COMPREHENDING AND RESOLVING SOCIAL CONFLICTS

 

 

Terrorism. War. Insurrection. Rebellion. Groups of humans violently against each other.

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For decades we have viewed bloodshed nightly on our television screens – The Vietnam War, successive Arab-Israeli Wars, the Iraq Gulf Wars, the Afghanistan Wars, the Falklands War, the Troubles in North Ireland, The Russia-Ukraine War. There have been Sunnis against Shites, North Koreans against South Koreans, Al Qaeda against America, Serbs against Croatians. The divisions have been endless.

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At times hatreds or aspirations lay quietly latent, and at other times they have exploded in a massacre, a terrorist bombing, or an invasion.

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We typically reacted to this carnage with deep emotion, polarized perceptions, regressed thinking and the grasping for simplistic answers in the hopes of dissolving our feelings of distress and insecurity. 

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At the political level, often the process of 'diplomacy' - the re-establishment of system equilibrium – had been pushed forward in an effort to calm things down. On occasion diplomatic pressures did stop the fighting – at least for a while.

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The difficulty was, that the violence was only a symptom or expression of a conflict – and responses to what was observed were not based on insights into the deeper dynamics involved. Focusing only on alleviating a medical symptom does not help a patient much if the cause is a deadly bacterium. Constructing enduring resolutions to conflicts requires proper in-depth analyses which identify, explore and bring about a deep understanding of the underlying drivers.

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So, how are we to comprehend large-scale violent conflicts based on national, ethnic, racial, religious or other distinctions?

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The short answer is to move beyond the current predominant ‘interest-based’ approach. In this methodology the objective is to move past the stated ‘positions’ sought by the parties and identify the underlying ‘interests’ that they appear to be based on. Then problem-solving is undertaken to address these interests in a less conflictual manner.

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However, conflicts originate further down in our humanness. We perceive situations and pursue outcomes based on our deep-seated individual and group identities, narratives, beliefs, traumas and patterns of relationships and behaviors. Our ‘interests’ are generated and shaped from these elements. All of this content needs to be exposed to the light of day. Impactful foundational actions can then be created.

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Processes that in part do this include the methodologies termed - Narrative, Transformative, Insight, Depth and Trauma-informed.

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As volatile social conflicts are a study of great interest to me, my plan for this website is to post a series of writings which take the reader from appreciating what it means to be human, why human discord occurs, and the path we can then undertake to seek resolution of conflicts, and in particular those social ones that have become brutally violent.

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I hope it will be of some value for you.