Recent Beyond Intractability Posts
Including Hyper-Polarization Posts
Posts by BI Section
Lists of recent posts are also available separately for each BI Section:
Hyper-Polarization Discussion Posts | Earlier Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog
Things You Can Do To Help | Conflict Frontiers | Conflict Fundamentals
Beyond Intractability in Context | Colleague Activities
- Peacebuilding Starts at Home -- A new Alliance for Peacebuilding initiative intended to educate and raise awareness about the drivers of instability and conflict in the U.S. and responses to that. -- Mar 14
- Gaza, Ukraine, Increasing Global Tensions, and the Nature of War -- An exploration of Quincy Wright's image of total war, reasons why it is so much more dangerous than lesser armed conflicts, and mechanisms through which it could quickly spread around the world. -- Mar 13
- Colleague and Context Links for the Week of March 10, 2024 -- Our usual Sunday link suggestions from readers, together with our compilation of interesting colleague activities, plus news and opinion articles of interest to the conflict field. -- Mar 09
- Closing Civic Space in the United States: Connecting the Dots, Changing the Trajectory -- From Rachel Kleinfeld, thoughts on opposing the use of regulations, laws, and narratives to restrict the ability of civil society organizations to act and speak. -- Mar 09
- Google's Culture of Fear -- inside the DEI hivemind that led to gemini's disaster -- A must-read article describing how DEI has transformed the Google culture and is threatening to transform our image of reality (as we see it through the lens of Google's monopoly). -- Mar 09
- Bari Weiss: What it Means to Choose Freedom, Supplemented by Franklin Foer and the Burgesses -- Bari Weiss (The Free Press) and Franklin Foer (The Atlantic) reflect on the meaning of the war in Gaza and world response to it, to prospects for the survival of liberal democracy worldwide. The two, they agree, are linked. -- Mar 08
- Overcoming digital threats to democracy -- A report outlining the ways in which the tools of deliberative democracy could be used to better govern information technologies and help protect the larger society. -- Mar 07
- Our divided nation will fall unless we return to American pragmatism -- Our country is disturbingly polarized, and the future of our republic is at stake if we don’t change course ... and soon. This long-time civil servant observes that we are our own worst enemy. -- Mar 05
- An Antidote to the Polarization Poison -- A fresh look at the threat posed by polarization along with proposals for better protecting ourselves. -- Mar 05
- Bill Froehlich Talks about the Ohio State Divided Community Project -- A summary of a conversation Bill Froehlich about the work of the Divided Community Project which works to help deeply divided communities come together to prevent, and respond to civic strife. -- Mar 04
- Colleague and Context Links for the Week of March 3, 2024 -- More readings and videos suggested by readers, along with our weekly pick of colleague activities and important writing from outside our field. -- Mar 03
- The Age of Amorality -- A look at one of the most difficult questions facing liberal democracies -- the need to use illiberal means to defend those democracies. -- Mar 02
- Equity, Equitist, Equitism -- An insightful new effort to clarify the conflict between the equity of the social justice movement and the egalitarianism of liberal democracy. -- Mar 02
- How to Disagree Better -- From the Atlantic, links to three articles outlining ways in which we can discuss controversial issues more constructively. -- Feb 29
- The Cure for What Ails Our Democracy -- From David Brooks, an insightful look at the virtues of pluralism and the dangers of monism -- the belief that one possesses the one true answer and that anyone who disagrees is evil. -- Feb 29
- What Americans don’t get about Israelis Fighting for their Lives -- From Israel, an attempt to correct some of the misperceptions that Americans have about the war. -- Feb 28
- Metaphors make the world -- A thought-provoking exploration of the role that metaphors play in helping us make sense of the world in which we live. -- Feb 28
- The Plurality Institute -- The Plurality Institute is building an ecosystem to push boundaries to reimagine collaborative frameworks. They serve as a hub for academics, industry researchers, practitioners, and leaders from both civil and governmental sectors -- Feb 26
- Chaos at the End of History -- From a broad historical perspective, a look at the origins of today's ever present hyper-polarization. -- Feb 26
- The Most Important Writing Exercise I’ve Ever Assigned -- A simple and really creative writing assignment (or introspective thought experiment) that helps people see across the deepest of our political divides. -- Feb 24
- Apathy Loses -- If reasonable people disengage from politics, the zealots win. -- An appeal for moderates who can see both sides of today's complex issues to get more evolved in politics. Otherwise, our future will be determined by true believers who see no value in competing views. -- Feb 24
- Lou Kriesberg, Deborah Laufer, and Ashok Panikkar: Hopeful Thoughts About What Could Be, Contrasted with Darker Thoughts About What Is -- One positive, optimistic look at what could happen in Israel/Palestine, and others looking at some of the negative forces that are working against such an integrative outcome. -- Feb 21
- Peter Coleman on The Way Out of Polarization and Intractability -- Polarization is destroying our relationships with friends and family. Peter Coleman has a way to fix that -- and possibly fix our society as well. -- Feb 17
- Talking Race and Democracy with Grande Lum -- The conflict resolution professionals' time has come. We need to step up to the plate! -- Feb 14
- Pluralism, Plurality, and the Generation of Collective Wisdom -- Ideas about how the generation of collective wisdom can enhance the work of the New Pluralists and others interested in escaping the destructive hyper-polarization and stagnation. -- Feb 13
