Intractable Conflicts and their Transformations, Louis Kreisberg, Terrell Northrup, and Stuart Thorson, (eds.), (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1989) 249 pp.
Understanding core interests; escalation control; negotiation, mediation, facilitation, and consensus building; grassroots organization; of general applicability to environmental problems; written for first and third party participants.
Intractable Conflicts brings together essays from a number of authors who explore intractability through diverse theoretical frameworks and case histories. These essays were first presented at a conference sponsored by Syracuse University's Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts.
Intractable Conflicts will be of interest to those who seek to understand and avoid or resolve apparently intractable conflicts. This work is divided into ten essays in three parts, with a foreword by Elise Boulding. In his Introduction, Stuart Thorson lays out some of the shared themes which run through the following essays. The authors agree that context plays a crucial role in the understanding of intractable conflicts. Intractable conflicts are seen as resisting resolution, but not in principle unresolvable.
Part One explores the sources of intractability. Fred Frohock evaluates the potential for reason to resolve conflicts. Practical reasoning can and does admit contrary conclusions. Hence intractable conflicts do not simply reflect a lack of reasonableness in one party or another. Susan Hunter explores the case of environmental conflict in the Lake Tahoe Basin to provide a framework for analysis of intractable environmental conflict. She argues that intractable conflict between environmental and prodevelopment actors tend to stem from "ontological" differences, that is, basic differences in identity, values and perception. Taking an opposing tack, John Agnew explores the spatial and temporal sources of ethnic conflicts, suggesting that intractability "is generated by the dynamics of the conflict, rather than by the reasoning processes of the parties to it."
The second part describes the dynamics of intractable conflict. Terrell Northrup addresses "the role of identity in the development, maintenance, and transformation of intractable conflicts." Participants' identities form the basis for their subjective interpretations of the external conditions of conflict. Such subjective interpretations are crucially important to an understanding of conflict. Ruth Wynn analyses the history of child custody disputes. Jeffrey Haydu discusses the sources of and increasing intractability in labor conflicts from 1897 to 1911, with emphasis on the perceived legitimacy of collective bargaining.
Part Three focuses on the transformation of intractable conflicts into more tractable forms. Louis Kreisberg discusses conflicts in the Middle East and Central Europe. Drawing on these cases, she argues that "tractability or intractability is not an inherent characteristic of a conflict." She identifies three critical issues in preventing a conflict from becoming intractable, and suggests strategies for preventing intractability. John Nagle examines the rise of the West German Greens as an evolving response to intractable political conflicts, and evaluates their potential for success. James Palmer and Richard Smardon investigate the human-use values associated with wetlands, particularly the wetlands near Juneau, Alaska. While differing values and goals form the basis of such environmental conflicts, accurate information about such values may identify points around which constructive dialogue can occur. Richard Schwartz examines Arab-Jewish dialogues in the United States. He argues that "grass-roots reconciliatory dialogue can occur across adversarial lines." While such dialogues do not involve decision makers, they may contribute to successful resolution of conflict by promoting understanding and fostering creative ideas. Louis Kreisberg concludes this book by discussing the research and policy implications of its essays.
In Elise Boulding's words, Intractable Conflicts offers an "antidote to the frustration and despair that many in the peace studies field feel" in the face increasingly intractable conflicts. These essays offer cogent analyses of the sources of intractability, and suggestions preventing and transforming intractable conflicts.
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