Rethinking Conflict Resolution And Management

Rethinking and revising the established knowledge and practice of conflict resolution and management, this innovative book brings together complementary perspectives to consider what novel approaches to conflict need to be invented after the collapse of the World Order.

This collection of essays questions the adequacy of explaining today's internal armed conflicts purely in terms of economic factors and re-establishes the importance of identity and grievances in creating and sustaining such wars. Countries studied include Lebanon, Angola, Colombia and Afghanistan.

Written by international practitioners and scholars, this pioneering work offers important insights into peace mediation practice today and the role of third parties in the resolution of armed conflicts. The authors reveal how peace mediation has developed into a complex arena and how multifaceted assistance has become an indispensable part of it. Offering unique reflections on the new frameworks set out by the UN, they look at the challenges and opportunities of third-party involvement. With its policy focus and real-world examples from across the globe, this is essential reading for researchers of peace and conflict studies, and a go-to reference point for advisors involved in peace processes.

Conflict in the workplace is a perennial problem for organizations. Whether it's a disagreement between colleagues, a dispute with management or large-scale industrial action, conflict negatively affects both people and profits as employee morale and productivity fall. Endorsed by the CIPD, Managing Conflict is an essential guide for HR professionals needing to tackle these problems by not only resolving current issues, but also preventing future instances of conflict. Going beyond interpersonal conflict, the book also looks at resolving board room disputes, disputes with shareholders, in the supply chain, commercial disputes and customer complaints. The first part of Managing Conflict covers the causes and costs of conflict, the impact of the psychological contract and the legal framework for managing workplace disputes both in the UK and internationally. The second part of the book provides a blueprint for redefining resolution and building a culture of constructive conflict management, from designing a conflict management strategy and developing a formal resolution process to embedding mediation, engaging stakeholders and training managers in resolution and mediation skills. This book also includes conflict resolution toolkits for managers, HR teams, employees and unions to help tackle conflict and bullying at work. Packed with best practice case studies from major UK and global organizations, this is an indispensable guide for all HR professionals looking to resolve conflict in the workplace. Online supporting resources include a conflict health check tool, conflict cost calculator, and checklist for developing an internal mediation scheme.

This edited volume brings together alternative and innovative approaches in conflict resolution. With traditional military intervention repeatedly leading to the transformation of entire regions into zones of instability and violence (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria), the study of alternative and less violent approaches to conflict resolution has become imperative. Four approaches are presented here: negotiation, religion and gender, reconciliation and forgiveness, and the arts. This volume contains the insights and experiences of fourteen internationally renowned scholars and practitioners from different contexts. Can forgiveness help heal relationships in post-apartheid South Africa? How can art assist dealing with ‘unrememberable’ events such as the genocide in Rwanda? What transformational resources do women offer in contexts of massive human rights violations? The aim here is twofold: to provide and encourage critical reflection of the approaches presented here and to explore concrete improvements in conflict resolution strategies. In its interdisciplinary and international outlook, this work combines the tried-and-tested approaches from conflict resolution experts in academia, NGOs and civil society, making it an invaluable tool for academics and practitioners alike.

Conflict resolution is now recognized as a major area of research. Yet because of its pervasive nature as a subject, drawing on so many different disciplines, there has long been a need for a reader, bringing together many of the most important and representative essays written to date. This book aims to fill the gap. Equally important, a comprehensive bibliography further anchors the subject - providing academics, diplomats, students and others interested in conflict studies with an excellent basis for future research.

This book recapitulates and extends Ned Lebow’s decades’ long research on conflict management and resolution. It updates his critique of conventional and nuclear deterrence, analysis of reassurance, and the conditions in which international conflicts may be amenable to resolution, or failing that, a significant reduction in tensions. This text offers a holistic approach to conflict management and resolution by exploring interactions among deterrence, reassurance, and diplomacy, and how they might most effectively be staged and combined.

The field of peacemaking is in turbulent change. There are more peacemaking actors than before but fewer success stories, and an increasing number of violent conflicts tend to resist negotiated agreements. Tools and practices created for traditional inter- and intra-state conflicts have become ineffective and revision of old mediation practices is called for. This book examines how the private peacemaking organisations have faced this challenge. In the 21st century, private peacemakers have become a central part of peace diplomacy and have appeared as flexible actors whose innovative thinking paves the way for reconsidering and reinventing old practices of mediation. Instead of emphasizing the act of resolution, a new emphasis is given to the transformation of violence into a peace system, the complexity of conflict and the inadequateness of rational management. Furthermore, this shift has brought civic society actors from the field of reconciliation to the field of peace mediation. This new pragmatic approach under development can be called dialogic mediation.