process driven by collective needs and fears implies, first and foremost, that conflict resolution—if it is to lead to a stable and just peace and to a new relationship that enhances the welfare of the two societies—must address the fundamental needs and deepest fears of the populations. From a normative point of view, such a solution can be viewed as the operationalization of justice within a problem-solving approach to conflict resolution ( Kelman, 1996 ). Another implication of a human-needs orientation is that the psychological needs on which it focuses—security, identity, recognition—are not inherently zero-sum ( Burton, 1990 ), although they are usually seen as such in deep-rooted conflicts. Thus, it may well be possible to shape an integrative solution that satisfies both sets of needs, which may then make it easier to settle issues like territory or resources through distributive bargaining. Finally, the view of conflict as a process driven by collective needs and fears suggests that conflict resolution must, at some stage, provide for interactions that take place at the level of individuals, such as taking the other’s perspective (or realistic empathy) ( White, 1984 ), creative problem solving, insight, and learning.

Second, international conflict is an intersocietal process , not merely an intergovernmental or interstate phenomenon. The conflict, particularly in the case of protracted ethnopolitical struggles, becomes an inescapable part of daily life for each society and its component elements. (See also Bar-Tal & Halperin’s discussion of intractable conflicts in chapter 28 of this volume.) Thus, analysis of conflict requires attention, not only to its strategic, military, and diplomatic dimensions, but also to its economic, psychological, cultural, and social-structural dimensions. Interactions along these dimensions, both within and between the conflicting societies, shape the political environment in which governments function and define the political constraints under which they operate.

An intersocietal view of conflict alerts us to the role of internal divisions within each society, which often play a major part in exacerbating or even creating conflicts between the societies. They impose constraints on political leaders pursuing a policy of accommodation, in the form of accusations by opposition elements that they are jeopardizing national existence, and of anxieties and doubts within the general population that are both fostered and exploited by the opposition elements. The internal divisions, however, may also provide potential levers for change in the direction of conflict resolution, by challenging the monolithic image of the enemy that parties in conflict tend to hold and enabling them to deal with each other in a more differentiated way. They point to the presence on the other side of potential partners for negotiation and thus provide the opportunity for forming pro-negotiation coalitions across the conflict lines ( Kelman, 1993 ). To contribute to conflict resolution, any such coalition must of necessity remain an “uneasy coalition,” lest its members lose their credibility and political effectiveness within their respective communities.

Another implication of an intersocietal view of conflict is that negotiations and third-party efforts should ideally be directed not merely to a political settlement of the conflict, but to its resolution . A political agreement may be adequate for terminating relatively specific, containable interstate disputes, but conflicts that engage the collective identities and existential concerns of the adversaries require a process conducive to structural and attitude change, to reconciliation, and to the transformation of the relationship between the two societies. Finally, an intersocietal analysis of conflict suggests a view of diplomacy as a complex mix of official and unofficial efforts with complementary contributions.

Third, international conflict is a multifaceted process of mutual influence , not only a contest in the exercise of coercive power. Each party seeks to protect and promote its own interests by shaping the behavior of the other. Conflict occurs when these interests clash: when attainment of one party’s interests (and fulfillment of the needs that underlie them) threatens, or is perceived to threaten, the interests (and needs) of the other. In pursuing the conflict, therefore, the parties engage in mutual influence, designed to advance their own positions and to block the adversary. Similarly, in conflict management, the parties exercise influence to induce the adversary to come to the table, to make concessions, to accept an agreement that meets their interests and needs, and to live up to that agreement. Third parties also exercise influence in conflict situations, by backing one or the other party, by mediating between them, or by maneuvering to protect their own interests.

Influence in international conflict typically relies on a mixture of threats and inducements, with the balance often on the side of force and the threat of force. Thus, the US-Soviet relationship in the Cold War was predominantly framed in terms of an elaborate theory of deterrence—a form of influence designed to keep the other side from doing what you do not want it to do ( George & Smoke, 1974 ; Jervis, Lebow, & Stein, 1985 ; Schelling, 1960 ). In other conflict relationships, the emphasis may be on compellence—a form of influence designed to make the other side do what you want it to do, or to stop doing something, or to undo what it has already done. Such coercive strategies entail serious costs and risks, and their effects may be severely limited. For example, they are likely to be reciprocated by the other side and thus lead to escalation of the conflict, and they are unlikely to change behavior to which the other is committed. Thus, the effective exercise of influence in international conflict requires a broadening of the repertoire of influence strategies, at least to the extent of combining “carrots and sticks”—of supplementing the negative incentives that typically dominate international conflict relationships with positive incentives (cf. Baldwin, 1971 ; Kriesberg, 1982 ), such as economic benefits, international approval, or a general reduction in the level of tension. An example of an approach based on the systematic use of positive incentives is Osgood’s (1962) GRIT (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction) strategy.

Effective use of positive incentives requires more than offering the other whatever rewards, promises, or confidence-building measures seem most readily available. It requires actions that address the fundamental needs and fears of the other party. Thus, the key to an effective influence strategy based on the exchange of positive incentives is responsiveness to the other’s concerns. The advantage of a strategy of responsiveness is that it allows each party to exert influence on the other through positive steps (not threats) that are within its own capacity to take. The process is greatly facilitated by communication between the parties in order to identify actions that are politically feasible for each party and yet likely to have an impact on the other.

A key element in an influence strategy based on responsiveness is mutual reassurance . The negotiation literature suggests that parties are often driven to the table by a mutually hurting stalemate, which makes negotiations more attractive than continuing the conflict ( Zartman & Berman, 1982 ; Touval & Zartman, 1985 , p. 16). But parties in existential conflicts are afraid of negotiations, even when the status quo has become increasingly painful and they recognize that a negotiated agreement is in their interest. To advance the negotiating process under such circumstances, it is at least as important to reduce the parties’ fears as it is to increase their pain.

Mutual reassurance can take the form of acknowledgments, symbolic gestures, or confidence-building measures. To be maximally effective, such steps need to address the other’s central needs and fears as directly as possible. When Egyptian president Sadat spoke to the Israeli Knesset during his dramatic visit to Jerusalem in November 1977, he clearly acknowledged Egypt’s past hostility toward Israel and thus validated Israelis’ own experiences. In so doing, he greatly enhanced the credibility of the change in course that he was announcing. At the opening of this visit, Sadat’s symbolic gesture of engaging in a round of cordial handshakes with the Israeli officials who had come to greet him broke a longstanding taboo. By signaling the beginning of a new relationship, it had an electrifying effect on the Israeli public. In deep-rooted conflicts, acknowledgment of what was heretofore denied—in the form of recognition of the other’s humanity, nationhood, rights, grievances, and interpretation of history—is an important source of reassurance that the other may indeed be ready to negotiate an agreement that addressees your fundamental concerns. By signaling acceptance of the other’s legitimacy, each party reassures the other that negotiations and concessions no longer constitute mortal threats to its security and national existence. By confirming the other’s narrative, each reassures the other that a compromise does not represent an abandonment of its identity.

An influence strategy based on responsiveness to each other’s needs and fears and the resulting search for ways of reassuring and benefiting each other has important advantages from a long-term point of view. It does not merely elicit specific desired behaviors from the other party, but can contribute to a creative redefinition of the conflict, joint discovery of mutually satisfactory solutions, and transformation of the relationship between the parties.

Fourth, international conflict is an interactive process with an escalatory, self-perpetuating dynamic , not merely a sequence of action and reaction by stable actors In intense conflict relationships, the natural course of interaction between the parties tends to reinforce and deepen the conflict, and is governed by a set of norms and guided by a set of images that create an escalatory, self-perpetuating dynamic. This dynamic can be reversed through skillful diplomacy, imaginative leadership, third-party intervention, and institutionalized mechanisms for managing and resolving conflict.

The needs and fears of parties engaged in intense conflict impose perceptual and cognitive constraints on their processing of new information, with the resulting tendency to underestimate the occurrence and the possibility of change. The ability to take the role of the other is severely impaired. Dehumanization of the enemy makes it even more difficult to acknowledge and access the perspective of the other. Conflicting parties display particularly strong tendencies to find evidence that confirms their negative images of each other and to resist evidence that would seem to disconfirm these images. Thus, interaction not only fails to contribute to a revision of the enemy image, but actually helps to reinforce and perpetuate it. Interaction guided by mirror images of a demonic enemy and a virtuous self (cf. Bronfenbrenner, 1961 ; White, 1965 ) creates self-fulfilling prophecies by inducing the parties to engage in the hostile actions they expect from one another.

Self-fulfilling prophecies are also generated by the conflict norms that typically govern the interaction between parties engaged in an intense conflict. Expressions of hostility and distrust toward the enemy are not just spontaneous manifestations of the conflict, but are normatively prescribed behaviors. Political leaders’ assumption that the public’s evaluation of them depends on their adherence to these norms influences their tactical and strategic decisions, their approach to negotiations, their public pronouncements, and, ultimately, the way they educate their own publics. For the publics, in turn, adherence to these norms is often taken as an indicator of group loyalty. Thus, the discourse in deep-rooted conflicts is marked by mutual delegitimization and dehumanization. Interaction governed by this set of norms—at the micro and macro levels—contributes to escalation and perpetuation of the conflict. Parties that systematically treat each other with hostility and distrust are likely to become increasingly hostile and untrustworthy.

The dynamics of conflict interaction create a high probability that opportunities for conflict resolution will be missed. Conflict resolution efforts, therefore, require promotion of a different kind of interaction, capable of reversing the escalatory and self-perpetuating dynamics of conflict: an interaction conducive to sharing perspectives, differentiating the enemy image, and developing a language of mutual reassurance and a new discourse based on the norms of responsiveness and reciprocity.

2. Contributions to Conflict Analysis

The social-psychological perspective can be particularly helpful in explaining why and how, once a conflict has started, perceptual and normative processes are set into motion that promote conflict escalation and perpetuation, and create or intensify barriers to conflict resolution. By the same token, social-psychological analysis, in helping to identify and understand these barriers, can also suggest ways of overcoming them.

2.1. Perceptual Processes

Perceptual and cognitive processes—the ways in which we interpret and organize conflict-related information—play a major role in the escalation and perpetuation of conflict and create impediments to redefining and resolving the conflict despite changing realities and interests. Since the 1950s, social psychology in North America has concentrated on the study of social cognition and has typically focused on individual-level processes with little reference to their social context. In contrast, we explore the ways social perception and cognition operate in the social and relational environment. The concept of stereotype provides a good example, in that it goes beyond the individual-level process of categorization to find meaning in the context of group identities and intergroup relations.

The concept of stereotype has a considerable history in social psychology (Kinder, chapter 25 , this volume), and has typically been defined as a set of simplified beliefs about the attributes of an out-group. Stereotypes build on the social categorization effect of perceived out-group similarity, but also incorporate the out-group derogation side of ethnocentrism, in that the simplistic beliefs typically have negative connotations. Stereotypes abound in the world of intergroup relations at low levels of conflict escalation and can be relatively innocuous misperceptions of group reality. However, at higher levels of escalation, stereotypes can drive more insidious processes, such as self-fulfilling prophecies, and can provide part of the justification for destructive behaviors such as discrimination, dehumanization, and ultimately genocide.

The concept of image builds on that of stereotype and has gained greater currency in the study of international relations than the concept of attitude, even though the two can be similarly defined as consisting of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components ( Scott, 1965 ; Herrmann, chapter 11 , this volume). One important application of the concept is the proposition that parties in conflict often hold mirror images of each other, seeing themselves in a similarly stereotypical positive light and the enemy in a similarly negative light. A classic study of American and Russian images of each other during the Cold War demonstrated that the Americans’ distorted view of Russia was surprisingly similar to the Russians’ image of America; for example, each saw the other as the aggressor who could not be trusted ( Bronfenbrenner, 1961 ). Similar mirror images have been documented in a variety of intergroup and international conflicts in different parts of the world, and their significance lies in the effects they have on driving increasingly escalatory behavior by the parties. Thus, a number of commentators have stressed the value of images in the study of international relations and foreign policy and have called for a more differentiated view of images as they affect foreign-policy making (e.g., Herrmann & Fischerkeller, 1995 ).

Once established, typically through in-group socialization, stereotypes and images serve as cognitive structures that drive selective and distorted perception . Unfortunately, in the intergroup context, the effects of social categorization and ethnocentrism appear to increase as the distinguishing characteristics of groups—for example, in language, manner of dress, or skin color—are clearer and more marked. Thus, stronger stereotypes between such groups become filters through which information consonant with the stereotype is perceived and assimilated while contrary information is ignored or discounted ( Hamilton, 1979 ; Schneider, 2004 ). (See also the discussions of motivated reasoning by Stein, chapter 12 , this volume; and by Taber & Young, chapter 17 , this volume.) The pressures of conflict escalation, with its attendant perception of threat, distrust, and hostility, tend to enhance these distortions.

The positive, in-group side of ethnocentrism also involves perceptual selectivity and distortion, which now operate in the direction of elevating and glorifying the in-group. According to social identity theory (see below), the self-serving biases that operate here are due to the need for enhanced self-esteem that comes from heightened in-group distinctiveness and out-group derogation through invidious comparisons. Simply put, individuals tend to perceive positive behaviors more on the part of in-group members and negative behaviors more on the part of out-group members, and even evaluate the same behaviors differently when they are associated with in-group versus out-group members ( Pruitt & Kim, 2004 ).

Causal attribution plays an increasingly important role as intergroup conflict escalates over time. It refers to the judgments individuals make about the reasons for their own and other people’s behavior, and the inferences they draw about the characteristics of the actor. Attributions are significant in human interaction, because they tend to affect responses (both emotional and behavioral) to other people’s actions. A key distinction in the attribution of the causes of behavior is between attribution to internal or dispositional characteristics of the person versus external or situational factors. A common cognitive bias in attribution appears to be the tendency to attribute one’s own behavior to situational causes, but the behavior of others to dispositional factors ( Jones & Nisbett, 1971 ). Ross (1977) described the latter tendency as the fundamental attribution error . At the level of intergroup relations, a more insidious bias enters in—the so-called ultimate attribution error ( Pettigrew, 1979 ). Assuming social categorization and a degree of ethnocentrism, a prejudiced individual will tend to attribute undesirable actions by an out-group member to dispositional (i.e., group) characteristics, whereas desirable actions will be attributed to situational circumstances. Concurrently, undesirable behavior by an in-group member will be attributed to situational determinants, while desirable actions will be attributed to dispositional (i.e., in-group) characteristics. According to Pettigrew, the effect of this cognitive bias will be stronger when there are highly negative stereotypes and intense conflict between the groups. What is happening in this process is that prejudiced individuals are able to confirm their negative expectations and discount information that runs counter to their out-group stereotypes.

As conflict escalates, a series of transformations occur in the orientations and behavior of each party and thereby in their interaction ( Pruitt & Kim, 2004 ). One of these changes relates to the motivation of the parties, which shifts from doing well in achieving their goals, to winning over the other party, and finally to hurting the other party. At a middle level of escalation, a competitive and increasingly hostile interaction induces the parties toward further perceptual and cognitive biases. Essentially, this is where negative expectations become increasingly confirmed, mirror images develop, and cognitive dissonance influences parties toward consistent systems of thinking and behaving.

The self-fulfilling prophecy is a type of expectancy effect in which a person’s stereotypes regarding an out-group member lead that person to behave in ways that confirm the stereotype. In intergroup conflict, the stereotyped expectancies that one group holds of another group—for example, as untrustworthy—are communicated through behavior, such as cautiousness and skepticism. These behaviors may then be reciprocated by the target group members—for example, through unwillingness to trust and cooperate—thus confirming the initial views of the first group. In this way, stereotypes are not only confirmed, but strengthened for the next round of interactions. The pervasive effects of stereotypes on intergroup relations are among the enduring potential contributions of social psychology to the understanding of intergroup and international conflict ( Fiske, 2002 ).

Many of the perceptual biases and cognitive distortions that afflict parties in conflict can be partly explained through the effects of cognitive dissonance , an unpleasant state of tension that is hypothesized to exist whenever any two cognitive elements (e.g., beliefs, perceptions of behavior) are incongruent ( Festinger, 1957 ). Individuals are predisposed to reduce cognitive dissonance through a variety of possible changes, such as modifying one of the elements, adding new elements, or changing their behavior. Related conceptualizations, including Heider’s balance theory, also identify the need for cognitive consistency as a prime motivator in supporting biases and distortions ( Heider, 1958 ). The initial application of these concepts to international conflict in a comprehensive manner was undertaken by Robert Jervis, whose analysis and case examples emphasized how policymakers assimilated new information into preexisting beliefs and categories in ways that rendered the information cognitively consistent ( Jervis, 1976 ).

At higher levels of escalation, all of the aforementioned misperceptions and biases find their expression in more extreme forms. Each perceptual and cognitive distortion becomes more pronounced and thus has a larger effect on interaction and escalation. Mirror images, based on an ethnocentric perspective, produce a spiraling effect in which each party’s interpretation of the other’s difficult or hostile behavior reinforces attributions of aggressive intent and untrustworthiness ( Fisher & Kelman, 2011 ). Mirror images develop beyond the moderately good-bad distinction toward more exaggerated and variegated forms, identified by White as including the diabolical enemy image , the virile self-image , and the moral self-image ( White, 1970 ).

The diabolical enemy image finds its expression in the demonization of the enemy, which White determined to be not only the most common, but also an almost universal misperception, in his 40 years of studying the most serious conflicts of the past 100 years ( White, 2004 ). Demonization is also linked to the process of dehumanization , in which members of the enemy group are seen as less than human, thus justifying or rationalizing aggressive behavior toward them. Dehumanization, in turn, is linked to the phenomenon of deindividuation , in which group members experience a loss of personal identity and become submerged in the group’s cognitive reality ( Festinger, Pepitone, & Newcomb, 1952 ). As a consequence, members of one’s own group or other groups are seen less as individual persons than as members of a social category ( Pruitt & Kim, 2004 ). In intergroup conflict, this process appears to reduce constraints within groups on aggressive behavior by reducing individual responsibility, and at the same time reduce the perception of out-group members as individual human beings deserving of morally acceptable treatment. The accumulation of all of these processes allows for more severe aggressive responses toward members of the enemy group, which in turn, escalates the intensity of the conflict. The mutual victimization characteristic of highly destructive intergroup conflicts is in part due to the enabling effects of extreme images and the cognitive biases that go with them.

Also at higher levels of escalation, an insidious cognitive process known as entrapment becomes a driver in the intractable nature of the conflict. Entrapment is a cognitive process in which the parties become increasingly committed to costly and destructive courses of action that would not be prescribed by rational analysis ( Brockner & Rubin, 1985 ). Thus, each party in an escalated conflict pursues its goals by expending more resources than would seem to be justifiable by objective or external standards ( Pruitt & Kim, 2004 ). In a related vein, Deutsch (1983) has identified the cognitive error of unwitting commitment in his largely cognitive analysis of the escalatory dynamics of what he terms the malignant social process , that is, one that is increasingly costly and dangerous and from which the parties see no way of extricating themselves without unacceptable losses. The dynamics behind unwitting commitment are seen to include a more general phenomenon identified as postdecision dissonance reduction: Once an alternative has been chosen, it becomes evaluated more positively in order to increase cognitive consistency ( Brehm, 1956 ). A connection can also be made between entrapment and some of the hypothesized effects of prospect theory, especially loss aversion, which might help explain why parties persist in failing policies much longer than a rational, cost-benefit analysis would prescribe ( Levy, 1996 ; and chapter 10 , this volume).

2.2. Group and Normative Processes

Adding to the complexity and intractability of escalated and destructive conflict induced by perceptual processes is another set of insidious dynamics at the group and societal levels. The evolving course of the conflict is governed by a powerful set of norms that encourage attitudes, actions, and decision-making processes that are conducive to the generation, escalation, and perpetuation of conflict between distinct identity groups. Furthermore, these same factors inhibit the perception and occurrence of change in the direction of tension reduction and conflict resolution ( Kelman, 2007 ).

Social identity theory (SIT) provides important linkages between the individual and group levels, and thereby a context for the operation of individual cognitive and emotional processes ( Tajfel, 1982 ; Tajfel & Turner, 1986 ; Huddy, chapter 23 , this volume). SIT is a complement to realistic group conflict theory (RCT), which posits that real differences in interests are necessary for the causation of intergroup conflict ( Brown & Capozza, 2000 ; LeVine & Campbell, 1972 ). According to RCT, conflicts of interests based on incompatible goals and competition for scarce resources (especially in situations of relative deprivation) result in the perception of threat, which then increases ethnocentrism and drives invidious group comparisons. RCT also posits that threat causes awareness of in-group identity and solidarity, while at the same time causing hostility to the source of the threat.

Theorizing on SIT was stimulated by the finding that mere cognitive categorization tends to produce an exaggeration of both intraclass similarities and interclass diff erences. The theory was extended by the minimal group experiments, which showed that even the most trivial and arbitrary group assignments created intergroup discrimination favoring the in-group in the absence of a conflict of interests ( Tajfel, 1970 ). A series of propositions was then developed to link social categorization and social identity to individual self-esteem and positive identity through the mechanism of self-serving social comparisons with other groups. The motivating force for intergroup discrimination was thus found in the concept of self-esteem, in that a positive social identity created by group formation and enhanced by positive in-group evaluations and negative out-group comparisons enhances the in-group member’s self-concept. SIT thus links individual-level cognitive variables (categorization effects), motivational variables (need for self-esteem), and emotional variables (attachment to the in-group) to the social levels of group functioning and intergroup relations. The central point here is that when individuals or groups interact in the context of their respective memberships in social categories, their functioning can only be understood at the levels of group and intergroup behavior ( Tajfel & Turner, 1986 ). At the same time, research on SIT provides stronger support for in-group positiveness and favoritism than for out-group denigration and discrimination ( Brewer, 1979 ). It appears that competition or conflict between groups (as posited by RCT) is necessary to produce the full effects of ethnocentrism ( Brewer, 2007 ).

The important role of social identity processes in the causation and maintenance of protracted intercommunal and international conflict is now generally accepted in the field ( Stein, 2001 ). Particularly in situations of intractable conflict, threats to identity are seen as playing a pivotal role in the escalation and persistence of the conflict, to the point that the parties unwittingly collude in maintaining the conflict, because it has become part of their identities ( Northrup, 1989 ). Kelman (2001) explores the role of national identity in exacerbating intercommunal or international conflict, with particular reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although national identity is part of the social identity of individual members of the group, it can be conceptualized as a collective phenomenon—as a property of the group: “Insofar as a group of people have come to see themselves as constituting a unique, identifiable entity, with a claim to continuity over time, to unity across geographical distance, and to the right to various forms of self-expression, we can say that they have acquired a sense of national identity. National identity is the group’s definition of itself as a group—its conception of its enduring characteristics and basic values; its strengths and weaknesses; its hopes and fears; its reputation and conditions of existence; its institutions and traditions; and its past history, current purposes, and future prospects” ( Kelman, 1997b , p. 171).

Kelman (2001) asserts that the threat to collective identities posed by existential conflict between peoples is a core issue, in that identity is not only a source of distinctiveness and belongingness, but also constitutes the justification for each group’s claim to territory and other resources and is bolstered by each group’s national narrative. Thus, the national identity of the out-group becomes a threat to the in-group, leading to a zero-sum struggle over not only territory, but also identity, in that acknowledging the out-group’s identity becomes tantamount to jeopardizing or denying one’s own. The mutual denial of identity therefore creates serious obstacles to conflict resolution, in that all issues are rendered existential ones—matters of life and death—and as such are nonnegotiable.

At the societal level, public support is an essential resource for political leaders engaged in a conflict, both in ensuring the public’s readiness to accept the costs that their policies may entail and in enhancing the credibility of their threats and promises to the other side. The primary means of gaining public support is the mobilization of group loyalties . Arousal of nationalist and patriotic sentiments, particularly in a context of national security and survival, is a powerful tool in mobilizing public support. The nation generates such powerful identifications and loyalties because it brings together two central psychological dispositions: the needs for self-protection and self-transcendence ( Kelman, 1969 ; 1997b ).

Group loyalties can potentially be mobilized in support of conciliatory policies. Political leaders may promote painful compromises and concessions to the adversary on the grounds that the security, well-being, integrity, and survival of the nation require such actions. Indeed, leaders with impeccable nationalist credentials—such as Charles de Gaulle, Yitzhak Rabin, or F. W. de Klerk—are often most effective in leading their populations toward peaceful resolution of conflicts, once they have decided that this approach best serves the national interest. In general, however, group loyalties are more readily available to mobilize support for aggressive policies than for conciliatory ones.

Processes of group loyalty create barriers to change in a conflict relationship. Group loyalty requires adherence to the group’s norms—which, in an intense conflict, call for a militant, unyielding, and suspicious attitude toward the enemy. Hence, particularly in situations of perceived national crisis, the militants exercise disproportionate power and often a veto over official actions and policies. They impose severe constraints on the ability of leaders to explore peaceful options. Dissent from the dominant conflict norms becomes defined as an act of disloyalty and is suppressed.

Another insidious process supporting conflict norms is the formation of collective moods (Stein, chapter 12 , this volume). With periodic shifts in collective mood, public opinion can act as both a resource and a constraint for political leaders in the foreign policy process. In principle, it can provide support for either aggressive or conciliatory policies, but under the prevailing norms in an intense, protracted conflict, leaders are more likely to expect—and to mobilize—public support for the former than for the latter. Apart from transitory moods, certain pervasive states of consciousness underlie public opinion in a society engulfed in a deep-rooted conflict, reflecting the existential concerns and the central national narratives widely shared within the population. In many cases—such as Serbia, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East—historical traumas serve as the points of reference for current events. These memories are part of the people’s consciousness available for manipulation. The effect of such collective moods is to bring to the fore powerful social norms that support escalatory actions and inhibit moves toward compromise and accommodation. When fundamental concerns about identity and survival are tapped, national leaders, with full expectation of public support, are far more ready to risk war than to take risks for peace—again in line with the proposition derived from prospect theory that people are more reluctant to take risks to achieve gains than to avoid losses ( Levy, 1992 ). Any change in the established view of the enemy and of the imperatives of national defense comes to be seen as a threat to the nation’s very existence.

Decision-making processes (see the chapters in this volume by Redlawsk & Lau, chapter 5 ; Levy, chapter 10 ; and Dyson & ‘t Hart, chapter 13 ) in a conflict situation tend to inhibit the search for alternatives and the exploration of new possibilities, particularly when decision-makers are operating in an atmosphere of crisis. These tendencies are by no means inevitable, and there are historical instances—such as the Cuban Missile Crisis—of creative decision-making in dangerous crisis situations ( Allison, 1971 ; Lebow, 1981 ). Conflict norms do, however, impose serious burdens on the decision-making process.

A major source of reluctance to explore new options is the domestic constraints under which decision-makers labor. In an intense conflict situation, adherence to the conflict norms tends to be seen as the safest course of action. The search for alternatives in response to changing realities is also inhibited by institutionalized rigidities in the decision-making apparatus. Decision-makers and their bureaucracies operate within a framework of assumptions about available choices, effective strategies, and constituency expectations, shaped by the conflict norms, which may make them unaware of the occurrence and possibility of change. Furthermore, they often rely on established procedures and technologies, which are more likely to be geared toward pursuing the conflict—by military and other means—than toward resolving it.

The microprocesses of action and interaction in crisis decision-making further inhibit the exploration of new options. At the level of individual decision-makers, the stress they experience in situations of crisis—when consequential decisions have to be made under severe time pressures—limits the number of alternatives they consider and impels them to settle quickly on the dominant response, which, in intense conflicts, is likely to be aggressive and escalatory ( Holsti, 1972 ; Lebow, 1987 ).

At the level of decision-making groups, crisis decision-making often leads to “groupthink” ( Janis, 1972 ; 1982 ; Dyson & ‘t Hart, chapter 13 , this volume), a concurrence-seeking tendency designed to maintain the cohesiveness of the group. Janis (1972) defined groupthink as a process by which a cohesive and insulated elite decision-making group develops concurrence seeking to the extent that it overrides a realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action, thus producing suboptimal outcomes. He identified three symptoms of the groupthink syndrome: (1) the overestimation of the group, including an illusion of invulnerability and a belief in the group’s inherent morality, (2) closedmindedness, including stereotypes of out-groups and collective rationalization, and (3) pressures toward uniformity, including self-censorship, an illusion of unanimity, group pressure on dissenters, and the use of self-appointed “mindguards” to enforce conformity with the leader’s initial direction. Groupthink results in a poor information search, a selective bias in information processing, an incomplete survey of alternatives, the failure to examine the risks of the preferred choice, a failure to work out contingency plans, and other shortcomings that produce a low probability of success ( Janis, 1982 ). Decision-making under these circumstances is much more likely to produce policies and actions that perpetuate and escalate the conflict in line with group norms than innovative ideas for conflict resolution.

The norms governing negotiation and bargaining processes between parties involved in longstanding conflict strongly encourage zero-sum thinking, which equates the enemy’s loss with one’s own gain. Negotiation—even distributive bargaining in its narrowest form—is possible only when both parties define the situation, at least at some level, as a mixed-motive game, in which they have both competitive and cooperative goals. While pursuing its own interests, each party must actively seek out ways in which the adversary can also win and appear to be winning. But this is precisely the kind of effort that is discouraged by the conflict norms.

At the micro level, negotiators in an intense conflict tend to evaluate their performance by the forcefulness with which they present their own case and by their effectiveness in resisting compromise. To listen to what the other side needs and help the other side achieve its goals would violate the conflict norms and might subject the negotiators to criticism from their own constituencies and particularly from their hard-line domestic opposition. At the macro level, the parties—even when they recognize their common interest in negotiating certain specific issues—tend to pursue an overall outcome that strengthens their own strategic position and weakens the adversary’s. Such a strategy reduces the other’s incentive for concluding an agreement and ability to mobilize public support for whatever agreement is negotiated. Zero-sum thinking at both levels undermines the negotiating process, causing delays, setbacks, and repeated failures.

Finally, conflict creates certain structural and psychological commitments , which then take on a life of their own (see Pruitt & Gahagan, 1974 ; Pruitt, & Kim, 2004 ). Most obviously, in a conflict of long standing, various individuals, groups, and organizations—military, political, industrial, scholarly—develop a vested interest in maintaining the conflict as a source of profit, power, status, or raison d’être. Others, though not benefiting from the conflict as such, may have a strong interest in forestalling a compromise solution, because it would not address their particular grievances or fulfill their particular aspirations. Vested interests do not necessarily manifest themselves in deliberate attempts to undermine efforts at conflict resolution. They may take indirect and subtle forms, such as interpreting ambiguous realities and choosing between uncertain policy alternatives in ways that favor continuation of the conflict.

Vested interests and similar structural commitments to the conflict are bolstered by psychological commitments. People involved in a longstanding and deep-rooted conflict tend to develop a worldview that is built around the conflict and would be threatened by an end to the conflict. Resistance to change is likely to be more pronounced, the more elaborate the cognitive structure or ideology in which the view of the conflict is embedded, since changing this view would have wider ramifications. In an intense conflict, the image of the enemy is often a particularly important part of people’s worldview, with implications for their national identity, view of their own society, and interpretation of history.

Despite all the reasons why conflict images and conflict norms are resistant to change, they are not immutable. Social-psychological evidence suggests that they can change, and historical evidence shows that they do change (Chong, chapter 4 , this volume; Stein, chapter 12 , this volume). The challenge for scholars and practitioners of international conflict resolution is to devise the means to overcome these resistances to change. Interactive conflict resolution is specifically designed to address these kinds of resistances, along with the other social-psychological processes that contribute to the escalation and perpetuation of intergroup and international conflict.

3. Interactive Conflict Resolution

The practice of interactive conflict resolution and the rationale behind it are anchored in a social-psychological perspective. John Burton, whose first degree was in psychology, is credited not only with challenging the dominant paradigm of realism in international relations, but also with the creation of an alternative problem-solving approach to international conflict analysis and resolution, which he initially termed controlled communication ( Burton, 1969 ). Following Burton’s method, high-level representatives of parties in destructive conflict are brought together in unofficial discussions under the guidance of a third-party panel of social scientists, who work to build an open and supportive climate in which the antagonists can analyze their situation, examine their perceptions and evaluations, and create mutually acceptable options for conflict resolution. Herbert Kelman was a panel member in one of Burton’s early workshops on the Cyprus conflict, and went on to develop his own method of interactive problem solving , which he has applied over many years to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A variety of interventions and studies applying these types of methods to intergroup and international conflict are reviewed by Fisher (1972 ; 1983 ), who also developed a generic model of third-party consultation to represent the essential components of the approach.

Fisher (1997 , p. 8) has captured the work of Burton, Kelman, and others under the rubric of interactive conflict resolution , which is defined in a focused manner as “small group, problem-solving discussions between unofficial representatives of identity groups or states engaged in destructive conflict that are facilitated by an impartial third party of social scientist-practitioners.” Given the proliferation of interactive methods over the past decade, Fisher (1997) also provides a broader view of interactive conflict resolution as involving facilitated, face-to-face activities in communication, training, education, or consultation that promote collaborative conflict analysis and problem solving among antagonists. In either case, the method is based in social-psychological assumptions about intergroup and international conflict, which see the importance of subjective factors (attitudes, perceptions, emotions) alongside objective elements, and which propose that a different form of meaningful interaction among conflicting parties is necessary to de-escalate the conflict. In addition, the method takes a system perspective, knowing that any changes in individuals that take place in problem-solving workshops or other interactive forums must be transferred successfully to the level of political discourse and policymaking for conflict resolution to occur. Interactive methods are also becoming increasingly important in postconflict peace-building, to help implement settlements and rebuild war-torn relationships, so that re-escalating cycles of violence are prevented.

There are a variety of different forms of interactive conflict resolution in addition to the classic problem-solving workshop model articulated by Burton (1987) , Mitchell (1981) , Kelman (1986) , Azar (1990) , Fisher (1983) , and others. Vamik Volkan and his colleagues have developed a psychodynamic approach to both understanding and ameliorating ethnopolitical conflict among contesting communal groups. Volkan (1991) contends that deeper psychological processes, such as projection and victimization, need to be addressed along with political and economic issues, and he has developed a workshop methodology for bringing together influential members of conflicting groups to establish workable relationships and develop mutually acceptable options. The approach has been successfully applied to the Arab-Israeli conflict ( Julius, 1991 ) and to conflicts in the post-Soviet Baltic republics between majority populations and Russian minorities ( Volkan & Harris, 1993 ). Although the psychodynamic underpinnings of Volkan’s method are different from those of the social-psychological model, the design of the workshops and role of the third-party facilitators are remarkably similar.

Another form of interactive conflict resolution has been developed by Harold Saunders, a former US diplomat and policymaker, who has worked as a member of the third-party team in workshops organized by both Volkan and Kelman. For many years, Saunders was involved in the Dartmouth conference, bringing together Soviet (now Russian) and American influentials to engage in citizen-to-citizen dialogue. He served as the American cochair of the regional conflict task force, which examined superpower interaction in Cold War hot spots as a means of understanding the relationship between the two countries. Based on this experience, Chufrin and Saunders (1993) articulated a public peace process involving five stages of unofficial dialogue between conflicting groups. Following the end of the Cold War, Saunders and Randa Slim worked with American and Russian colleagues to apply the dialogue model with considerable success to the civil war in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan ( Saunders, 1995 ). Based on this and other experiences, including a dialogue on race relations in the United States, Saunders (1999) has articulated a broadly applicable model of facilitating sustained dialogue between members of conflicting groups.

3.1. Problem-Solving Workshops

The focused definition of interactive conflict resolution is essentially coterminous with the method of the problem-solving workshop, which brings together unofficial yet influential representatives of parties engaged in destructive and protracted conflict for informal small-group discussions facilitated by an impartial (or multipartial) third-party team of skilled and knowledgeable scholar-practitioners, often based in academia. The objectives are to develop a shared analysis of the conflict and to create options or directions that might help lead the parties out of their impasse. The nature and characteristics of the problem-solving workshop have been articulated by a number of authors, and the description here will follow most closely the approach associated with interactive problem solving , as articulated by Kelman and his colleagues. The following passage is a recent attempt to capture the essence of the problem-solving workshop succinctly ( Fisher, 2004 ):

Regardless of the label applied, the workshop method evidences a number of essential characteristics ( Kelman, 1972 ; Kelman & Cohen, 1976 ; 1986 ). A small group of individuals (usually three to six from each side) are invited by a third party team (usually three to five) to engage in low risk, noncommittal, off-the-record discussions over a period of three to five days in a neutral and secluded setting conducive to a relaxed atmosphere and devoid of intrusions. While the meetings are not secret, they are quiet, that is, held out of the public and media view with clear assurances of confidentiality stressing the non-attribution of comments made in the workshop. The participants are typically influential individuals in their communities who are not in official policy-making roles, but have access to the political leadership. Some variations involve officials, but in a private, unofficial capacity. The role of the third party is to facilitate the discussions in an impartial manner and to suggest conceptual tools that might be useful to the participants in analyzing their conflict. The objective is to create an informal atmosphere in which participants can freely express their views, while respecting those of the other side, and can move from adversarial debate to a joint analysis of the conflict and the creation of problem solutions that might help address it. Following agreement on ground rules, the third party provides a rough agenda for the sessions, starting with an initial exchange of perceptions, to an analysis of the attributions, interests and needs underlying incompatible positions and escalatory interactions, to the application and development of insights and models of understanding, to the creation of ideas for peacebuilding and resolution, and finally to considering the constraints and resistances to these options. (p. 387)

It is evident that much of the potential power of the problem-solving workshop to influence the course of a conflict lies in its social-psychological assumptions and principles . Some of these assumptions relate to the nature of human social conflict in general ( Fisher, 1990 ), others relate more specifically to the nature of the international system and conflicts within it ( Kelman, 2007 ), and yet others underlie the structure, process, and content of workshops ( Kelman, 1992 ; Kelman & Cohen, 1986 ). The focus here is on how conflict perceptions, interactions, and systems can be influenced through such workshops to help bring about changes that lead to conflict resolution.

It is assumed that all conflicts are a mix of objective and subjective factors, and that both of these sets must be addressed for resolution to occur. Therefore, workshops focus on a range of perceptual, motivational, and interactional factors such as misperceptions, misattributions, self-serving biases, unwitting commitments, mistrust, miscommunication, adversarial interactions, self-fulfilling prophecies, and unmet human needs for security, identity, and distributive justice, all of which play important roles in causing and escalating the conflict. It is also assumed that authentic and constructive face-toface interaction is necessary to confront and overcome these distorted and invalid cognitive elements and to change the adversarial orientations and patterns of interaction that characterize destructive conflict. As Kelman (1992) writes:

Workshops are designed to promote a special kind of interaction or discourse that can contribute to the desired political outcome….the setting, ground rules, and procedures of problem-solving workshops encourage (and permit) interaction marked by the following elements: an emphasis on addressing each other (rather than one’s constituencies, or third parties, or the record) and on listening to each other; analytical discussion; adherence to a ‘no-fault’ principle; and a problem-solving mode of interaction. This kind of interaction allows the parties to explore each other’s concerns, penetrate each other’s perspectives, and take cognizance of each other’s constraints. As a result they are able to offer each other the needed reassurances to engage in negotiation and to come up with solutions responsive to both sides’ needs and fears. (p. 85)

To promote this kind of interaction, the facilitative and diagnostic role of an impartial and skilled third party is essential. The third party helps to elicit and maintain problem-solving motivation, to support constructive and respectful interaction, to encourage a joint analysis that transcends biased narratives, and to create directions and options for de-escalating and resolving the conflict ( Fisher, 1972 ).

To have an effect on the larger conflict system, the changes in individuals’ perceptions and attitudes that occur as a result of participation in a workshop must be transferred to their respective societies. Individual participants can influence public opinion and policymaking in their societies in many ways through the various roles they enact—for example, as advisers to decision-makers, political activists, journalists, or academic analysts.

It must be emphasized that problem-solving workshops and related activities are not negotiating sessions. Negotiations can be carried out only by officials authorized to conclude binding agreements, and workshops—by definition—are completely nonbinding. Their nonbinding character, in fact, represents their special strength and is the source of their unique contribution to the larger process: They provide a context for sharing perspectives, exploring options, and engaging in joint thinking.

Even though workshops must be clearly distinguished from official negotiations, they can be viewed as an integral part of the larger negotiating process, relevant at all stages of that process. At the prenegotiation stage, they can help the parties move toward the negotiating table by contributing to the creation of a political environment conducive to negotiation. At the negotiation stage itself they can perform useful para-negotiation functions: They can contribute to overcoming obstacles to the negotiations, to creating momentum and reviving the sense of possibility, and to identifying options and reframing issues so that they can be negotiated more effectively once they get to the table. Finally, at the postnegotiation stage, workshops can contribute to resolving problems in the implementation of negotiated agreements, as well as to the process of peace-building and reconciliation in the aftermath of an agreement and to the transformation of the relationship between the former enemies.

Workshops have a dual purpose . They are designed, first, to produce change—new learning, in the form of new understandings, new insights, and new ideas for resolving the conflict—in the particular individuals who participate in the workshop; and, second, to transfer these changes into the political debate and the decision-making process in the two societies. An important theoretical and practical consequence of the dual purpose of workshops is that the two purposes may create contradictory requirements. The best example of these dialectics is provided by the selection of participants. Transfer into the political process would be maximized by officials who are close to the decision-making apparatus and thus in a position to apply immediately what they have learned. Change , however, would be maximized by participants who are removed from the decision-making process and therefore less constrained in their interactions and freer to play with ideas and explore hypothetical scenarios. To balance these contradictory requirements, selection has focused on participants who are not officials, but who are politically influential. They are thus relatively free to engage in the process, but, at the same time, any new ideas they develop in the course of a workshop can have an impact on the thinking of decision-makers and the society at large.

As noted above, problem-solving workshops follow a set of ground rules, which are presented to the participants in detail. The central ground rule, privacy and confidentiality , is important for the protection of the participants in the face of political, legal, and even physical risks, but it is equally important for protection of the process that workshops seek to promote. This process is captured by the next three ground rules: Participants are asked to focus on each other , rather than on their constituencies, third parties, an audience, or the record; to enter into an analytic (nonpolemical) discussion , seeking to explore each other’s perspective and gain insight into the causes and dynamics of the conflict; and to move to a problem-solving (nonadversarial) mode of interaction , sidestepping the usual attempt to allocate blame and, instead, taking the conflict as a shared problem that requires joint effort to find a mutually satisfactory solution.

An additional ground rule, equality of the two parties within the workshop setting, assures that each party has the same right to serious consideration of its needs, fears, and concerns. Regardless of asymmetric power or moral standing, each side has the right to be heard in the workshop, and each side’s needs and fears must be given equal attention in the search for a mutually satisfactory solution. Finally, the ground rules specify a facilitative role of the third party . The third party does not take part in the substantive discussion, give advice, or offer its own proposals, nor does it take sides, evaluate the ideas presented, or arbitrate between different interpretations of historical facts or international law. Its task is to create the conditions that allow ideas for resolving the conflict to emerge out of the interaction between the parties themselves. The third party sets the ground rules and monitors adherence to them; it helps to keep the discussion moving in constructive directions, tries to stimulate movement, and intervenes as relevant with questions, observations, and even challenges, relating both to the content and to the process of the interaction. It also serves as a repository of trust for parties who, by definition, do not trust each other.

In the typical one-time, freestanding workshop, the workshop agenda is relatively open and unstructured with respect to the substantive issues under discussion. The way in which these issues are approached, however, and the order of discussion are structured so as to facilitate the kind of discourse that the ground rules are designed to encourage. A similar structure, with some necessary modifications, characterizes the agenda within and across the meetings of a continuing workshop.

Workshops usually begin with an exchange of reports about recent developments , which provides a shared base of information and sets a precedent for the two sides to deal with each other as mutual resources, rather than solely as combatants. The agenda then typically turns to a needs analysis , in which members on each side discuss their central concerns in the conflict—the fundamental needs that would have to be addressed and the existential fears that would have to be allayed if a solution is to be satisfactory to them. The purpose is for each side to gain an adequate understanding of the other’s needs, fears, and concerns, from the perspective of the other. The next phase of the agenda, joint thinking about possible solutions , seeks to develop ideas about the overall shape of a solution for the conflict as a whole or, perhaps, a particular issue in the conflict that would address the needs and fears of both sides. As participants develop common ground in this process of joint thinking, they turn to discussion of the political and psychological constraints within the two societies that would create barriers to carrying out the ideas for solution that they have developed. Finally, depending on how much progress has been made and how much time is left, the parties are asked to engage in another round of joint thinking—this time about ways of overcoming the constraints that have been presented. (For further details about the workshop agenda, as well as about the ground rules, see Kelman, 2010 ).

3.2. Israeli-Palestinian Case Illustration

Kelman’s and his colleagues’ Israeli-Palestinian work has sought to contribute to all three of the stages of the negotiating process over the course of the years. All of the workshops in the 1970s and 1980s took place, of course, in the prenegotiation stage and were designed to explore the possibilities for movement toward the negotiating table. A variety of workshops were carried out during that period—in different contexts and with different types of participants. All of the participants, however, were members (or soon-to-be members) of the political elite. Moreover, all of the workshops during this period were “one-time” events: The particular group of Israelis and Palestinians who took part in a given workshop convened only for this one occasion— usually over an extended weekend. Some of the individuals participated in more than one such workshop, and the one-time workshops held over the years had a cumulative effect within the two societies and helped to inject new ideas into the two political cultures.

In 1990, for the first time in this program, Kelman and Nadim Rouhana organized a continuing workshop: a group of highly influential Israelis and Palestinians—six on each side—who agreed to participate in a series of three meetings over the course of a year, and in the end continued to meet (with some changes in personnel) until August 1993 ( Rouhana & Kelman, 1994 ). As it happened, with the onset of official negotiations in 1991, first in Madrid and then in Washington, this continuing workshop also provided the organizers’ first experience with interactive problem solving as a para-negotiation process. The political relevance of this work was enhanced by the appointment, in 1991, of four of the six initial Palestinian participants in the group to key positions in the official negotiating teams, and, in 1992, of several Israeli participants to ambassadorial and cabinet positions in the new Rabin government.

These efforts from the 1970s to the early 1990s, along with other unofficial efforts, helped to lay the groundwork for the Oslo agreement of September 1993 ( Kelman, 1995 ; 1997a ). They contributed by developing cadres prepared to carry out productive negotiations; by sharing information and formulating new ideas that provided substantive inputs into the negotiations; and by fostering a political atmosphere that made the parties open to a new relationship.

After the Oslo agreement, Kelman and Rouhana initiated a Joint Working Group on Israeli-Palestinian Relations, which met regularly between 1994 and 1999. For the first time in this program, the group set itself the goal of producing written documents: joint concept papers on the issues in the final-status negotiations, viewed in the context of what would be required to establish a long-term peaceful and mutually enhancing relationship between the two societies. The group thus intended to contribute both to the negotiations themselves and to the postnegotiation process of peace-building and reconciliation. Three papers were published ( Joint Working Group, 1998 ; 1999 ; Alpher, Shikaki, et al., 1998 ) and translated into Arabic and Hebrew.

With the failure of the Camp David summit and the onset of the Second Intifada in 2000, Kelman’s work entered a new phase, marked by the breakdown of once-promising negotiations. The main thrust of the work since then has been a new joint working group, co-facilitated by Shibley Telhami, focusing on the theme of rebuilding trust within the two communities in the availability of a credible negotiating partner and of a mutually acceptable framework for a two-state solution. The group (with some changes in membership) continues to meet and is now working on a proposal for a new framework to restart negotiations toward a two-state solution.

3.3. Cyprus Case Illustration

The frozen ethnopolitical conflict in Cyprus between the Greek and Turkish communities has long been a focus of both official and unofficial conflict resolution efforts, with more of the latter since 1990 ( Broome, 2005 ; Fisher, 2001 ; Hadjipavlou and Kanol, 2008 ). An early problem-solving workshop (PSW) organized by John Burton was followed by a long hiatus, until the now defunct Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security sponsored a series of PSWs in the early 1990s, organized by Ronald Fisher ( Fisher, 1997 ). An initial workshop in 1990 brought together Greek and Turkish Cypriot community leaders living in Canada at the Institute to focus on the creation of ideas for de-escalation and resolution, and to establish the credibility of the third-party initiative. A second workshop, held near London in 1991, brought together influentials from the two communities on the island, including informal advisers to the two leaders as well as academics, journalists, and businesspersons. The participants achieved consensus on the nature of the desired future relationship between the two communities, and a number of peace-building projects resulted from the workshop. Two further workshops followed in 1993, with a focus on the role of education in maintaining the conflict and its potential role in helping to de-escalate and resolve the conflict. Following the two meetings, participants were brought together to form joint teams to address particular issues and develop specific proposals, including cross-line visits by teachers, the development of common teaching materials on the conflict, and the revision of existing history and social studies textbooks. The workshops thus planted some seeds that continue to find expression in later projects on education (see Hadjipavlou and Kanol, 2008 ).

In the mid-1990s, no PSWs were held, but an American-sponsored training project in conflict resolution led by Louise Diamond and Diana Chigas brought together hundreds of Greek and Turkish Cypriots to learn concepts and skills that they could use to address conflicts within and between their communities, with no intention of influencing the official peace process ( Broome, 2005 ; Chigas, 2007 ; Hadjipavlou and Kanol, 2008 ). However, during 1999 to 2003, the training project morphed into a series of five PSWs augmented with the technique of facilitated brainstorming to develop options relevant to the negotiation process. The so-called “Harvard Study Group” was organized by Robert Rotberg, along with Diamond and Chigas, and brought together influential participants, many of whom were graduates of the training program and some of whom were very well connected politically to the current administrations on the island ( Chigas, 2007 ; in press). The sessions produced a comprehensive document for a “United States of Cyprus,” and some of these ideas found their way into the “Annan Plan.” However, the effects of the intervention were muted as participants better represented the Greek Cypriot leadership at the time as opposed to the governing coalition that came to power in 2003, and the intervention and its outcome were also attacked in the Greek Cypriot media.

Following the referendum defeat of the Annan Plan in the Greek Cypriot community in 2004, the peace-building community on the island was demoralized and in disarray, and few bicommunal projects were initiated. A small symposium organized by Ronald Fisher and Tamra Pearson d’Estree in 2007 at the University of Denver brought together a collection of Cypriot and American peace-builders to discuss the current environment and propose possible strategies for reinvigorating conflict resolution work. This resulted in the organization of two PSWs, the first in 2009, which engaged longtime Cypriot peace-builders from the two communities to assess the current state of the renewed peace process and to develop ideas for how civil society could support the negotiations. One conclusion emerging from the workshop was the importance of the two motherlands in supporting the two leaderships in developing and promoting a mutually beneficial settlement in their communities. This led to a second PSW in 2011, which first brought together some of the same Cypriot peace-builders for two days followed by the inclusion of Greek and Turkish influentials (policy advisers, journalists) for three days. Although many strategies were identified for positively influencing the peace process by both Cypriot civil society and by the Greek and Turkish leaderships, these were seen as contingent upon positive developments in the negotiations themselves, an outcome that continues to be elusive.

3.4. Georgian-South Ossetian Case Illustration

Just after the August 2008 war between Georgians, South Ossetians, and Russians, official negotiations ended with “procedural difficulties” ( Higgins, 2008 ). Experienced Georgian and South Ossetian conflict-resolvers remembered the strong positive impact of a series of workshops in the late 1990s that had contributed to stability, freedom of movement, and trade across the conflict divide ( Nan, 2005 ). They lamented the lack of workshops in the increasingly tense years preceding the renewed fighting.

As no contact across the ceasefire line was possible locally, Susan Allen Nan, Paula Garb, Ekaterina Romanova, and colleagues convened Georgians and South Ossetians at Point of View, George Mason University’s conflict resolution retreat center. The goal was to explore what peace-builders on each side could do to rebuild confidence in the aftermath of the war. That workshop launched a three-year series of 13 problem-solving workshops that was dubbed the Point of View process. Rather than aiming at an immediate political agreement, the conflict analysis within the workshops suggested a focus on confidence-building measures as being more realistic for the immediate postwar phase. The experienced local conflict resolvers provided substantive input to the facilitation team, resulting in several variations on the classic problem-solving workshop design.

One variation the participants suggested was a simple press release after each meeting. These few paragraphs provided participants with general descriptions of the workshops that allowed them to acknowledge their participation and the topics discussed, without breaking confidentiality. These press releases then led to a simple project web-site, where individual participants posted their personal reflections on the process.

At the second and subsequent workshops in Istanbul, officials coming in their personal capacities from both sides and individuals from villages most affected by the war participated alongside a core group of the unofficial peace-builders. The villagers focused discussion on basic human needs, particularly the needs of individuals living very close to the ceasefire line. The officials (some directly involved in the official negotiations) spoke in their personal capacity, but brought clarity on the stumbling blocks preventing cooperation and a political settlement.

The workshop focus on analyzing prospects for particular confidence-building measures allowed the workshops to take on a catalytic function. Workshop discussions allowed planning on particularly promising confidence-building measures. Following the workshops, pairs of participants jointly led confidence-building measures such as cross-conflict women’s dialogues, visiting prisoners, encouraging prisoner releases, and a visit across the ceasefire line by two of the Georgian workshop participants.

In addition, the workshops analyzed particular sticking points in the official talks and developed innovative ways to allow unofficial exploration on specialized areas of potential confidence building. Special groups met on occasion to address technical issues such as water and gas flow across the ceasefire line, inviting appropriate engineers to engage in problem solving. Core participants from the ongoing workshop series facilitated these special technical meetings. Another workshop within the larger problem-solving workshop series included four health experts (two from each side) who engaged with the workshop team to identify confidence-building measures within the health sector. In sum, these workshops diverged from the classic problem-solving workshop process by including some officials (in their personal capacities), catalyzing confidence-building measures directly, engaging villagers from close to the ceasefire line, and focusing on a particular sector (such as health or water) as that sector became relevant to confidence building.

4. Challenges Facing the Field

Conflict analysis and resolution from a social-scientific base with a professional practice orientation is a relatively new field of endeavor, which in addition to the fundamental complexity and intractability of the phenomenon that it addresses, must also confront and overcome many difficult issues. This brief section will only be able to identify a number of the most important of these.

4.1. Culture and Gender

Scholars and practitioners of conflict resolution need to take the questions of cultural and gender influences seriously ( Avruch, 1998 ; Taylor & Miller, 1994 ). It is not appropriate to assume the universality of concepts and methods, given that each society has its “culture of conflict,” which incorporates the beliefs, practices, and institutions relevant to managing differences and which affects what is defined as conflict and how it is addressed ( Ross, 1993a ). A first step is to carry out a cultural analysis of the situation, so that the effects of cultural differences on the etiology and expression of the conflict are clearly understood ( Avruch & Black, 1993 ). Similar points can be made about gender differences as they are expressed in conflict, especially given the patriarchal and hierarchical nature of most societies, which incorporates significant differences in status and power. Unfortunately, the conflict resolution literature is largely silent on gender differences in the enactment of third-party roles, particularly at the international level. This may be due to the near-total absence of women in peace processes at the elite level, probably because of a combination of sexism and structural exclusion ( Anderlini, 2007 ). In an analysis of Israeli-Palestinian problem-solving workshops, d’Estrée and Babbitt (1998) conclude that women tend to engage in deeper self-disclosure, leading to empathy for the enemy and a reciprocal acknowledgment of concerns, coupled with an orientation to build relationships and a capacity to bring to the surface emotional as well as strategic issues. This implies that women may be better equipped to build relationships in the prenegotiation phase and to craft more integrative and hence sustainable agreements. Continuing attention to both gender and cultural issues is thus warranted.

4.2. Professionalization and Training

Many individuals who come to the work of conflict analysis and resolution are professionals from a related field, such as international relations, law, psychology, human relations, diplomacy, or psychiatry, which enables them to analyze social problems and provide some form of service. Only recently have a number of interdisciplinary graduate programs been established to train scholar-practitioners in the many intricacies of conflict and its resolution, and few of these are at the doctoral level. Such training is a daunting task that involves the application of a variety of concepts and models from social science, and the acquisition of a range of strategies and skills from various domains of social practice. Many practitioners thus begin their practice with only a modicum of the analytical tools and social skills they need, and must learn through experience from more seasoned professionals. There is a challenge, therefore, to develop professional training programs, both at the graduate and midcareer levels, that will provide practitioners with the knowledge and capacities they require to engage successfully as negotiators, mediators, third-party consultants, dialogue facilitators, or trainers in conflict resolution. There is also a need to provide opportunities in continuing professional development for scholar-practitioners to broaden their conceptual knowledge and to enhance their strategic and tactical repertoire. Such offerings now exist, but there is little assessment of their quality or depth, or how some collection of them might coalesce toward an adequate level of professional competence. Thus, it would be valuable to initiate activities that would assist in the professionalization of the field at the international level, so that knowledge bases and best practices could be shared toward the improvement of human welfare.

4.3. Evaluation

One of the key challenges confronting the field of interactive conflict resolution is evaluation of the effectiveness of its efforts in achieving the goals it sets out to achieve. As a field that proposes to introduce innovative, academically based forms of intervention in conflict into the larger diplomatic process, interactive conflict resolution has a special obligation to demonstrate its utility and success by way of systematic, empirical evidence consistent with scholarly standards. Writers in the field have increasingly moved to respond to this challenge (e.g., Chataway, 2004 ; d’Estrée, Fast, Weiss, & Jacobsen, 2001 ; Kelman, 2008 ; Ross & Rothman, 1999 ; Rouhana, 2000 ; Saunders, 2000 ). The ultimate goal of interactive conflict resolution is to contribute to the achievement of a negotiated agreement that is mutually satisfactory and lasting and that transforms the relationship between the conflicting parties. Since interactive problem solving—which is not in the business of negotiating agreements—cannot produce such an outcome, but only contribute to it, the most relevant criteria for evaluating it refer to its success in achieving its intermediate goals, rather than its ultimate goal. The intermediate goals constitute changes in the political cultures of the conflicting parties that would make them more receptive to negotiation with each other ( Kelman, 2008 ). Standard models of evaluation—such as the experimental field test—are not applicable to this problem. Furthermore, the use of obtrusive observations and experimental manipulations is often ethically or methodologically unacceptable in research on ongoing interventions. The challenge, therefore, is to develop evaluation models and research methods that are appropriate to the nature and purpose of the enterprise.

4.4. Complementarity of Interventions

One of the challenges to the field is to understand how different third-party roles contribute to negotiation success and sustainable conflict resolution. The early proponents of interactive conflict resolution were clear about its potential as a useful prenegotiation activity (e.g., Burton, 1969 ; Kelman & Cohen, 1976 ), in line with a rationale more fully articulated by Fisher (1989) . However, it is now evident that it can make contributions at all stages of negotiation ( Kelman, 1992 ; 1998 ). Given that conflict, especially ethnopolitical conflict between identity groups, is a potent mix of objective and subjective factors, interventions are required to address the subjective factors—the misperceptions, misattributions, hostile images, mistrust, and vengeance—that fuel escalation and intractability. In fact, it is difficult to see how identity-based conflicts can be addressed without methods that focus on the human and psychological side of the equation ( Rothman, 1997 ; Ross, 1993b ). The question is how these methods can be related to and sequenced with the more traditional forms of conflict management.

Fisher and Keashly (1991) developed a contingency approach to third-party intervention, proposing that different methods be matched to the stage of conflict escalation for maximum utility. They also propose that methods need to be sequenced in a complementary fashion, so that a lead intervention gives way to others designed to de-escalate and resolve the conflict. There are two points of complementarity between interactive conflict resolution (represented by third-party consultation) and mediation, in both its pure and power forms. (Pure mediation involves the third party facilitating an agreement on substantive issues through reasoning, persuasion, the control of information and the suggestion of alternatives. Power mediation incorporates these elements, but goes beyond to apply leverage in the form of promised rewards or threatened punishments and often involves the third party as a guarantor.) At the first point of complementarity, consultation can serve as a premediation activity that improves understanding and builds trust in the relationship so that pure mediation can deal more effectively with objective issues. Second, consultation can follow power mediation, after it has achieved a ceasefire or initial settlement on substantive issues, in order to rebuild the torn relationship toward a comprehensive agreement and a sustainable peace. While a limited amount of experimental and empirical research supports the contingency approach ( Fisher, 2007 ; Keashly & Fisher, 1996 ), it remains a skeletal representation of a complex set of relationships that may not play out as diagramed in the complexity of real-world dynamics. Nonetheless, the contingency model and similar attempts (e.g., Kriesberg, 1996 ) challenge theorists and practitioners to think more seriously about the coordination and complementarity of interventions that may well be required to adequately address intractable ethnopolitical conflicts.

An intersocietal view of conflict, as we have proposed, calls for a complex mix of official and unofficial processes, complementing each other in the achievement of the overall diplomatic goal. The challenge is to make effective use of the potential contributions of interactive conflict resolution and other unofficial tracks in the official diplomatic process. Ideally, problem-solving workshops and related activities can be used for exploring possibilities, formulating options, and framing issues in ways that can advance negotiations at its various stages. This has indeed happened on occasion, but it needs to be done systematically, while making sure that track two efforts maintain their integrity and independence and do not become—or come to be seen as—merely another component of the track one process. Official negotiations can also benefit from adopting some of the exploratory, analytical, and problem-solving methods of interactive conflict resolution in their own proceedings, insofar as they can be accommodated within the constraints of the official process ( Kelman, 1996 ).

4.5. Institutionalization

At the level of a particular conflict, it might be useful to institutionalize interactive conflict resolution as part of the peace-building process that must accompany and follow the negotiation of a peace agreement. At the global level, the persistence and proliferation of deadly conflicts between identity groups around the world suggest the urgent need for a large, well-endowed, mostly nongovernmental organization devoted to monitoring such conflicts as they evolve and ready to intervene with efforts to help prevent and resolve them (cf. Burton, 1983 ). The purpose would be to supplement the work of existing governmental, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental organizations devoted to peacemaking, peacekeeping, and postconflict humanitarian aid by bringing together politically influential representatives of the opposing sides in an active or impending conflict for joint exploration, within a problem-solving framework, of steps toward preventing, de-escalating, or resolving the conflict. The institution might include a permanent staff to monitor conflict regions and provide the infrastructure for workshops as the need arises; a cadre of regional and conflict resolution specialists available to organize and lead workshops; and a cadre of local representatives to recommend appropriate actions or evaluate proposals from the staff and to assist by organizing and participating in workshops as needed ( Kelman, 2006 ). If the resources needed for a large-scale effort of this kind can be generated, there is at least the hope that it can begin to tackle the problem of intercommunal violence that has been plaguing the international scene for centuries.

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Conflict resolution: feminist perspectives.

Simona Sharoni Simona Sharoni Department of Gender & Women’s Studies, SUNY Plattsburgh
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.130
Published in print: 01 March 2010
Published online: 30 November 2017

The academic study of conflict resolution was born as as a critique of mainstream International Relations (IR), which explains why feminist theory and conflict resolution share many things in common. For example, both feminists and conflict resolution scholars challenge traditional power politics grounded in realist or neorealists analyses of conflict. They also share the core belief that war is not inevitable and that human beings have the capacity to resolve conflicts through nonviolent means. In the past two decades, with the expansion of feminist scholarship in IR, feminist interventions in conflict resolution have gained more currency. This essay reviews feminist scholarship in conflict resolution, with particular emphasis on five elements: critiques of the absence and/or marginalization of women in the field and an effort to include women and to make women visible and heard; articulation of a unique feminist standpoint for approaching peacemaking and conflict resolution, which is essentially different to, and qualitatively better than, mainstream (or male-stream) perspectives; feminist theorization of difference in conflict resolution theory and practice (challenges to essentialism, intersections, power and privilege, culture); feminist redefinition of central concepts in the field, especially violence, power, peace, and security; and original feminist research and theorizing, including field research in conflict areas, designed to transform rather than just reform the field. This essay argues that in order to further expand and institutionalize conflict resolution studies, mainstream scholars must be willing to engage seriously the contributions and critiques of feminists.

conflict resolution
International Relations
feminist theory
marginalization of women
peacemaking

Introduction

Although the term “conflict resolution” has been in use for quite some time, only in the past two decades has it been institutionalized as a distinct field of study in the academy and as a body of knowledge and applied skills that can be utilized in many spheres of our personal, social, and political lives. Because the academic study of conflict resolution emerged as a critique of mainstream International Relations (IR), feminist theory and conflict resolution have much in common. First and foremost, they share a critique of traditional power politics grounded in realist or neorealists analyses of conflict. Further, feminists and conflict resolution scholars share the core belief that war is not inevitable and that human beings have the capacity to resolve conflicts nonviolently. Yet, despite the striking similarities between conflict resolution theory and feminist theory, feminist perspectives and feminist scholars and practitioners remain marginalized within the field of conflict resolution, much like their counterparts in other fields of inquiry.

Feminist interventions in conflict resolution have been similar in many ways to feminist critiques in other disciplines and fields of inquiry, but they have gained more currency in the past two decades, with the expansion of feminist scholarship in IR. Feminist perspectives on conflict resolution ranged in tone and political goals and, like other political interventions, they can be organized along a continuum, from liberal calls for inclusion and visibility within the emerging field of study and practice to more radical interventions which have called into question the underlying assumptions and mainstream theories in the field. The latter interventions did not call for reforms within the field but rather demanded its radical transformation. As part of the effort to transform conflict resolution, a new generation of feminist conflict resolution scholars has engaged in original theorizing and groundbreaking research, including in conflict-torn regions. The original scholarship published as a result of these studies, which will be discussed later in this essay, underscores the centrality of gender to conflict resolution theory, research and practice. The body of original feminist research in conflict resolution highlights issues and dimensions of conflicts that have remained unexamined in conventional, nonfeminist, conflict resolution scholarship.

Feminist scholarship in conflict resolution has included at least one element, though often some combination of several, from the following list:

Critiques of the absence and/or marginalization of women in the field and an effort to include women and to make women visible and heard.

Articulation of a unique feminist standpoint for approaching peacemaking and conflict resolution, which is essentially different to, and qualitatively better than, mainstream (or male-stream) perspectives.

Feminist theorization of difference in CR theory and practice (challenges to essentialism, intersections, power and privilege, culture).

Feminist redefinition of central concepts in the field, especially violence, power, peace, and security.

Original feminist research and theorizing, including field research in conflict areas, designed to transform, not merely reform, the field.

In this essay, I focus primarily on feminist perspectives pertaining to the analysis and resolution of conflicts, which have been traditionally described in IR literature as “international conflicts” and/or “ethnic conflicts.” Feminists, like other critical scholars, have called the terms themselves into question and suggested alternatives. In addition to critically examining various feminist critiques of conflict resolution theory, research, and practice, this essay highlights original and noteworthy contributions that feminist scholars and practitioners have made to conflict resolution study and practice. Finally, I discuss some new directions for feminist work in this area and examine the prospects and challenges for a fruitful collaboration between scholars of conflict resolution and feminist scholars.

Challenging Exclusion and Marginalization: Struggles for Inclusion, Voice, and Visibility

Early interventions centered around the question “where are the women?” in conflict resolution theories, research, and such practices as mediation and negotiation. Feminist scholars challenged the absence, exclusion, and marginalization of women’s experiences, voices, and perspectives both at the negotiation tables and in textbooks (Rifkin 1984 ; Kolb and Coolidge 1991 ; Stamato 1992 ; Sharoni, 1993 ; Taylor and Miller 1994 ; Kolb 2000 ; Anderlini 2007 ; English 2009 ). They questioned why, despite the fact that 51 percent of the world’s population is female and that women across the globe have been at the forefront of peace and justice struggles since at least the turn of the century, women continue to be marginalized, if not excluded, from official policy-making circles or at best are confined to the margins of political debates concerning peace and security. They further suggested that paying attention to women’s experiences would greatly contribute to both the analysis and the resolution of conflicts (Sharoni 1993 ; 1995 ; Cockburn 1998 ; 2007 ; Byrne 2009 ). Many feminists insisted that because women and girls constitute at least half of the world population, their experience should be counted and carefully considered alongside the experience of men (Taylor and Miller 1994 ; D’Amico and Beckman 1995 ; Turpin and Lorentzen 1996 ). Others, on the other hand, argued that because women are different to men, mostly due to a gendered socialization and experiences in conflict, they may be uniquely positioned to offer creative approaches to conflict resolution and peacemaking (Eisler 1989 ; Boulding 1992 , 1995 ; Reardon 1993 ; Fearon 1999 ; Fearon and McWilliams 2000 ).

In the academy, the struggle was led primarily by graduate students with feminist consciousness who drew attention to the exclusion of women’s voices and perspectives from course syllabi and major texts. They also pointed out the absence of women faculty, especially in programs that focused on international conflict resolution and offered graduate degrees in the field (Sharoni 1993 ; Stephens 1994 ; English 2009 ). These interventions called for the inclusion of work by women and on women in the emerging conflict resolution canon, and for the hiring of women faculty, whose teaching responsibility would include developing new courses that focused on gender and conflict. Around the same time, women and feminist practitioners in the growing field of mediation and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) began to call into question the assumption that mediation and negotiation were gender-neutral processes. They highlighted differences in women’s and men’s experiences of the conflict as well as in processes of mediation and negotiation and their outcomes (Hill 1990 ; Chataway and Kolb 1994 ; Dewhurst and Wall 1994 ; Watson 2004 ). The critiques were similar to feminist critiques in other fields. Feminists called into question the dominant discourses of mediation and negotiation for the masculinist assumptions and expectations. Grounded primarily in rational-choice theories, negotiators were expected to be rational, competitive, utility-maximizing individuals, while mediators were proffered to be neutral and objective. Feminists argued that these expectations valorize behaviors that are associated with men and therefore perpetuate their dominance in the field. Instead, they introduced alternative perspectives on conflict, mediation, and negotiation, focusing primarily on power dynamics and social aspects of relationships (Kolb and Coolidge 1991 ; Kolb 1992 ; Taylor and Miller 1994 ; Kolb and Putnam 1995 ; Ely and Meyerson 2000 ; Putnam and Kolb 2000 ).

In the area of policy making, feminist perspectives on conflict and conflict resolution challenged the absence of women at all decision-making levels and especially at the negotiation tables (Cravers 1990 ; Kolb and Coolidge 1991 ; Watson 1994 ; Mazur 2002 ). More recently, researchers using datasets examined the impact of gender inequalities on intrastate conflict. They concluded that states characterized by gender inequality are more likely to experience intrastate conflict (Caprioli 2000 , 2005 ; Caprioli and Boyer 2001 ). Along with the expansion of this body of literature, debates about gender inclusiveness and its implications for conflict and peacemaking have become commonplace in advocacy circles, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and International Nongovernmental Organizations (INGOs) around the world. Women within these organizations have worked tirelessly to transform policies and practices in the direction of gender-mainstreaming. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 is viewed as a serious milestone in the laborious process of infusing gender awareness and sensitivity into peacemaking and peacekeeping (Anderlini 2004 ; Anderlini and El-Bushra 2004 ; Cohn et al. 2004 ).

A Different Standpoint or Essentialist Theorizing?

While many feminists continue to focus on documenting women’s contributions to conflict resolution and peacemaking and advancing “gender mainstreaming” within international organizations that intervene in conflicts, others have warned against the tendency to “add women and stir,” which may not have a significant impact on the analysis or the resolution of conflicts (Zalewski 1995 ; Daly 2005 ; Squires 2005 ; Squires and Weldes 2007 ). At the same time, feminists inspired by women peace activists around the world have insisted that women have a different perspective on questions of war and peace and therefore can make unique contributions to peacemaking and to conflict resolution initiatives (Boulding 1992 ; Reardon 1993 ). Although feminists enthusiastically embraced the project of highlighting women’s activism around the world, the claim that women’s agency stems from their sex categorization was not unanimously endorsed by feminists.

Indeed, there has been an ongoing debate among feminists, as in scholarly and policy-making circles and the general population, on whether the mere call for equal participation of women in political affairs would guarantee a more peaceful agenda. The fact that throughout history more women than men have organized against war and in search of nonviolent ways to resolve conflicts has been used by some feminists as to establish the case for women’s special relationship to peace and for a unique feminist standpoint on peacemaking and conflict resolution (Cambridge Women’s Peace Collective 1984 ; Eisler 1989 ; Boulding 1992 ; Alonso 1993 ).

Those who wish to maintain the status quo of male-dominated politics have often used as examples of such hawkish, nationalist, and warmongering female leaders as Golda Meir , Indira Gandhi , Margaret Thatcher , Madeline Albright , and Condeleeza Rice (Fukuyama 1998 ). However, most feminists working on these issues nowadays insist that it is not one’s biological sex, but rather one’s overall political perspective and vision and the gendered systems that shape them, that affect one’s inclination for war or peace (Hunter and Flamenbaum 1993 ; Zalewski 1995 ; Tickner 1997 ; Caprioli 2000 ; Peterson and Runyan, forthcoming).

This debate has triggered many conversations among feminist scholars and activists, inspiring more complex theorizing that takes into account women’s experiences as both victims and perpetrators of conflict and makes clear that the call for the inclusion of women at the negotiation table is first and foremost a call for the inclusion of different perspectives. Toward this end, some feminists sought to demonstrate that women do have a special relationship to peace and to explain why and how it differs from conventional male perspectives.

During the latter part of the nineteenth century , primarily in Europe and North America, women activists and feminist scholars began to explore and articulate the connections between their struggles for emancipation as women and their pursuit of justice and peace. A prime example of this perspective was Virginia Woolf’s 1938 treatise Three Guineas , which was written in the form of a letter in response to a man’s question on how to prevent war. Woolf suggested that the issue of “how to prevent war” was linked to the broad complex of social relations and gender inequalities that prevailed in society at that time. She challenged the separation between the private and public domains which, she argued, has maintained women’s exclusion from public and political roles. Her prescription was to bring the private world of women into the public world of men to transform both (Woolf 1938 ).

Since the mid-1970s, much feminist work has sought to explain women’s predisposition to peacemaking and the non-violent resolution of conflicts. Some argued that because women experience sexism and violence they can empathize with other victims and support movements for justice and peace (Brownmiller 1975 ; Enloe 1987 ). Others insisted that it was women’s experiences as nurturers, and especially the practice of mothering, that provides the basis for a unique feminist standpoint on peacemaking and conflict resolution (Noddings 1984 ; Brock-Utne 1985 ; Reardon 1985 ; Ruddick 1989 ). Sara Ruddick ’s work on “maternal thinking” is exemplary of feminist theorists who claim that there is an “authentic” universal experience of mothering, which when released from patriarchal control can challenge militarization and nurture peaceful relationships (Ruddick 1989 ). The contention that women have unique peacemaking qualities and skills has later come under attack for reinforcing cultural practices and social expectations, which tend to equate men and masculinity with war and patriarchy.

A major work at this time was Betty Reardon’s influential book Sexism and the War System ( 1985 ), which challenged the dominant view at the time within the field of peace studies that “women’s issues” (usually narrowly defined by men) are secondary or collateral to the central concerns with questions of peace and war. Reardon equated war with patriarchy, militarism with sexism, and peace and world order with feminism (Reardon 1985 ). She appealed to peace movements and to peace researchers to place women’s experiences and feminist analyses at the center of their work and to utilize education as a means to produce the visions and capacities for social transformation. Along these lines, empirically supported research in the fields of negotiation and mediation suggested significant differences in conflict resolution styles between women and men (Rifkin 1984 ; Maxwell 1992 ). Drawing mostly on Carol Gilligan ’s work, the skills required for successful mediation and negotiation were initially viewed as more compatible with women’s values and dispositions (Gilligan 1982 ). Nevertheless, most feminist research and writing about mediation, especially family law mediation, have strongly criticized mediation as a process, insisting that it often puts women at a disadvantage (Woods 1985 ; Shaffer 1988 ; Girdner 1989 ; Ellis 1990 ; Hill 1990 ).

This period saw the emergence of scholars who referred to themselves as “feminist peace researchers.” Paying close attention to the peace movement and to women’s roles within it, they engaged in challenging conventional scholarship on questions of war and peace and searching for new theoretical frameworks and strategies to address these questions. This project grew out of the realization that the process of conducting corrective and compensatory research had shown that the scientific method – with its emphasis on objectivity, freedom from values, and abstract reasoning – reflected the experiences, mindset, and expectations of Western white males (Carroll 1972 ; Forcey 1991 ; Tickner 1992 ; Sylvester 2002 ). The result was new theorizing, research agendas, and methods that were qualitatively different from the research reflected in such flagship male-dominated journals as the Journal of Peace Research and the Journal of Conflict Resolution.

These feminist theories and critiques examined such topics as the linkages between the public and private domains, those between the violence of war and violence against women, and those between sexism and militarism. Although some feminists occasionally compared their experiences to those of other disenfranchised groups, for the most part the effort to articulate unique feminist perspectives on peace came at the expense of addressing differences among women, such as those based on race, class, and sexual orientation.

Feminists Theorize Difference in Conflict Resolution Theory and Practice

Feminist explorations of difference in relation to conflict and conflict resolution have centered around two central themes in contemporary feminist debates. The first is a critique of the treatment of women as a monolithic entity, which is essentially different to that of men. The second, related theme addresses differences among women.

Over the last two decades, feminist scholars have raised important theoretical and methodological questions that challenged the treatment of women and men as monolithic entities, diametrically opposed to one another. In the context of peace and conflict studies, these critiques called into question the common juxtaposition of men-warriors and women-peacemakers (Elshtain 1987 ; Sylvester 1987 ; 1989 ; Forcey 1991 ; Sharoni 1998 ; 2001 ; Skjelsbak 2001 ). These questions arose in the context of broader theoretical discussions, involving both a conceptual shift from a focus on “women” and “men” to a focus on “gender” as a socially constructed category and a methodological shift from empiricism and materialism to constructivism (Ackerly et al. 2006 ).

From a social constructivist perspective, gender is both an analytical category and a relational social process (Butler 1990 ; Scott 1990 ; Butler and Scott 1992 ; Ferguson 1993 ). Further, feminists have insisted that no categories, identities or practices associated with being women or men are natural or universal. Given this contention, any attempt to generalize differences between women and men, as collectivities, comes at the expense of differences among women and men as well as at the expense of historical specificity. Inspired by this new theoretical perspective, feminists writing about war, peace, and conflict have engaged in theorizing and original research that took into account the multiplicity of women’s voices and perspectives in different contexts (Elia 1996 ; Connolly 1999 ; Mason 2005 ). The attention to difference allowed feminists to examine critically contradictions and conflicts not only between women and men, but also among women, and more recently among men (Sharoni 1998 ; 2008 ; Whitworth 2004 ). As a result, there is now a rich body of literature that addresses constructions of masculinity in conflict, peacekeeping, and peacemaking (Zalewski and Parpart 1998 ; Masters 2008 ; Parpart and Zalewski 2008 ; Sharoni 2008 ).

For example, feminists insisted that women’s perspectives on war and peace, like gender identities, are socially constructed and therefore must be examined in relation to the particular historical and sociopolitical contexts that shaped them. Along these lines, feminists insisted that women’s struggles for peace and contributions to conflict resolution initiatives cannot be understood apart from women’s participation in and support of wars (Elshtain 1987 ; Sylvester 1987 ; Elshtain and Tobias 1990 ; Forcey 1991 ). In the context of our discussion on difference, feminists argued that attempts to separate women’s involvement in war from their struggles for peace reduce the complexity of women’s experiences and their diverse responses to conflict. This perspective led to extensive research on the role of women in militaries and in various support roles for militaries and militarization (Turshen and Twagiramariya 1998 ; D’Amico and Weinstein 1999 ; Enloe 2000 ; 2007 ; McKelvey 2006 ). Feminist research has also encompassed women in national liberation movements, including those who used armed struggle as one of their modes of resistance (Sylvester 1989 ; Abdulhadi 1998 ; Sjoberg and Gentry 2007 ).

Feminists insisted that paying attention to difference is important not only in order to recover silenced and marginalized voices and validate individual identities, but also as a way of exposing structured inequalities and power differentials. It was this realization of power imbalances at the mediation table that inspired feminist critiques of the mediation process, especially in the field of divorce mediation and family law (Woods 1985 ; Shaffer 1988 ; Girdner 1989 ; Ellis 1990 ; Hill 1990 ). Feminists insisted that understanding difference can be instrumental to examining power structures and relationships. To illustrate this point, Peterson and Runyan ( 2009 :86) use the phrase “global gendered, racialized, and sexualized divisions of power, violence, and labor and resources.” This theoretical contention was inspired by feminist theories of intersections, which emerged in the context of and in relation to social movements, especially those led by people of color, gays and lesbians, women, and working-class people.

By “intersections,” feminists referred to the interconnectedness of gendered identities, structures of domination, discrimination, oppression, exploitation, and violence (Crenshaw 1991 ; Mohanty 2003 ). These theories grew out of the experiences of women who felt that their histories and struggles were not reflected in the agenda of the feminist movement in Europe and North America. They included women of color, lesbians, working-class women and women in the global south, arguing that their experiences as women need to be examined in relation to other experiences shaped by their race, culture, ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation. Women of color in the US insisted that they can only be part of a feminist movement if it incorporates the notion of difference and does not force them to choose between their struggle against sexism and their commitment to end racism (Moraga and Anzaldua 1983 ; hooks 1984 ; 1990 ; Collins 1992 ; Anzaldua and Keating 2002 ). Along these lines, women in the global south who were engaged, alongside men, in struggles for national liberation, called into question the simplistic distinction of men-warriors and women-peacemakers. Furthermore, because these women were involved in a dual struggle, for national liberation and for women’s liberation, they began to explore and address the linkages between gender oppression and the broader political context within which it unfolds (Stephenson 1983 ; Jayawardena 1986 ; Mohanty 1991 ).

Feminists who theorize difference see that gender identities and gender relations are socially constituted through complex interrelated processes. As a result, the actual content of being a man or a woman and the rigidity of the categories themselves are highly variable across cultures, contexts, and time. Understanding the existing linkages between different, usually interlocking, systems of domination and oppression and between different cartographies of struggle is central to the analysis of conflicts and the exploration of prospects for their resolution. Taking difference into account and applying feminist theories of intersections to conflict resolution does not involve merely paying attention to race, gender, and class as variables in a particular case study. Rather, intersectional analysis should be used to uncover the distribution of power within systems and relationships and especially to reveal how unequal distribution of power and privilege can sow the seeds and lead to the escalation of conflict.

Feminists Redefine Central Concepts in Conflict Resolution Theory, Research, and Practice

Most, if not all, feminist literature dealing with conflict and conflict resolution begins with the premise that concepts such as violence, power, security, and peace are gendered (Cohn 1987 ; Tickner 1992 ; Enloe 1993 ; 2000 ; 2007 ; Sharoni 1995 ; Pettman 1996 ; Agathangelou 2004 ; Mazurana et al. 2005 ; Rai and Waylen 2008 ; Shepard 2008 ; Peterson and Runyan 2009 ). Feminist reformulations of violence, power, peace and security have broadened the range of political discourse by challenging the narrow definition of “women’s issues” and “politics.” This work has the potential to transform the theories, research, intervention methods, and public debates that frame our understanding of conflict in all sphere of social and political life.

Conflict resolution theory and practice rests heavily on such concepts as violence, power, peace, and security, and for the most part scholars and practitioners in the field have embraced the conventional conceptualizations of these central ideas. Accordingly, the definition of violence has been limited to physical violence and power has been understood mostly as “power over,” characterized by competition, domination and control. Similarly, mainstream conflict resolution has accepted conventional conceptualizations of peace and security. These conceptualizations have been for the most part grounded in an understanding of political life as a matter of government institutions and policies; competition between states and parties over interests, needs, and values; and clashes of powers and ideologies. Because the meaning of security has grown out of concerns about war and peace – understood as opposites – within the international state system, the meaning of peace has been limited to simply the absence of war and the understanding of security has been limited to “national security.”

Feminists continue to challenge conventional understandings of central concepts in the field for ignoring, obscuring, and marginalizing a broad range of issues, voices, and perspectives. Judging from the growing body of feminist literature on war, peace, security, and international politics more generally, feminists have been quite successful in disrupting dominant paradigms and conventional ways of theorizing conflicts and their resolution. Given the quantity and quality of the scholarship on war and peace produced by feminists in the past two decades, it is reasonable to expect that mainstream scholars will join their progressive counterparts and critically engage this literature.

Feminists who have engaged in projects of rethinking concepts such as violence, power, peace, and security searched for alternative formulations that would resonate with the daily lives and struggles of women in different conflict zones around the world. The search for alternative formulations focused on questions such as, what roles do women play in conflicts and in the processes designed to bring about their peaceful resolution? How do they define violence, power, peace, and security? What are the particular strategies, processes, and organizational frameworks that women employ in their conflict resolution efforts and in their struggles for peace and justice? And how do women’s and men’s lives change, during conflict and post-conflict? In many ways, feminist reconceptualizations of violence, power, security, and peace offer a conceptual framework that can address all these questions and more.

Most conceptualizations of violence within the field of conflict resolution are informed by Johan Galtung ’s theorizing about violence. According to Galtung, peace researchers, scholars, and practitioners must look beyond the manifestations of direct, physical violence, which often leave marks on the body. His theory encompasses two additional types of violence: structural violence and cultural violence (Galtung 1975 , 1990 ).

While feminists have generally found Galtung’s theorizing of structural and cultural violence compatible with feminist interpretations of violence, they have been greatly disappointed that neither he nor his male counterparts have paid much attention in their work to the gendered nature of violence (Confortini 2006 ). Early feminist theorizing on violence addressed mainly direct, physical violence, and associated violence with men and nonviolence with women (Eisler 1989 ; Kirk 1989 ; Boulding 1992 ). These conceptualizations became more complex as feminists began to articulate connections between violence against women and structural and cultural forms of violence including the war system (Sharoni 1994 ; Agathangelou 2004 ; Sachs et al. 2007 ; Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2009 ). The shift in feminist thought to theorizing differences and articulating intersections resulted in more nuanced conceptualizations of violence, which greatly enrich Galtung’s definitions of structural and cultural violence. The main difference, however, is that feminist conceptualizations of violence tend to be context-specific, grounded in particular struggles, and addressing systemic violations of people’s rights and dignity based on gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation, among other things. Feminist redefinitions of violence offer conflict resolution scholars and practitioners conceptual tools to look beyond the symptoms of violence and examine its root causes. In most cases, there were structured inequalities and/or asymmetrical power relations, which tend to propel and fuel violence.

Feminist reconceptualizations of power are especially relevant to the resolution of international conflict since, like many conflict resolution frameworks, they offer a critique of the paradigm of power politics that has dominated the field of international politics and diplomacy for almost a century. Feminists have taken issue with conventional conceptualizations of power grounded in violence and dominance because they overlook other such dimensions and characteristics of power as energy, capacity, and potential. This critique is often referred to as the difference between “power over” and “power to” (Hartsock 1983 ; Eisler 1989 ; Margolis 1989 ; Boulding 1992 ).

The powerful feminist slogan “the personal is political” has inspired many feminist attempts to redefine power in relation to conflict. Accordingly, issues like division of labor within the household, self-esteem, depression, or violence against women, which women tended to view as their private issues, are reframed as political issues, originating from and reflecting unequal power relations. Along these lines, power can be defined as agency, manifesting itself in examples of women’s activism in conflict areas. As the conflict transforms their lives, these women feel empowered to shape its course and outcome (Sharoni 2001 ). More recently, feminist reconceptualizations of power have been influenced by Michel Foucault ’s theorizing on power. According to this formulation, power is everywhere, producing and shaping the meaning of everything we do (Shepard 2008 ). If everything we can see is shaped by and in turn shapes power relations, then everything we see is gendered, raced, and imbued with structured inequalities. This complex and multifaceted conceptualization of power has much to contribute to the analysis and resolution of conflicts.

Feminist scholars and activists have long called into question the pervasive understanding of security as “national security.” Thus they challenged the tendency to conflate security with national security, which takes for granted state power and the existing political status quo. They raised serious concerns with the overwhelming priority of states to invest funds and energies in the military and then rely upon the threat of using the army to “protect” the collective citizenry (Harris and King 1989 ; Ruddick 1989 ). Feminist case studies from around the world support the argument that states, far from being the providers of security, as is often assumed, have become a primary source of insecurity, especially for women and other underprivileged groups (Harris and King 1989 ; Sharoni 1993 ; Agathangelou 2004 ; Scuzarello 2008 ). Based on this evidence, feminists have concluded that the more preoccupied a government is with what it calls “national security,” the more insecure are its vulnerable constituents (Enloe 1987 ; 2007 ; Sharoni 1994 ; Abdo and Lentin 2002 ; Sachs et al. 2007 ). Feminist reexaminations of dominant security discourses point out that “security” has become more an instrument of mystifying rhetoric than a concept with any analytical precision.

Furthermore, appeals to the need for security have quite often been used (by states) to justify the most blatant military campaigns and territorial expansions. The post- September 11, 2001 era has not only provided ample evidence to support this proposition but also inspired some brilliant, highly original feminist scholarship (Falcon 2006 , Jiwani 2006 , Russo 2006 , Faludi 2007 , Riley et al. 2008 ). Feminist reconceptualizations of security suggest a shift from thinking about security in mutually exclusive, zero-sum ways (i.e., “national security”) to focusing instead on “human security” or “global security.”

Nevertheless, many feminist critiques go beyond the critique of “national security” to question the very idea of “security” as a totalizing patriarchal concept that cannot accept any disorder, incoherence, or lack of control. In contrast, feminists suggest that security is always partial, elusive, and mundane (Sylvester 1989 ; Tickner 1992 ). Feminist interpretations of security do not treat it as an absolute end or as a scarce resource which needs to be possessed, but rather as a very complex and elusive process that needs to be negotiated and renegotiated as change occurs in different historical and sociopolitical circumstances (Tickner 1992 ). More recently, feminists have challenged other feminists and peace activists who tend to define security as an outcome that can be achieved rather than as a discourse. In these flawed formulations, the term “security” is often used interchangeably with the term “peace,” and both assume the end of armed conflict (Jabri 1996 ; Mackay 2004 ; Shepard 2008 ). Feminist reconceptualizations of security can transcend what Laura Shepard ( 2008 :127) refers to as the “theoretical tautology of defining conflict as the absence of security and security as the absence of conflict.”

Feminists, regardless of the particular theories or struggles they are associated with, have generally accepted Galtung’s conceptualization of peace, which is grounded in the distinction between negative peace and positive peace (Galtung 1990 ; Confortini 2006 ). Indeed, early feminist theorizing on peace and conflict defined peace as more than the absence of physical violence, insisting that “real” peace must involve the absence of all forms of violence, including structural and cultural violence, and the presence of justice and equality for all (Boulding 1992 ; Reardon 1993 ). Peace is viewed as an outcome that seems rather impossible to achieve.

Drawing on examples from the ongoing conflicts and political processes in Israel, Palestine and Northern Ireland, Sharoni ( 2001 :174) argues that “the transition from conflict to post-conflict realities is more complex and multi-faceted than a simple departure from a negative situation (i.e conflict) to a positive one (i.e. peace).” Cynthia Enloe ( 1987 :538) suggested a more modest definition that emerges from “the conditions of women’s lives,” and involves “women’s achievement of control over their lives.” While this definition is both more subtle and more complex than conventional conceptualizations of peace, it still conceives of peace as a tangible outcome. Instead, some feminists suggest that peace does not have a fixed meaning, that it should rather be viewed as a political discourse. The definition of “peace,” like that of any other term, reflects the political position of the person or group who defines it as well as the particular sociopolitical context within which it is constructed. Different definitions of peace often reveal different degrees of commitment to social and political change or compliance with the prevailing status quo of power relations, including the gendered divisions of power and labor in a particular society. This formulation urges feminists and other conflict resolution scholars not to assume but to probe whether the mere signing of a peace agreement is likely to improve women’s lives and bring about gender equality.

In sum, feminists have long realized that the processes of refining and implementing feminist interpretations of central concepts in the field cannot be limited to the confines of the academy (Giles 2008 ). Today, there is consensus among feminists on the need to ground research on conflict and peacemaking in the diverse experiences of women in conflict zones. By rethinking peace and security from the daily lives and struggles of women around the world, feminists and other critical scholars can expand the understandings of peace and security to include questions of development; environmental degradation and ecological concerns; gender, race, and class inequalities; abuses of human rights; and attacks on cultural and ethnic identities (Agathangelou 2004 ; Agathangelou and Ling 2004 ; Philipose 2007 ; Lind forthcoming). Feminist reformulations of central concepts such as power, peace, and security represent an important step toward feminist theorizing in conflict resolution.

Toward Feminist Transformations of Conflict Resolution Theory, Research, and Practice

Challenging the centrality of men’s experiences and theories and paying attention to women’s lives, feminists insist, has the potential to shed light not only on the gendered aspects of social and political life, but also on other forms of structured inequality. That is, feminist perspectives are valuable not only because they call attention to gender differences, but also because they emerge from women’s experiences and women represent one particular example of a disenfranchised and marginalized social group (Harding 1991 ; Ackerly et al. 2006 ). Feminists generally agree that we must ask not only what are the voices and perspectives that have been marginalized, silenced, or excluded from conventional conflict resolution scholarship, but also what are the assumptions, processes, and practices that have enabled and perpetuated these exclusions.

Toward this end, many feminists engaged in tireless work to integrate gender and feminist perspective into conflict resolution, while others have called for a radical transformation of the field. Some chose to conduct original field research in particular conflict areas, while others have put their efforts into transforming policy debates related to conflict resolution.

The term “transformation” has become increasingly popular in peace and conflict resolution studies. While still a somewhat amorphous term, its growing popularity points to the limitations of other such terms as “management” and “resolution.” According to John Paul Lederach ( 1995 :17), “unlike resolution and management, the idea of transformation does not suggest we simply eliminate or control conflict, but rather points descriptively toward its inherent dialectic nature.” In other words, transformation, more than other concepts, takes into account the dynamic nature of social conflict and the potential changes it can trigger in individuals, groups, and structures. Moreover, Lederach and others prefer the term “transformation” over “resolution” or “management” because it is more dynamic and cannot be used to impose harmony or peace at the expanse of justice (Nader 1991 ). From a feminist perspective, the term “transformation” marks more than merely a linguistic departure from conventional approaches to the study and practice of conflict. It is also a concept that can be easily integrated into feminist perspectives on conflicts.

The move away from conventional toward new approaches to the analysis and resolution of conflicts, or from conflict resolution to conflict transformation, has theoretical, methodological, practical, and political implications. Figure 1 identifies four key dimensions that are interrelated and offer a framework for analyzing contemporary feminist scholarship:

a move from universal to context-specific theorizing;

a move from top-down/prescriptive to bottom-up/elicitive intervention models;

a move from scientific (positivist) to constructivist (postpositivist) research; and

a move from politics oriented toward the status quo to politics oriented toward social change.

As Figure 1 underscores, however, although conventional and new approaches rest on different sets of theoretical assumptions which inform different intervention models and political practices, they should not be treated as diametrically opposed to one another but rather as two poles of a continuum.

Feminists have insisted that their interventions are not designed to discredit or delegitimize conventional approaches and practices but rather to point out to their hegemony in the field and open up space for other perspectives. Along the same lines, the proposed framework is not designed to idealize new approaches and their related practices but rather to point out potential venues for future research.

As the literature on women and gender issues in conflict zones demonstrates, feminists have long sought to ground theoretical explorations in empirical research and case studies. Theoretically, this body of literature focused primarily on women’s involvement in conflict resolution efforts, peacemaking initiatives, and social justice campaigns at the grassroots level with an overemphasis on the potential of dialogue and alliances between women across political divides. Research also highlighted the impact of conflict on women’s lives, with a special emphasis on critiquing militarism, nationalism, and ethnic conflict (Yuval-Davis 1997 ; Cockburn 1998 ; 2007 ; Fearon 1999 ; Cohn and Ruddick 2003 ; Giles et al. 2003 ; 2004 ; Jacoby 2005 ). A few feminist scholars, whose lives were shaped by the conflicts they study, have expanded the analysis, and have documented the multiple identities and struggles of women in conflict zones, including the treatment of feminist identities and nationalist identities as mutually exclusive, which has been a source of tension in cross-community women’s alliances (Rooney 1995 ; Sharoni 1995 ; Hadjipavlou 2006 ; McEvoy 2009 ).

Figure 1 Conventional and New Approaches to Conflict Resolution

Feminist scholars have also worked to document women’s experiences not only as victims of violent conflict but also as perpetrators, and as agents of change. This body of work included accounts of the struggles of women within national liberation movements to link their struggles for national liberation and gender equality (Aretxaga 1997 ; Abdulhadi 1998 ; Moser and Clark 2001 ). Feminists have also begun to pay close attention to women’s roles in perpetuating violence, both within militaries and in other movements that have used armed struggle (Sjoberg 2006 ; Sjoberg and Gentry 2007 ).

The growing interest in violence against women in conflict zones, among mainstream scholars and policy makers, is noteworthy. Once a taboo in conventional analyses of conflict, the interplay between the violence of political conflict and violence against women has become part of the mainstream discourse on conflicts. Using the phrase “rape as a weapon of war,” mainstream media accounts have done more to sensationalize these crimes than to address their root cause or offer ways to resolve them. Critical feminists, however, rose to the challenge and sought to contextualize and historicize these accounts. The result is a rich body of literature, addressing the interplay between gender violence and other such structured inequalities as class, race, and ethnicity, as well as various constructions of militarized masculinity (Zarkov 2001 ; Green 2004 ; Sachs et al. 2007 ; Koukkanen 2008 ; Sharoni 2008 ; Whitworth 2008 ).

Critical feminist scholarship on conflict has proliferated in the aftermath of September 11, 2009 . Feminists were among the first to systematically deconstruct the dominant discourse deployed by US officials and policy makers to represent and respond to the attacks. They have called into question the pervasive manipulation of fears, threats, and insecurities as pretexts for military violence and for the expansion of US imperialism (Eisenstein 2004 ; 2007 ; Falcón 2006 ; Tetreault 2006 ; Faludi 2007 ; Philipose 2007 ; Richter-Montpetit 2007 ; Riley 2008 ; Sharoni 2008 ). Feminist scholars have also scrutinized myriad manifestations of heightened militarization and aggressive nationalisms in all spheres of life (Whitworth 2004 ; Enloe 2007 ; Sutton et al. 2008 ), the violent attacks on Muslims and people of Middle Eastern decent, as well as the changes in US immigration policies and practices (Oxford 2005 ; Hunt and Rygiel 2006 ). Above all, numerous feminists have been quick to challenge the cynical use of the narrative of rescue and the hijacking of feminism in order to legitimize, in the name of women’s liberation, the US-led attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq (Abu-Lughod 2002 ; Russo 2006 ; Sjoberg 2006 ). As a whole, this diverse body of feminist scholarship reflects careful attention to difference, brilliant analysis of intersections, and sound grounding in particular economic, social, cultural, and political contexts.

Other promising developments in feminist perspectives on conflict involve feminist perspectives on environmental degradation and environmental conflicts (Gorney 2007 ; Urban 2007 ; Sze 2007 ; Detraz 2009 ). This literature is very important because environmental conflicts and conflict originating from globalization have become central within the conflict resolution field, even if at present little or no attention has been devoted to their gendered dimensions. Another exciting trend in feminist scholarship on conflict resolution addresses post-conflict issues including reconstruction and transitional justice (Cockburn and Zarkov 2002 ; Handrahan 2004 ; Bell and Ni Aolain 2005 ; Bell and O’Rouke 2007 ). There has also been a dramatic increase in attempts to bridge the divides between feminist academics, activists, and policy makers (Cohn et al. 2004 ; Giles 2008 ). Although projects designed to facilitate exchange and collaboration among feminists in different arenas have not been without their challenges, they have transformative potential. Whether it is a network of women in conflict zones, a gathering of women at the World Social Forum or a campaign for a UN resolution like UNSCR 3125, these initiatives offer a space, a discourse, and strategies that conventional conflict resolution scholars and practitioners will increasingly find difficult to ignore.

Conflict resolution as a field has rapidly expanded in the past three decades. Yet a careful examination of current trends in the field reveals a fundamental failure to come to terms with the changing nature of conflicts across societal levels. By and large, scholars and practitioners in the field continue to embrace the key assumptions, while systematically overlooking the gaps, silences, and absences embedded in these assumptions and in the field as a whole. To seriously consider these gaps, scholars, practitioners, and activists who are committed to the peaceful resolution of conflicts have to engage in critical conversations both with people whose lives have been entangled in protracted conflicts and with scholars in other disciplinary fields of study, such as development, gender, and cultural studies, which have faced similar challenges. Because feminists have much to contribute to this endeavor, it is troubling that our interventions continue to be relegated to the margins of the field, especially in the arena of international conflict resolution.

While men’s recognition of the significance of feminist and women’s perspectives to conflict resolution is no doubt an important step toward establishing the legitimacy of feminist theorizing in the field, it is not enough. What is needed to advance the project of feminist theorizing in conflict resolution is a critical examination of the field that will go beyond calls for the inclusion of women’s voices and feminist perspectives. The field of conflict resolution is at a crucial and exciting crossroad. As people and social movements around the world engage in struggles to shape their futures, the global political context within which theories are constructed and applied is volatile and uncertain. Feminist perspectives on conflict can inspire new approaches to theory, research, practice, and activism. To engage feminism, conflict resolution scholars need to learn to embrace difference in conflict and conflict resolution. More specifically, in addition to coming to terms with the role of gender, such an approach will enable scholars and practitioners to explore questions of culture, history, disparities in power and privilege, and new understandings of identity and community which emerge in the context of struggles against different structures of inequality and oppression along the lines of, among other things, gender, ethnicity, race, class, sexuality, and nationality.

Conflict resolution as a field has yet to treat feminist theory as a central perspective that has much to offer to the analysis and resolution of conflicts. Nevertheless, feminists, publishing their work primarily in feminist magazines and working in collaboration with colleagues in other fields, have developed an impressive body of literature that should be incorporated into the conflict resolution canon. As this impressive body of original scholarship underscores, feminists have the theoretical grounding and practical experiences and skills to radically transform the existing field of conflict resolution. However, for this to happen, the male scholars who currently dominate the center of the field would have to share their positions of power with the brilliant feminists whose work has been relegated to the margins for too long! The further expansion and institutionalization of conflict resolution studies depends on the willingness of mainstream scholars to engage seriously the contributions and critiques of feminists.

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Links to Digital Materials

Peace and Justice Studies. At www.peacejusticestudies.org , accessed Oct. 2009. The Peace and Justice Studies Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together academics, K-12 teachers and grassroots activists to explore alternatives to violence and share visions and strategies for peacebuilding, social justice, and social change.

UN-INSTRAW. At www.un-instraw.org , accessed Oct. 2009. UN-INSTRAW is the leading United Nations Institute devoted to research, training and knowledge management in partnership with governments, the United Nations System, civil society and academia to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Boston Consortium on Gender, Security, and Human Rights. At www.genderandsecurity.org , accessed Oct. 2009. The Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights works to integrate the study of gender and of women into work on human rights, security, and armed conflict.

Women Waging Peace. www.womenwagingpeace.net , accessed Oct. 2009. The Women Waging Peace Network, brings together women peacemakers from conflict regions around the world. As part of The Institute for Inclusive Security, the project advocates for the full participation of all stakeholders, especially women, in peace processes.

WomenWarPeace. At www.womenwarpeace.org , accessed Oct. 2009. A UNIFEM portal designed to consolidate data on the impact of armed conflict on women and girls.

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What is Conflict Resolution, and How Does It Work?

How to manage conflict at work through conflict resolution

By Katie Shonk — on April 18th, 2024 / Conflict Resolution

If you work with others, sooner or later you will almost inevitably face the need for conflict resolution. You may need to mediate a dispute between two members of your department. Or you may find yourself angered by something a colleague reportedly said about you in a meeting. Or you may need to engage in conflict resolution with a client over a missed deadline. In organizations, conflict is inevitable, and good conflict management tools are essential.

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What is conflict resolution, and how can you use it to settle disputes in your workplace?

Conflict resolution can be defined as the informal or formal process that two or more parties use to find a peaceful solution to their dispute.

A number of common cognitive and emotional traps, many of them unconscious, can exacerbate conflict and contribute to the need for conflict resolution:

• Self-serving fairness interpretations. Rather than deciding what’s fair from a position of neutrality, we interpret what would be most fair to us, then justify this preference on the bases of fairness. For example, department heads are likely to each think they deserve the lion’s share of the annual budget. Disagreements about what’s fairlead to clashes.

• Overconfidence. We tend to be overconfident in our judgments, a tendency that leads us to unrealistic expectations. Disputants are likely to be overconfident about their odds of winning a lawsuit, for instance, an error that can lead them to shun a negotiated settlement that would save them time and money.

• Escalation of commitment. Whether negotiators are dealing with a labor strike, a merger, or an argument with a colleague, they are likely to irrationally escalate their commitment to their chosen course of action, long after it has proven useful. We desperately try to recoup our past investments in a dispute (such as money spent on legal fees), failing to recognize that such “sunk costs” should play no role in our decisions about the future.

• Conflict avoidance. Because negative emotions cause us discomfort and distress, we may try to tamp them down, hoping that our feelings will dissipate with time. In fact, conflict tends to become more entrenched, and parties have a greater need for conflict resolution when they avoid dealing with their strong emotions.

Given these and other pitfalls, how can you set up a constructive conflict resolution process when dealing with conflict at work and other realms? Conflicts can be resolved in a variety of ways, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and litigation.

• Negotiation. In conflict resolution, you can and should draw on the same principles of collaborative negotiation that you use in dealmaking. For example, you should aim to explore the interests underlying parties’ positions, such as a desire to resolve a dispute without attracting negative publicity or to repair a damaged business relationship. In addition, determine your best alternative to a negotiated agreement , or BATNA —what you will do if you fail to reach an agreement, such as finding a new partner or filing a lawsuit. By brainstorming options and looking for tradeoffs across issues, you may be able to negotiate a satisfactory outcome to your dispute without the aid of outside parties.

• Mediation. In mediation, disputants enlist a trained, neutral third party to help them come to a consensus. Rather than imposing a solution, a professional mediator encourages disputants to explore the interests underlying their positions. Working with parties both together and separately, mediators seek to help them discover a resolution that is sustainable, voluntary, and nonbinding.

• Arbitration. In arbitration, which can resemble a court trial, a neutral third party serves as a judge who makes decisions to end the dispute. The arbitrator listens to the arguments and evidence presented by each side, then renders a binding and often confidential decision. Although disputants typically cannot appeal an arbitrator’s decision, they can negotiate most aspects of the arbitration process, including whether lawyers will be present and which standards of evidence will be used.

• Litigation. In civil litigation, a defendant and a plaintiff face off before either a judge or a judge and jury, who weigh the evidence and make a ruling. Information presented in hearings and trials usually enters the public record. Lawyers typically dominate litigation, which often ends in a negotiated settlement during the pretrial period.

In general, it makes sense to start off less-expensive, less-formal conflict resolution procedures, such as negotiation and mediation, before making the larger commitments of money and time that arbitration and litigation often demand. Conflict-resolution training can further enhance your ability to negotiate satisfactory resolutions to your disputes.

What conflict resolution methods have you tried before? Leave us a comment.

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No Responses to “What is Conflict Resolution, and How Does It Work?”

4 responses to “what is conflict resolution, and how does it work”.

Conflict resolution arise due to dispute between two parties involved in any trade , it can be solved with fair negotiation or through Mediator or through arbitrator or through litigation.

Wondful work keep up pls.

Conflict resolution is way of settling misundestanding between two or more bodies on a matter through dialog.

Conflict Resolution can also be defined as a strong will and determination to create solution to a misunderstanding between two or more parties

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429 Conflict Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on conflict, ✍️ conflict essay topics for college, 👍 good conflict research topics & essay examples, 🌶️ hot conflict ideas to write about, 🎓 most interesting conflict research titles, 💡 simple conflict essay ideas, 📌 easy conflict essay topics, ❓ essay questions on conflict.

Conflict Theory, Functionalism, Symbolic Interactionism
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Role of Religion in Functionalism and Conflict Perspectives
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Examples of Conflict Between Personal and Professional Values Under conditions where personal and professional values are hard to deal with, a social worker has a right to apply the morally responsible measures in dealing with the problem.
Conflict in “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Márquez The concept of conflict in literature denotes the ideological confrontation of the sublime and the low, good and evil.
A Driving Conflict in Wilson’s Fences Play In Fences, Wilson uses the conflict of Troy versus family to drive all the elements of the play, as evidenced by family conflicts over a college scholarship and Troy’s infidelity.
Conflict Resolution Techniques In terms of the topic, the notions of conflict types, conflict resolution strategies, and conflict resolution skills will be taken into consideration.
The Role of Conflicts in Hamlet by William Shakespeare A number of conflicts come out in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare: internal conflict of Hamlet, the conflict between Hamlet and King Claudia and others.
Main Conflicts in “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye was a novel written by J.D. Slinger. The novel’s protagonist is a young man struggling with various issues in his adolescence.
The Conflict Theory in Today’s World The Conflict Theory is still relevant today because wealth disparity, racism, and sexism are becoming more and more prominent due to increased exposure.
Conflict Theory: Background, Critical Aspects, and Personal Views Conflict theory is one of the models that make it possible for people to learn more about societies, and it is believed to have originated from the works of Karl Marx.
Theme and Conflict in “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen The main conflict in the play ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen shows how men in this society controlled women in everything, even their own choices in life.
Functionalism vs. Conflict Theory on Social Stratification The primary difference between fundamentalism and the theory of conflict lies in each model’s views regarding the nature of stratification.
Gender Roles in Modern Society: Structural-Functional vs. Conflict Perspectives Some people are obsessed with their biological or social differences, while others prefer not to pay much attention to these concepts.
Meaning of Conflict and Its Importance for Organizations The paper defines conflict and negotiations, explores the tactics and strategies that improve the conflict outcomes, and explains why conflicts are important for organizations.
Conflict Management in the Army The paper states that conflict management skills are essential for an army leader. A competent leader can resolve interpersonal disagreements.
Labeling Theory and Conflict Theory The study of various theories to identify the most appropriate and convincing that can explain the unique relationship between capitalism and crime.
Conflict Theories: Gay Marriages and Feminism Conflict theories purport that, families can take different structures and do not view change as a clash or dysfunctional. This theory has been a catalyst for gay marriages and feminism.
Conflict and Functionalism Theories Functionalism theory developed from the work of Durkheim, who evaluated how part of society unite to form a whole society.
Compromise and Collaboration in Conflict Resolution The choice of conflict resolution approach depends on the situation. Compromise and collaboration are the most popular approaches with their own benefits and disadvantages.
The Israel-Palestinian Conflict and Its Solution The paper gives a look on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and tries to come up with a solution to the conflict through the formulation of new strategies.
Conflicts and Resolution at Engineering Companies The purpose of the current exploration is to discuss the cases of internal and external conflicts in a project team, with a special focus on the engineering context.
Troy and Cory Conflict in “Fences” Play by Wilson Fences is a play in two acts written by August Wilson. The plot follows the life of Troy Maxon. One of the central conflicts of the play is between Troy and his son Cory.
Tesla Inc.’s Workplace Safety Conflict Tesla Inc. was founded by Elon Musk in 2003 and has become one of the most innovative companies on the market.
Walt Disney Company Conflicts Management One of the sources of disputes at Disney entails the different values held by the various stakeholders. Conflict occurs when people fail to understand each other.
Cultural Conflict Description This paper discusses cultural conflict that was observed or personally experienced with people of a different background, and provides reflection and conclusions.
Parent-Child Conflict Resolution: Communication Problem The psychological view upon the problem of the parent-child conflict covers many aspects explaining the nature of generations’ contradictions.
Israeli-Palestinian Warfare: The Gaza Conflict The Gaza Conflict is one of the many conflicts within the Israeli-Palestinian warfare. The Gaza strip has been under attack for decades.
Pronatalism in Functionalist and Conflict Theory Views This paper looks into the consequences of taxing the childless population at the expense of families and the views of functionalists and conflict theorists toward pronatalism.
Conflict and Power: Police and Community Collaboration This paper includes an analysis of the nature of the conflict between law enforcement and citizens in the US, as well as some strategies that can contribute to solving the problem.
Interpersonal Conflict and Worldview Interpersonal conflict – the form of struggle that involves two or more people different from intrapersonal conflict, which only involves a struggle within yourself.
Conflicts in Harper Lee’s Novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird reveals the central conflict of society and humanity that is represented through Boo’s disagreements with the entire town Maycomb.
Conflict Resolution at Walmart The paper concerns conflict resolution at Walmart. It analyzes the challenges that Walmart needs to overcome and the application of management theories.
Conflict Between Friendship and Justice I was angry with my friend Omar because he openly discriminated against other people in my presence. He was especially skeptical about homosexual people.
Labor Conflicts From 1877 to 1894 This essay covers three significant strikes that took place in 1877-1894: the Great Railroad Strike, the sugar cane labor strike, and the successful Cripple Creek miners’ strike.
Team Building and Conflict Resolution at Workplace Teamwork is recognized more as a collaborative effort by the members for the mutual benefits of corporation and organization employee relations resulted as cooperation among the team members.
Ethics vs. The Law: Main Conflicts Ethics is a philosophical branch that defines what is right and what is wrong concerning the actions of people, as well as the decisions they make.
Impact of Workplace Conflict on Patient Care The paper states that disruptive behaviors in the healthcare workplace harm the patient health outcome due to the inefficient functioning of staff.
Nurses’ Intergroup Conflict and Its Stages This paper investigates an intergroup conflict based on nurses’ experience and attitude towards new employees, describes four main stages that can be a part of any conflict.
Conflict Management and Classical Theory Analysis This paper explores classical conflict theory, which emphasizes that conflicts arise due to differences in people’s views and poor quality of communication.
Workplace Conflict: Case Study and Solutions Conflict within a company may be defined as a process that generally involves people disagreeing at work and may range from minor disagreements to considerable workplace violence.
Structural Functional and Dysfunctional Conflicts Conflict is something that occurs in any workplace, it is an inevitable part of the work routine. Sometimes it can be helpful, as conflicts highlight a particular problem.
Shakespear’s Hamlet: Conflict Between Seeming and Being This is an analysis of the characters such as Hamlet, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern clarifies the play’s obsession with the theme of the conflict between seeming and being.
Conflict Resolution in a Healthcare Setting The senior management of a healthcare setting must find a way to resolve a conflict in order not to undermine employees’ productivity and the quality of the provided care.
Hypothesis Writing: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict The conflict between Israel and Palestine can be seen as one of the characteristic attributes of politics in the Middle East.
Conflict Management Steps and Styles In all the various forms, various types of conflict termination are realized: such as mutual reconciliation or destruction of opposing agents.
Concept of Saving Face in Conflict Resolution Human beings are flesh and blood with emotion and words can scar one for life. Before one opens their mouth to confront another party they should think about their words.
United Nations in the Israeli-Palestine Conflict In some cases, the UN has played a major role in contributing to conflicts. One such case is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that still remains an issue to this day.
Conflicts between Antigone and Creon This paper analysis Antigone by Sophocles. This story begins after banishment of Oedipus, the king of Thebes. Antigone’s act sparks a conflict between her and her uncle, Creon.
Israeli-Palestine Conflict and Global Community The paper describes the causes of the Israeli-Palestine conflict and discusses what historians have claimed as the role of the wider international community in the conflict.
Conflict in “The Stranger” Novel by Albert Camus In the novel “The Stranger” by Albert Camus, readers follow the story of Meursault, whose mother recently died and who killed an Arab for no understandable or obvious reason.
Conflict Management Styles This article describes a specific conflict that occurred in the shoe store queue and describes ways to resolve the conflict.
Characters Conflict in “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Doyle Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles is the continuation of the adventures of the genius detective Sherlock Holmes.
Power, Politics, and Conflict in Business Organizations Conflict is an attribute of both power and politics, and this paper aims to observe how it results from organizational resource scarcity within the business sector.
Leadership and Conflict Management The primary goal of the following paper is to present a practical way to employ conflict management skills within a team.
Advanced Practice Registered Nurse’s Role Conflict Resolution The APRN role conflict is pervasive within interdisciplinary teams. The most appropriate approach in resolving the APRN role conflict is the collaborative style.
Conflict Stages and Its Resolution in Healthcare The purpose of this paper is to describe the case related to the development of a conflict in a healthcare setting, identify its type and discuss four stages of a conflict.
Negotiations and Conflict Resolution The paper discusses the statement: Negotiators who frame a conflict as ‘winner takes all’ will have a harder time than those who believe it is possible for everyone to win.
Conflict Resolution in Nursing Sufficient conflict resolution is an essential component of any organization’s successful performance because conflicts occur in any sphere where human interaction is involved.
Homosexuality as a Problem in the Conflict Theory The term “sexual behavior” encompasses various actions that people engage in to show their sexuality. Sexual arousal is a part of these behaviors’ biological and cultural aspects.
Marxist Conflict Theory According to Karl Marx, despite the systemic nature of the social relations between the members of society, they contain a huge number of conflicting interests.
Man vs. Society Conflict in ”The Lottery” by S. Jackson The purpose of this paper is to discuss the conflict in “The Lottery” by S. Jackson as that of man vs. society.
Territorial Conflicts in Animals and Humans The territory is a concept that is common in this world and an animal or a human may want to fight to defend it if another party wants to claim it from them.
Role, Conflict, Social Exchange Theories in Nursing Role theory, conflict theory, and social exchange theory should be discussed in the case of the nurse that is regularly challenged to prove her self-worth and skills.
The Armed Conflict in Nigeria and Its Impact The primary aim of the research is to explore the impact of armed conflict in Nigeria. This conflict features less in media as compared to the wars in Syria and Yemen.
Myths Featuring Conflicts Among Members of a Gods Family The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast two myths that depict a conflict between a family of gods.
Conflict Resolution Case: Details and Stages There are many options for resolving various conflict situations. To use them, it is necessary to think soberly and sometimes even predict possible conflicts.
Conflicts in “The Rich Brother” by Tobias Wolff In the short story “The Rich Brother,” Tobias Wolff vividly portrays a conflict between rich and poor brothers.
Personal Experience in the Covert Conflict I experienced the negative consequences of the covert conflict while living with the roommate who avoided expressing the real emotions and feelings.
Nurse-Physician Conflict and Resolution Nurses communicate with a variety of health professionals. When it comes to nursing, conflicts in the workplace can have serious effects on patient health.
Google Inc.’s Male and Female Employees’ Conflicts In all contexts that involve interactions between different people, communication skills are necessary to ensure the passage of the intended message.
Conflicts in the Film “A Clockwork Orange” One of the A Clockwork Orange movie’s conflicts that can be observed is between the values of individual choice and society’s need for control.
Mother-Son Conflict in Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces” John Kennedy Toole’s novel A Confederacy of Dunces unveils diverse issues. They include relationships with others and ways to fit in the community.
Transformational Leadership Approach to Conflict Management in Emergency Care The research stresses the leadership importance in the conflict management process and highlights its vitality for bringing positive changes to the emergency departments.
Values and Conflicts in The Oresteia by Aeschylus The play Orestes revolves around the concept of justice: justice as revenge thus putting personal responsibility of revenge on the insulted.
Workplace Interpersonal Conflicts Among the Healthcare Workers The work in a healthcare setting is rather demanding and may sometimes require much more than a thorough preparation and the knowledge of one’s job.
Conflict Resolution Between Nurse and Patient This paper discusses the case of intense disagreement between a nurse and a patient regarding the use of antibiotics as a treatment method for a viral infection.
General Hospital’s Case of Conflict Management The paper studies the case of General Hospital, its conflict management styles and strategies of cost reductions negotiations needed to stay competitive.
Nurse Manager’s Role in Conflict Resolution The causes of conflicts can range from simple misunderstandings and communication failures to more profound clashes of values, personalities, or objectives.
Moral Issues in 21st-Century Conflict Killing an innocent person is an immoral act in itself, and it means nothing whether it has some noble purpose or not.
Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace When people are working together, conflicts are inevitable; however, when solved and managed effectively, they can lead to better understanding among team members.
Conflict Management in the Workplace In most workplaces, there are instances where different people with varying opinions and needs enter into an argument.
Technology’s Impact on Workplace Conflict Technology is a significant part of modern business because it simplifies several tasks in an organization’s day-to-day functions.
Leadership Strategies for Conflict Management in Nursing This paper will discuss the servant, transformational, and authoritarian conflict management styles, as they are the most prominent in the relevant literature.
Conflict in Former Yugoslavia The conflict in the former Yugoslavia was caused by the long standings borders between several nations that should have never occurred.
Deontological and Consequential Ethical Conflict The case under discussion provides a moral dilemma when adhering to the rules contradicts the desire to do someone good.
Child Soldiers in Modern Armed Conflicts The overview of modern wars shows that children compose the category that is regarded as one of the main victims of armed conflicts.
Healthcare Conflict Resolution Case This paper dwells on the details of the conflict in a Healthcare Setting between Kimberly and Jade and describes the stages of the conflict.
Conflict Between Supervisor and Employee: Case Analysis This paper discusses the conflict between supervisor and employee. Also, it shows the collaborative model of conflict resolution.
Conflict Resolution at the Workplace Mutual conversation among employees is one of the critical factors which result in good relationships among the workers.
Interpersonal & Internal Conflict in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” Conflicts are integral parts of our lives, and knowing how to resolve them is one of the essential skills to learn.
Conflict Theory: Definition and Main Concepts Conflict theory is a concept used in a wide range of disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, criminology, communication, education, among many others.
Media Coverage on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict The media highlights the occupation as an immoral and illegal act by Israelis which should be resisted in its entirety.
Conflict Resolution: A Constructive Approach The lack of strategic vision and poor group management in an organization can result in low commitment and conflict situations, lack of understanding, and satisfaction.
Gender and Cultures in Conflict Resolution The conflict resolution measures should not solely end conflicts, but should also help to restore the fighting communities together.
Conflict Resolution and Action Plan in Hospital In this assignment, a recurring conflict in a hospital setting in Miami will be discussed for the purpose of developing an effective action plan for subsequent conflict resolution.
“Disgrace” by John Maxwell Coetzee: Conflict Resolution This is a literary analysis of Disgrace by Coetzee that demonstrates conflict resolution styles of David and Lucy Lurie differ due to their social environments and sexual genres.
Role Ambiguity, Role Strain and Role Conflict I was a college student who was constantly busy with academic life and work. I was a full-time student, worked part-time at a retail store, and was also the president of a student organization. Despite my busy schedule, I felt fulfilled and enjoyed being involved in multiple activities. However, everything…
Intercultural Conflicts: Occurrence and Solutions The Intercultural Conflict chapter of Exploring Intercultural Communication by Grothe discusses the theoretical basis of conflicts, their definition, occurrence, and solutions.
20th Century Ideological Conflicts The end of World War II did not mean the end of ideological struggles between the great powers, as the new conflict named the Cold War began soon after.
Role Play on Conflict Resolution Conflict resolution within an organization is one of the most critical leadership skills that foster cohesion, enhances work relationships, and improve the overall outlook of products.
The Rise of Criminological Conflict Theory Three key factors that explain the emergence of conflict theory are the influence of the Vietnam War, the rise of the counterculture, and anti-discrimination movements.
Zimbabwe’s Political Elites and Ethnic Conflict Zimbabwe used to be one of Africa’s most prosperous states, backed up by a thriving tourism industry, a lucrative precious metals sector and a robust agricultural industry.
Conflict Resolution Strategies and Organizational Behavior The phenomenon of organizational conflict and its impact on the performance of organizations has generated increasing attention from organizational scholars.
The 24 Hour Fitness Firm’s Employee Conflict On March 12, 2018, a complete story documenting the ongoing conflict between 24 Hour Fitness’s staff and management appeared in Capital & Main.
Workplace Conflict Between Nurses The task of nurse leaders is to provide visionary leadership to foster a constructive work environment where disagreements are dealt with more effectively.
American Apparel: The Ethical Conflicts This study of American Apparel found ethical conflicts such as untimely paying employees, using taboo topics to promote their product, and insults and abuse by supervisors.
Stakeholders’ Conflict of Interests in Healthcare Provision This research paper explains the stakeholders’ conflicts of interest regarding healthcare provision and compliance.
Karl Marx’s Conflict Theory and Alienation The current paper is devoted to Karl Marx’s conflict theory and the construct of alienation analysis and identifying its usefulness for social workers.
Emotional Factors in Conflict Management This essay will point out the emotional factors embroidered within this field and relate them to the theories and hence evaluate the role played by the emotional factors.
Resolving Workplace Conflict: Challenges and Strategies All factors that affected the workers, at personal level and work had to be factored in, and effective mechanisms needed to be put in place to cater for these.
Conflict Resolution: Compromise and Collaboration Conflicts are usually caused by the incompatibility of principles, aims, interests, or experiences. The success of conflict resolution depends on the selected strategy.
Team-Building Activities and Conflict Resolution Team building is an important instrument that assists organizations in building teams that are able to accomplish objectives and tasks which are defined by organizations.
Nurses Role in Conflicts A nurse has always been a mediator in the relations between a nurse and a therapist, guaranteeing that any conflict will be solved and a compromising solution will be found.
Time and Conflict Management in Nursing The manifestation of leadership qualities is a feature that management often encourages any team. Nursing, in this case, is not an exception.
Conflict Management in Nursing Practice This paper explores the nature of conflict in the context of patient care, its four stages, and suggests the best strategy for resolving the conflict.
Self-Interest and Public Interest Conflicts This paper discusses two inherent conflicts that might occur between self-interest and public interest, namely definitional challenges and market-oriented mechanisms.
Intergroup Dynamics in Conflict Resolution This literature review delves into the existing literature on the theory of social identity and discusses new findings and shortcomings of the theory.
Conflict Management in Business It is essential to recognize the stage of conflict and intervene to resolve it. It is necessary to develop management skills to identify the causes and consequences of disputes.
Coser’s Theory and an Example of a Social Conflict This paper discusses the concept of social conflict, which arises due to contradictions between different social groups, and its significance in societal progress.
How Conflict Influences Decision-Making One of the last conflicts that occurred at work was a dispute with a colleague regarding the fact that I noticed that he did not fulfill a number of his duties.
Conflict Theory Applied to the American Civil War The research question of the planned research will be as follows: How does the conflict theory inform the causes of the American Civil War?
Theories of Conflict Resolution There are two types of theories that are useful in analyzing relationship conflict in human services: needs theory and attribution theory.
Conflict Between Employee, Customer, and Manager The situation described in this paper exemplifies the conflict between the employee, the customer and the superior manager.
Conflicts, Politics, and Conflict-Handling Styles The paper explores how conflicts allow individuals to defend their viewpoints and convey their opinions to other people.
Workplace Conflicts’ Impact on Employee Well-Being Workplace conflict is a substantial danger to employee well-being, according to numerous researches. However, such conclusions are based on a broad measure of conflict.
Communication, Decision Making and Conflict Management The paper explains how communication techniques work in team environments and describes how one can benefit from decision-making in the workplace.
Resolving Conflict & Dealing with Difficult People Successful communication is an essential part of human life, and it defines one’s overall promotion in all spheres. Some conflicts prevent us from being good at communicating.
“The Lottery” and “The Destructors”: Conflict, Characterization and Irony The essay will discuss the main conflicts of “The Lottery” and “The Destructors” stories, their characterization, and themes.
Internal Strife and Conflict in Literary Works The paper discusses the literary elements of inner struggle and meditation in Frost’s poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ T.Roethke’s ‘My Papa’s Waltz’ and the play ‘All My Sons’ by A.Miller.
10-Hour Training Course for Teachers on Conflict Management The study helps avoid conflict situations in class and teaches how to create a positive approach. In addition, since the course is designed for non-experienced teachers.
Tourism and Socio-Cultural Conflicts in Lhasa, Tibet Balancing the need for revenue in Lhasa by increasing attractions sites for visitors may not only lead to potential damage to the sites but is likely to conflict with social norms.
Evidence-Based Conflict Resolution Strategies in Healthcare This paper aims to discuss an evidence-based example of a conflict situation in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the best conflict resolution strategies.
Moro Conflict in Mindanao: Ethnic Civil Wars “Philippines to Fast Track Muslim Self-Rule in Mindanao” describes the positions of the Government of the Philippines regarding the conflict among Muslims and the local population.
Conflict Theory in Nursing Practice This reflective journal entry elaborates on some issues that nurses face in their daily practice, and what theories can support them when resolving the arising problems.
Affordable Care Act and Related Ethical Conflicts The paper seeks to identify and discuss the ethical conflicts brought by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare or Trumpcare
Communication and Cultural Conflicts Conflicts due to variations in values, beliefs, and practices are bound to occur when people communicate to achieve shared objectives, complement each other, and share resources.
Conflict Management in Healthcare Facilities Heads of different health faculties must effectively resolve the issues of conflict in their areas as health care leaders are not immune.
Religious Diversity and Sources of Conflict Religious diversity is a prospective source of conflict in almost every cohesive society. There may be some friction due to people’s frequent ignorance about different religions.
A Personal Experience of a Destructive Conflict The paper presents a discussion of a personal experience of a destructive conflict, the kind of conflict style that happened, and how the conflict was resolved.
The True Story of Che Guevara: Conflict & Terrorism The name of Ernesto “Che” Guevara is among the most well-known names in the world. The Argentinian freedom fighter played a crucial role in the Cuban revolution.
Change and Conflict Management in Church Over the last few decades, the Christian church has been rocked with major sex scandals, which hints at the necessity to rethink modern leadership.
Controlling and Managing Interpersonal Conflicts in the Workplace This paper states that it is critical for the supervisor to learn how to control and manage interpersonal conflicts in the workplace.
Conflict of Interest in Speech Therapy Conflict of interest in clinical practice and especially in speech therapy is a phenomenon emerging due to the presence of varying perspectives of personal and professional nature.
A Managerial Conflict in the Workplace This paper will encompass an analysis and an overview of the conflict in the work setup. Conflict entails a disagreement between two managers.
The Conflict Resolution Process Conflicts exist everywhere in day-to-day activities and are inevitable. Whether in families, social relationships, or workplaces, they are bound to arise at any time.
Conflict Styles and Ways to Resolve It To successfully resolve the conflict in most cases, it is necessary that both sides, or at least one, show a desire to resolve the conflict.
Conflict Management in Business There are various reasons why conflicts occur in organizations. Moreover, conflicts take place on different levels based on the core of the problem that needs to be addressed.
The Conflict Theory: Crucial Aspects The conflict theory claims that the criminal justice system in society sets moral standards that cannot be attained by the poor.
Criminological Conflict Theory by Sykes Sykes identified three important elements, which he used to elucidate the criminological conflict theory. Sykes highlighted the existence of profound skepticism towards any theory.
The Industrial Revolution and Class Conflict The Industrial Revolution brought about global changes, social divisions and urbanization. Capitalism has been assaulting laborers since the time the industrial revolution began.
Conflict Theory in the Society Social conflict theory asserts, that individual behavior is connected to conflicts within the group and between the groups. It is common in contemporary society.
Effective Conflict Resolution Strategies & Theories There are five behavior strategies in a conflict, such as withdrawal, coercion, compromise, concession, and cooperation.
Social Construct of Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict Ethnicity can be taken to mean a social creation that generally separates people into diverse social groupings based on definite distinctiveness.
Male and Female Escalated Conflict There is an ever-increasing conflict between males and females. This calls for a serious and urgent solution to settle differences between these important groups of society.
Sexism and Gender: Culture and Conflict Reflection The present statement is an example of gender-based discrimination and prejudice among women. Sexism and gender discrimination in America have a long and complicated history.
Conflict Management and Leadership Skills A conflict is a disagreement between two parties of different levels. This essay explores methods of conflict resolution and leadership skills that can be applied in business.
Managing Conflict: Understanding Interpersonal Communication Conflicts are something that all people encounter in their life, that is why understanding different ways of handling them is important to ensure conflict resolution.
Relational Dialectics and Conflict Management Relational dialectics can be described as a concept of communication theories that analyses contradictions and tensions that exist in relationships.
The Dakota Conflict Documentary’s Analysis The PBS documentary Dakota Conflict provides a perspective on conflict using excerpts from diaries and letters. This approach allows one to better relate to American settlers.
Europeans vs Native Americans: Why the Conflict Was Inevitable? As soon as Indians began refusing to do what colonizers asked of them, the latter started taking brutal measures.
Conflict Management as an Essential Skill Conflict management should be one of the critical competencies of modern leaders. This paper shows the crucial status of effective conflict management in the 21st century.
Ways of Managing Conflict Once all of the issues in the dispute had been resolved, the parties understood and agreed to the terms of their agreement.
The Conflict between Russia and Chechnya
Identity Establishment in Adolescence and Its Relation to Conflict
Conflict in Nursing: Conflict Resolution in a Healthcare Setting
Violence and Conflict for Children and Women
Conflict Between Augustine and Pelagius
Social Order Perspective and a Conflict Perspective
Effective Communication and Conflict Resolution in Nursing
Group Decision-Making and Conflict Management
Power & Conflict in Individual and Group Behavior
Conflicts and Development in Emerging States
Concept of Brotherhood: Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Conflict Resolution in Business
Nursing Leadership and Conflict Resolution
Conflict Competence in the Workplace
Nursing Conflict and Cooperation
Change and Conflict Theories in Healthcare Leadership
Applying Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Knowledge
“Where the Conflict Really Lies?” – Philosophy
Organization Conflicts and Bullying
Impacts of the China-Taiwan Conflict on the US Economy
Work-Family Conflict and Women of Impact
Seminar: Conflict and Power Dynamics
Alternative Business Conflict Resolution in the Board of Directors
The Veil Conflict: Wearing Religious Symbols in Schools
Conditions Leading to Statehood in Israel- Palestinian Conflict 1948
The Day of Revenge, BRAVO, and ALPHA Conflict
Centurion Media: The Conflict of Interest
Organizational Conflicts: The Key Aspects
Implications of the U. S. Endorsement of Jerusalem on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The United States in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Family Counselling and Therapy for High-Conflict Couples
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Servant Leadership, Cooperative Groups, and Productive Conflict
International Law and Conflicts in Jurisdiction
Conflicts Between the British and the Colonists
Law of Armed Conflict Rebuttal
Zionism Issues in Israel and Palestine Conflict
Conflict Resolution for Hospital Leadership
Emotional Intelligence in Conflict Resolution
Conflict and Coexistence: Jews and Christians
The Role of Power in Conflicts in the Workplace
Conflict in the Workplace: Impact of Social Aspects
Analysis of Age of Conflict in Viceroyalty of New Spain
Conflict Resolution: Video Analysis
Intercultural Conflict Communication Style
Agency Conflict Between Company’s Owners and Shareholders
The Conflict in Libya and Anatomy of a Failure
Aspects of a Brewing Litigation Conflict
Violence in Settlers & American Indians Conflicts
Conflict Between Inward Traits and Outward Circumstances in “Paul’s Case”
Workplace Disputes: Conflicts Between the Employee and the Employer
Undefined Roles of Nurses and Doctors Lead to Conflict in Interpersonal Collaboration
The American Civil War and North-South Conflict
Sunni and Shia Forms of Islam and Their Conflicts
Human Nature: War and Conflict
Desdemona and Lago’s Conflict in “Othello” by Shakespeare
FlipHarp Company’s Conflict Resolution
Workplace Conflicts: Jan and Mike Case
Social Conflict Theory & Behavior Theory Analysis
The Would-Be Borrower Communication Conflict
Workplace Conflict in the Medical Sphere
Conflict Self-Assessment and Resolution
Christianity vs. Judaism: A Medieval Conflict
Conflict With Juvenile Offenders
Codes of Conduct: Conflicts in Organization
“Crucible of Fire” and “Canadian Soldiers in West African Conflicts” Articles Comparison
Functionalism vs Conflict Theory in Sociology
Conflict: Positives, Negatives, and Strategies
Factors of Conflict Between American Colonists and the British Empire
Communication Issues and Conflict Resolution
Sports and Organizational Conflict: Articles Analysis
Change and Conflict Management in Nursing
Conflict Resolution. A Values-Based Negotiation Model
Managing Conflict in Teams and Organizations
Conflict Resolution: Conflict Prevention Methods
Conflict Between Transgender Theory, Ethics, and Scientific Community
The Emergence of Professional Disputes and Conflicts
Conflict and Negotiation Analysis of Nick Cunningham Case Study
Conflict of Interests of the Patient and the Doctors
Conflict Management Issues
Ethical Conflict Associated With Managed Care: Views of Nurse Practitioners’: Article Critique
Difficult Interactions and Conflict Resolution
The Land Conflict Between White Settlers and Native Americans
History of Settlers-Natives Conflict in Canada
Leadership for Conflict Management in Nursing
Civility and Conflict Management in the Workplace
Negotiation’s Strategy: Conflict Between Basran and Carpathia
Conflict Style Assessment and Analysis
Sources and Levels of Organizational Conflict
Workplace Conflict Resolution by a Human Resource Manager
The Palestine and the Arab-Israel Conflict
The Inevitability of the 1947-48 Conflict Between Jews and Arabs in Palestine
Race and Ethnicity and Meaningless Conflict
Sleepy Hollow General Hospital: Conflict of Interest
Conflict Resolution Strategies Training Program
Conflict and Order Theory on Race and Gender Issues
Conflict 101: Questions. Analysis of the Conflict
Conflict Handling Style in the Healthcare Environment
China-Philippines Conflict: Differences in News Broadcast
Military Conflict and Involvement Consequences
Indirect Emotion Regulation in Intractable Conflicts
American-Japanese Military and Race Conflicts in the Book “War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War”
Workplace Conflicts Among Healthcare Workers
Conflicts and Political Goals in Afghanistan, Gaza and Iraq
Communication and Conflict: Analysis of a Conflict Situation
Correlation Between Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Environmental, Social or Political Conflict in Buddhism
Developing States-World Trade Organization Conflict
Conflict Management Definition and Problem-Solving Approaches
“Lawrence and Aaronsohn: T.E. Lawrence, Aaron, Aaronsohn” by Ronald Florence: Arab-Israel Conflict
Project Team: Definition, Principles of Function and Possible Conflicts
Communication and Conflict Resolution Ways
Mediation and Advocacy to Resolve Conflicts
The Conflicts of the Cold War in Latin America
The IRA and the Irish-English Conflict
The Ethics of Global Conflict: Violence vs. Morality
Mediation of Conflicts and Human Services
Acuscan Company’s Conflict About the New Product
Resolving Business Conflicts: Negotiation Strategies
The Israeli and the Palestinian People in Conflict
Conflict Perspective to Analyze Personal Problems
“The Role of the United Nations Development Programme in Post-conflict Peace-Building”: Article Analysis
Conflict Management Styles in Workplace
Conflict and Negotiation Discussion
The Problem of Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and Viable Solution
Training vs. Patient Care Conflict in a Clinic
Conflict Management: Term Definition
Group Dynamics, Managing Conflict, and Managing Stress and Employee Job Satisfaction
Prioritizing Tasks: The Most Common Workplace Conflict
Attribution Bias in the Intergroup Conflict
Conflict Between Jews and Arabs in Palestine 1947-1948
Dealing with Conflict in Healthcare Settings
Workplace Conflict Management Strategies and Examples
The Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention
Conflict Management and Team Building
The Understanding of the Conflict Nature and Resolution in the Nursing Area
Addressing Ethical Conflict in Healthcare
Miami Hospital’s Nursing Conflict Resolution
Remote Sensing. Satellite Imagery of Conflict in Aleppo
Conflict Resolution in a Care Delivery Setting
Resolving Conflict in the Healthcare Setting
The Conflict Resolution and Moral Distress in Nursing
Conflict Handling in the Healthcare Environment
Organizational Communication and Conflict Management in the Healthcare
Conflict Management in the Healthcare Sector
Healing and Autonomy: The Conflict Between Conventional Medical Treatment and Spiritual Beliefs
Nursing Conflicts, Their Types and Implications
Teamwork and Conflict Management in Nursing
Power & Conflict in Individual & Group Behavior
Conflict Resolution: The Nursing Context
Professional Conflict Resolution Skills in Nurses
Document Conflict: Alternative Dispute Resolution
United States-Iran Relations and Future Conflict
United States-China Relations and Future Conflict
Truth in Conflicts Management
Civil Conflict and Economic Policy in El Salvador
The History of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Israeli Settlement in Palestine: Conflict Nowadays
Peace & Global Security: Vietnam War & Israel-Palestine Conflict
Handling Difficult Conversations and Ways to Avoid Conflict Escalation
Moro Conflict in Mindanao: Why Men Rebel
Moro Conflict in Mindanao: In Pursuit of Federalism
Moro Conflict in Mindanao: Road to Peace
The Colombian Conflict Effects
European Union Mediation Directive for Conflict Resolution
Conflict Management Strategies
The Pattern of a Conflict: Tracing Your Own Life
Asian International Politics and Military Conflicts
Afghanistan’s Location as a Cause of Conflicts
Workplace Conflict Resolution and Team Building
Conflict Resolution for Nurses and Other Providers
Effective Conflict-Resolution Strategies in Healthcare
Conflict Resolution Skills in Nursing
Conflict in IT Project Teams
Conflict Resolution in Healthcare Workplace
Environmental Health and Social Conflicts
Ethical Conflicts of Obama and Trump Healthcare Reforms
Recurring Conflict between Two Nurses
Conflict and Social Technologies in the Workplace
What Factors Led to the Indian Pakistan Conflict?
Riverbend City Case: Conflict Management
Conflict Management Plan in Health Care
Kendall Regional Medical Center: Conflict Management
Nursing Leadership: Isaac and Holiday Conflict
Ethics and the Affordable Care Act’s Conflicts
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner in Conflict Resolution
Kendall Regional Medical Center’s Change and Conflicts
Colombian Armed Conflict and Social Proactiveness
Conflict Between Medical Professionals
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University of Miami Hospital’s Nursing Conflicts
Conflict Resolution in Healthcare Establishments
Conflicts, Compromises, and Communication
Conflict Resolution Decision in Healthcare Institutions
Problem of Conflict Situations
Conflict Resolution by the African Union
Worker Exploitation in the Social Conflict Theory
Conflict Resolution in Professional Nurse Activity
Healthcare Facilities Conflict Management Plan
Miami Hospital’s Conflict in Healthcare Teams
Conflicts: Main Reasons and Resolution
Employee Conflicts Resolution and Ethical Dilemmas
Conflict Handling Style in Healthcare Setting
Work-Family Conflict Implications in Strain Levels
Conflict in Nurse Work and Its Resolution
Hospital Setting Miami: Conflict Resolution
Negotiating Ethical Conflicts in Nursing
Quality Improvement and Conflict Management in Healthcare
Conflict Resolution in Hospital Setting Miami
Conflict Resolution in Libraries of St. Lucie County
The Nature of Conflicts in Nursing
Conflict in “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner
Conflict Resolution for Nurses in Acute Care Unit
Rwanda Conflict and Its Resolving Options
Conflict Management Plan for a Regional Medical Center
How Mexico Drug Cartels Are Supporting Conflicts?
Conflict Situations in Healthcare
The Role of Conflict Management Plan
Conflict Resolution in the Miami Hospital
Nursing Conflict Resolution Strategies
Conflict Resolutions in Northern Ireland and Cyprus
Conflict among the Nurses at the Hospital
Conflict Resolution Strategies in Nursing Settings
Four Intercultural Conflict Styles
Executing Change in Healthcare: Conflict Management Strategies
African Union Conflict Intervention Framework
Democratic Communities and Third-Party Conflict Management
Gas Blowouts in Bangladesh and Conflicts That Prevail Due to Gas Blowouts
Governmental Social Movement: Class Conflicts
Syria’s Conflict: Putin’s vs. Obama’s Position
International Relations: Korean Conflict and US Economy
Social Movement Theory: An Analysis of the Class Conflict Social Movement Theory and Lenin’s Social Movement Theory
Are Trade Integration and the Environment in Conflict?
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Are Religion and Conflict Inherently Linked?
What Is Cultural Conflict in the Workplace?
Does Gender Difference Play a Role in Marital Conflict?
How Can Family Conflicts Lead to Deviant Behavior in Children?
Why Did the Major Twentieth Century Conflicts Affect So Many People?
Can Cultural Norms Reduce Conflicts?
Why Does the Bible Conflict With Science?
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What Is Social Conflict According to Karl Marx?
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Does Violent Conflict Make Chronic Poverty More Likely?
How Do Cultural Differences Influence Conflict Within an Organization?
What Were Some Conflicts Involved in the Iranian Revolution?
How Does Maslow’s Theory of Human Needs Explain Conflict in Human Society?
Why Are Intra State Conflicts So Difficult?
How Does Shakespeare Use Conflict in “Hamlet” as a Way of Exploring Ideas?
What Problems Are Caused by Conflict?

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These essay examples and topics on Conflict were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on January 5, 2024 .

The Classroom | Empowering Students in Their College Journey

How to Write an Essay on Conflict

How to Write a Motif Paper

In both real life and in fiction, conflict describes an enduring struggle between two opposing forces. Whether you're watching a cartoon or reading a serious literary tome, conflict is a key component of plot. Writing an essay on conflict requires a focus, clarity, and an understanding of the different types of conflict presented in a story.

Identify the Type of Conflict

While most people think of conflict as a fight between two characters, it can be categorized as internal or external or both. Conflict can present itself in four primary ways: externally, as man versus man, man versus society, or man versus nature and internally, as man versus self, as exemplified by the tragic struggle of Shakespeare’s Hamlet trying to avenge his father’s murder.

Find Supporting Evidence

Whether you’re analyzing a piece of literature or a clash between two nations, you’ll first need to identity the two opposing forces that comprise your central argument, and then find evidence to support your claim. For example, if your central conflict is man versus nature – think Sebastian Junger’s “The Perfect Storm” – you’ll want to find specific examples of where the sea rises up against the sailors. As with any analytical essay, analyzing conflicts requires you to look for specific quotes, phrases or parts of dialogue that reinforce your position.

Draft Your Thesis

Once you've figured out your protagonist and antagonist and the type of conflict to address in your essay, narrow your focus and write a concise thesis statement that states the central conflict you plan to address. For example, If you’re analyzing “man versus society” in your essay, such as when Atticus Finch fights against a racist society in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” you could state, "In 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' Harper Lee uses Atticus Finch’s defense of Tom Robinson to both illustrate and combat the rampant racism that has infected his Southern town." Your thesis statement will provide you with a road map for the rest of your paper and will help you decide upon the main points of your paper. Your thesis should be the very last sentence in your introduction.

Start Writing

Once you’ve found your examples and written your thesis, write your first draft. Remember to start your essay with a “hook” – a question, a quote, or a statistic, for example that will introduce the conflict you’ll be analyzing. Start each body paragraph with a topic sentence that states a main point, and then support that point with three or four of your examples from your initial research. Repeat this process for each remaining body paragraph. Within the body of the paper, address whether the conflict was resolved, and how. In your conclusion, summarize your main points and restate -- but don’t repeat verbatim -- your thesis.

How to Write a Thesis Statement for a Critical Lens Essay

How to Write a Narrative Essay

How to Write a Thesis Statement for "Robinson Crusoe"

How to write a rebuttal speech.

How to Write an Analysis Essay Regarding a Story

How to Do an In-Depth Analysis Essay

Tips on Writing an Explication Paper on a Short Story

How to Write a Controlling Idea Essay

Purdue Owl: Literary Terms
Shmoop: Literature Glossary

Jennifer Brozak earned her state teaching certificate in Secondary English and Communications from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., and her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Pittsburgh. A former high school English teacher, Jennifer enjoys writing articles about parenting and education and has contributed to Reader's Digest, Mamapedia, Shmoop and more.

Peace and Conflict Resolution: External Intervention Essay

Introduction, rwanda genocide, libya crisis.

In the world there have been many conflicts in human interactions. These usually result from struggle for getting access and control over various natural resources such as land, minerals and water among others and due to differing political interests. There are usually disagreements between the parties involved which sometimes lead to wars.

When these wars arise, sometimes the member parties require external intervention in bringing it to an end. There are various means of preventing arise of conflicts. The method of approach to each conflict is usually different from each other.

This is mainly due to the root cause of the conflict in reference to internal and external factors and the possible consequences of the intervention to the parties involved, citizen and the world as a whole. Thus in undertaking any intervention, it is good to observe the best way out of the conflict.

This paper seeks to look into peace and conflict resolution taking critical analysis of the cases in Rwanda and Libya. It is to evaluate whether intervention by external organizations such as the UN was necessary citing the similarity and differences in both cases.

The Rwandan genocide was as a result of conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsi. There had been power competition in Rwanda with the tribe in power being oppressive. It was easy to identify the ethnicity of a person from the national identification card. There had been other conflicts before the genocide that left many people dead. They played significant role in dividing the people in ethnic lines.

Rwanda was a dictatorial country by the end of 1980’s. There were even regulations restricting interaction between the Hutus and Tutsi for example in the military forces. There were many refugees outside Rwanda who were denied access back to their mother country.

This led them to organize themselves into various groups and find their way back. These troops such as the Rwandan patriotic front attacked Rwandan government from outside the country in 1990-1992. This led to the rise of more ethnic tensions, displacement and the death of so many Tutsi.

The death of the Rwandan president in 1994 from an assassination led to the eruption of the massacre. The Hutus attacked the Tutsi killing them. In response to the attacks, the Rwandan patriotic front fought for about three months to overcome the Hutus. This led to more than half a million people dying. There were meeting on how to settle the disagreement in Tanzania before the genocide.

France was observed to take side in support of the government. The international intervention to stop the genocide was not present despite the information about the planning. This led to the killings of many civilians in respect to the tribe they belonged to. This was because there was information about the planning of the massacre yet nothing significant was done.

Muamar Gaddafi has been the leader in Libya for over forty years. During this time he has strengthened his political strength by appointing selected member to be in charge of crucial sectors of his government. There has been uneven distribution of resources and power. This led to the emergence of rival groups. The country is well developed.

There have been the revolution movements in most of the North African nations aimed at initiating change in the governance but stopped when it landed on Libya. There was a delay in provision of housing by the government to the citizens and allegations of misuse of power that led to the protest.

In response to the protest Gadaffi used his military on the civilians. The rebels on the other hand started fighting aiming to capturing the oil towns. This has led to the death of many in the struggle for power.

The civil fighting in Libya has attracted the intervention of the western country. These countries have deployed military intervention in Libya to help in calming the situation. The military intervention was backed up by the United Nations. This intervention has led to the destruction of many properties.

In the case of Libya, other means of solving the problem could have been used with the military intervention being the last option. Despite the intervention bringing peace in the country, there are many other repercussions that follow. This is evident in cases of Iraq and Afghanistan.

There have been intentions by the some countries arming the rebels with more weapons. This step is not right as it is likely to encourage the continuous persistent and development of the war. This means that more people are to lose their lives and that this will create more and more separation (Simpson 1).

The civil wars in Rwanda and Libya have similarity. In both there were specific persons who were at power and denied the others their rights. This led to the emergence of opposition and eventually civil war which caused loss of lives to many. In the Rwanda genocide, there was no intervention by the United Nations despite the information about the planning. In the Libya crisis, the United Nation intervention was very fast.

It has taken sides and though intervention is good, on the other side it has its repercussions. The bloodshed in Libya is less than that of the Rwandan genocide with both parties armed with warfare machinery such as grenade and missile launchers.

The intent of civil war in Rwanda was due to ethnical differences which is not the case in Libya. There are argument that the quick intervention is based on the oil that is present in Libya and the lack of cooperation between Gaddafi and the west.

Rwanda. Rwanda: How the genocide happened . BBC, 2008. Web.

Simpson, John. Halt to rebel advancing creates Libya divide . New Africa, 2011. Web.

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IvyPanda . 2023. "Peace and Conflict Resolution: External Intervention." December 20, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/peace-and-conflict-resolution-essay-2/.

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Peace and Conflict Resolution: External Intervention." December 20, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/peace-and-conflict-resolution-essay-2/.

The Rwandan Genocide: Hutus and Tutsi Ethnic Hatred
Ethnic Conflicts and Misrepresentation of Rwandan Hutus
Gaddafi Deserved a Private Death
Libya: Moammar Gaddafi
Hotel Rwanda': The 1994 Rwandan Genocide's History
The History of the Genocide in the Rwandan
Rwanda Genocide: Process and Outcomes
Genocide in the "Ghost of Rwanda" Documentary
Genocide in Rwanda: Insiders and Outsiders
Muammar Gaddafi’s Death: Scene and Dilemma
History and current state of nuclear proliferation in Asia
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
Conflict between India, Pakistan, China and Kashmir
Humanitarian Intervention in Libya
The United Nations in Africa

International

April 19, 2024 - Iran targeted in aerial attack

By Kathleen Magramo, Elizabeth Wolfe and Aditi Sangal, CNN

Our live coverage of the attack on Iran has moved here .

Iranian president makes no mention of Israeli strike while lauding its previous weekend attack

From CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (C) addresses attendees at a military parade marking Iran's Army Day anniversary at an Army military base in Tehran, Iran, on April 17.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made no mention of Israel's Friday (local time) strike on Iran, while publicly lauding the unprecedented Iranian military operation last weekend targeting the "Israeli-occupied territories."

Iran's April 13 retaliatory strikes, part of an operation named "True Promise," were a display of Iran's military strength and a necessary act against what Raisi called the "illegal regime," he said Friday.

Raisi described the strikes as "punitive reprisal" by the Iranian Armed Forces, aimed at demonstrating Iran's power and the resolve of its people.

Remember: The on April 1 strikes on Iran's embassy compound in Damascus demolished a building and left several dead, including two high-ranking generals.

Israel and the United States have said that Iran's lob of some 300 missiles had very little material impact and caused only one injury.

3 wounded in Iraq explosions, official says. Israel denies involvement

From CNN's Aqeel Najim and Hamdi Alkhshali

Flames from a large explosion near Babylon, Iraq, can be seen in an image taken from video obtained by CNN from social media.

At least three members of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units or PMU — also called Popular Mobilization Forces or PMF — were wounded following "five explosions" at a military base south of Baghdad, said Muhannad al-Anazi, member of the Security Committee in Babylon Governorate, in a statement in the early hours of Saturday local time.

A short statement released by the PMU acknowledged there was “an explosion that occurred at the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces at the Kalsu military base in the Al-Mashrou district on the highway, north of the Babylon Governorate."

An investigation team arrived at the scene, and the explosion caused material losses and injuries, the PMU said. “We will provide you with the details once the preliminary investigation is completed," it added.

Israel has no involvement in the reports of explosions in Iraq on Friday evening, an Israeli official told CNN.

The US Central Command said the US did not carry out strikes in Iraq. The Combined Joint Task Force that leads Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the ongoing multinational mission to defeat ISIS, also said the US-led coalition did not carry out any strikes in Iraq.

Remember: The explosions near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad come one day after strikes against a military base in Isfahan , Iran. A US official told CNN that Israel was responsible for the strikes in Iran.

This post has been updated with comments from an Israeli and US official.

Catch up on the latest developments as tensions simmer in the Middle East

From CNN staff

The aftermath of the Israeli strikes in Iran left the world on edge as concerns of a potentially dangerous escalation of a fast-widening Middle East conflict continue to rise.

Here's the immediate response almost 24 hours after the strikes:

The Biden administration has been tight-lipped following the Israeli strikes in Iran .
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart on Friday, according to a readout from the Pentagon, but it makes no mention of the Israeli strikes.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also declined to weigh in Friday, telling reporters during the White House press briefing the Biden administration was going to avoid commenting on the subject altogether.
Iraq expressed "deep concern" over the strikes and the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Friday warned of the risks of military escalation that "now threaten the security and stability of the region as a whole." Its statement emphasized that the Israeli-Iranian escalation should not "divert attention" from the ongoing destruction and loss of innocent lives in the Gaza Strip.
Jordanian deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi told CNN that escalation "serves nobody," and that Jordan will not "be a battleground for Israel and Iran and neither of them should violate our airspace, endanger our security and our people." He also urged all involved partied to focus on ending the "catastrophe that continues to unfold in Gaza."

Here's what else happened:

US secures key agreement for aid distribution in Gaza: The Biden administration has secured an agreement with a major United Nations agency to distribute aid from the pier the US military is constructing off the coast of Gaza , two senior US officials told CNN — a key development as the US and its allies have rushed to finalize plans for how desperately needed humanitarian aid will be distributed inside the war-torn strip. The US military is expected to finish constructing the pier early next month. The World Food Programme (WFP) will support distribution of aid from the pier following weeks of diplomatic wrangling, multiple officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
Blinken defends US veto on Palestinian statehood: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the US veto of a UN Security Council resolution for Palestinian statehood at the UN. “The United States is committed to achieving a Palestinian state,” the top US diplomat said, “but getting to that, achieving that state, has to be done through diplomacy, not through imposition.”

US Defense Secretary speaks with Israeli counterpart again following strikes in Iran

From CNN's Oren Liebermann

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart on Friday, according to a readout from the Pentagon.

This comes one day after Israel carried out strikes in Iran . The readout makes no mention of the Israeli strikes, and the Biden administration has been tight-lipped following the actions.

Austin and Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant discussed “regional stability,” as well as the ongoing war in Gaza, according to the Pentagon.

Austin also spoke with Gallant on Thursday before the strikes took place. The readout of the earlier call had slightly more information, saying the two discussed “Iran’s destabilizing actions in the Middle East.”

In a previous call, Austin had asked Gallant for Israel to notify the US before taking any action in retaliation for a massive Iranian barrage fired at Israel last weekend.

Analysis: Iran and Israel have averted an all-out war – for now

Analysis from CNN's Tamara Qiblawi in Beirut, Lebanon

The scope of Israel’s military response to Iran’s first-ever direct attack on the country remains murky. Israeli officials have yet to publicly acknowledge responsibility for reported overnight explosions in parts of Iran on Friday. Tehran has dismissed these as attacks by “tiny drones” that were shot down by its air defense systems.

Iran may be downplaying what was likely to have been a significant but limited Israeli attack, but that seems to be secondary to the larger forces at play. What is plain to see is that both Iran and Israel are keen to wrap up the most dangerous escalation between the two regional powerhouses to date.

This month’s dramatic escalation, which kicked off with an apparent Israeli airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus , followed by a largely foiled Iranian attack of over 300 airborne weapons on Israel, seems to have given way to a rapid climbdown. Shortly after the Friday morning attack in Iran, a regional intelligence source told CNN that Iran was not expected to respond further, and that the direct state-to-state strikes between the two enemy states were over.

The latest flare-up brought the stakes into sharp focus, but it also exposed the limits of a direct confrontation between Iran and Israel.

Remember: What happens between Iran and Israel rarely stays between Iran and Israel. The region is deeply intertwined. That heightens the risks of military action, but it also acts as guardrails against a potential conflagration. So when US officials said last weekend that Washington would not participate in an Israeli response to Iran’s attack on Israel, that seemed to immediately take the wind out of the sails of a potential escalation.

EU sanctions "extremist settlers" in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem

From CNN’s Catherine Nicholls and Benjamin Brown in London

The European Union has imposed sanctions on “extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem,” the European Council announced on Friday, listing four people and two entities.

According to the statement, the entities Lehava, a “radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group,” and Hilltop Youth, a “radical youth group consisting of members known for violent acts against Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank,” were added to the EU sanctions regime alongside two leading figures of Hilltop Youth, Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered.

Neria Ben Pazi, who the EU's governing body said has been “accused of repeatedly attacking Palestinians,” and Yinon Levi, who the council said has “taken part in multiple violent acts against neighbouring villages,” were also added to the listing.

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a post on X that “the EU has decided to sanction extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem for serious human rights abuses against Palestinians. We strongly condemn extremist settler violence: perpetrators must be held to account.”

Belgium’s Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said that she “welcomes” the sanctions , adding that the “recent escalation of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop; these settlers must be held accountable.”

Yered responded later Friday, saying he was “honored to be included in this respected list” and that “we shall continue holding onto the land of our forefathers — until the victory.”

This post has been updated with comment from Elisha Yered.

Exclusive: No extensive damage seen at Isfahan air base in satellite images

From CNN's Paul P. Murphy

There does not appear to be any extensive damage at an air base purportedly targeted by an Israeli military strike, according to exclusive satellite images obtained by CNN from Umbra Space.

The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite images were taken around 10:18 a.m. local time.

There does not appear to be any large craters in the ground and there are no apparent destroyed buildings. Additional visual satellite imagery will be needed to check for burn scars – which cannot be seen by SAR images -- around the complex.

SAR images are not like normal satellite images.

The SAR images are created by a satellite transmitting radar beams capable of passing through clouds, like the ones currently preventing satellites from imaging the area. Those radar beams bounce off objects on the ground, and echo back to the satellite.

Iranian news agency FARS said that an army radar at the Isfahan province military base was one of the possible targets, and that the only damage from the attack was broken windows on several office buildings.

The images also show that the Iranian F-14 Tomcats that have been stationed at the air base in the past are not there at the moment. Additional archival satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows that those F-14 Tomcats have not been there for some time.

UN secretary-general pushes for end to retaliation in the Middle East

From CNN's Richard Roth

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged both sides to cease retaliating after Israel carried out a military strike on Iran, a spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

"The Secretary-General reiterates that it is high time to stop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East," the statement read. "The Secretary-General condemns any act of retaliation and appeals to the international community to work together to prevent any further development that could lead to devastating consequences for the entire region and beyond," it continued.

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April 19, 2024
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