Culture And Conflict In Global Perspective

Has Samuel Huntington's proposed "clash of civilizations" actually happened in the post-1945 era? Events such as 9/11 2001 or the crisis due to caricatures of Mohammed might suggest it has. The topic of culture and conflict has been the subject of fierce debate among scholars and the public alike over the last two decades. The Bertelsmann Stiftung, which has been committed to promoting international cultural dialogue for many years now, is publishing "Culture and Conflict in Global Perspective", a theoretically-informed definition of cultural conflicts and a world-wide mapping of such conflicts between 1945 and 2007. The publication is based on an empirical study that explores in what conflicts cultural factors played a role and to what extent they influenced the intensity of violence in the respective conflicts. The study and the explanations derived from it form an important instrument to foster cultural dialogue for peaceful coexistence in a globalized world.

The contemporary conflict scenarios are beyond the reach of standardized approaches to conflict resolution. Given the curious datum that culture is implicated in nearly every conflict in the world, culture can also be an important aspect of efforts to transform destructive conflicts into more constructive social processes. Yet, what culture is and how culture matters in conflict scenarios is contested and regrettably unexplored. The Handbook of Research on the Impact of Culture in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding is a critical publication that examines cultural differences in conflict resolution based on various aspects of culture such as morals, traditions, and laws. Highlighting a wide range of topics such as criminal justice, politics, and technological development, this book is essential for educators, social scientists, sociologists, political leaders, government officials, academicians, conflict resolution practitioners, world peace organizations, researchers, and students.

Why is it that Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland have been in perpetual conflict for thirty years when they can live and prosper together elsewhere? Why was there a bloody civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina when Croats, Serbs, and Muslims had lived peacefully side-by-side fordecades? Why did nobody see and act upon the early warning signs of genocide in Rwanda that eventually killed close to a million people in a matter of weeks? What is it that makes Kashmir potentially worth a nuclear war between India and Pakistan?In recent years hardly a day has gone by when ethnic conflict in some part of the world has not made headline news. The violence involved in these conflicts continues to destabilize entire regions, hamper social and economic development, and cause unimaginable human suffering. And the extensivemedia coverage of these conflicts all too often raises important questions that it signally fails to answer.This book aims to fill this gap. Drawing on the author's long experience of studying such conflicts around the world and his involvment in attempts to resolve them, it provides an illuminating and accessible introduction to the origins, dynamics, and management of ethnic conflict. In doing so, ithelps explain the fundamental question underlying all these conflicts: why do nationalism and ethnicity still have such terrible power to turn neighbour against neighbour?

Comprises seven papers on conflict management in different countries. Examines social, cultural and economic factors, managerial styles, styles of handling interpersonal conflict, and alternative dispute management procedures.

Cultural Impact on Conflict Management in Higher Education shares information regarding conflict management and resolution in higher education from a global perspective. In this book, we introduced many conflict resolution methods from different regions in the world. You can borrow some successful strategies and examine the differences and similarities between contexts. The book shares a conflict resolution model which may direct the reader to start thinking about addressing and managing conflicts from different levels of organizations. This book is a collective work of authors coming from all over the world. We chose higher education as the context because it is a place where diverse thoughts, perspectives, and people come together. Because of the potential richness of diversity on a college campus, the opportunity for conflicts occurs. Managing conflict does not work when there is a “one-way only approach/model” for addressing conflict. Some conflict resolution encompasses multiple dimensions: (a) one’s personal beliefs or beliefs about an issue; (b) an individual’s personal history in terms of how the conflict was perceived as something to be discussed or not; (c) work culture of the conflict where if ‘one has a conflict,’ the person or unit is messing up or there is a problem person; (d) the unconscious strategies of ‘face saving’ (trying to maintain one’s image) present; (e) social hierarchies or relationships; and (f) the diversity dimensions and issues that may be present.

We know that since the end of the Cold War, conflicts in non-Western countries have been frequent, frequently violent, largely intra-state, and protracted. But what do we know about conflict management and resolution strategies in these societies? Have the dominant Western approaches been transplantable, suitable, effective, durable, and sustainable? Would conflicts in non-Western societies be better handled by the adaptation and adoption of customary, traditional, or localized mechanisms of mitigation? These and similar questions have engaged the attention of scholars and policy-makers. Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies: Global Perspectives is offered as a global compendium on indigenous conflict management strategies. It presents diverse perspectives on the subject. Fully aware of the tendency in the literature to over-generalize, over-romanticize, and over-criticize the localized and customary mechanisms, the book takes a slightly different approach. It presents a variety of traditional conflict management approaches as well as several cases of the successful integration of the indigenous and Western strategies in the contemporary period. The main features, strengths, challenges, and weaknesses of a multitude of indigenous systems are also presented.

After years of relative neglect, culture is finally receiving due recognition as a key factor in the evolution and resolution of conflicts. Unfortunately, however, when theorists and practitioners of conflict resolution speak of culture, they often understand and use it in a bewildering and unhelpful variety of ways. With sophistication and lucidity, "Culture and Conflict Resolution" exposes these shortcomings and proposes an alternative conception in which culture is seen as dynamic and derivative of individual experience. The book explores divergent theories of social conflict and differing strategies that shape the conduct of diplomacy, and examines the role that culture has (and has not) played in conflict resolution. The author is as forceful in critiquing those who would dismiss or diminish culture s relevance as he is trenchant in advocating conflict resolution approaches that make the most productive use of a coherent concept of culture. In a lively style, Avruch challenges both scholars and practitioners not only to develop a clearer understanding of what culture is, but also to take that understanding and incorporate it into more effective conflict resolution processes."