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Violence is a Choice I was recently reminded of the idea that the commitment of any violent act is a choice. My years studying conflict resolution have led me to thinking that violence is a failure of the conflict resolution process. However, people can always choose to resort to violence, even as they go through…
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Today I participated in a Zoom forum, Insurrection: The Critical Reflection Forums presented by the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts of Old Dominion University. I observed the second part of the series, which focused on nonviolent communication and conflict resolution. The forum was hosted by Avi Santo, Ph.D. and the presenters were Dr. Jim Baesler, Dr.…
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When asked what I do I often respond that I help people articulate and protect their interests. Most of the time the response I get is a puzzled look. I suppose it might be easier to say that I help people deal with conflict. However, that is not always true. What I do is help…
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The dual concern model is a model, one of many that exist, that is used to analyze reactions to conflict. I have mentioned this model in passing before. The dual concern model allows a person to gauge their own behaviors as well as the reactions of their counterparts on the other side of the conflict.…
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A couple of years ago I ran into a gentleman in the business section of Vroman’s. He was looking for a copy of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. We started a discussion about economics and inequality. A few minutes into the conversation he asked me if…
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I first learned about conflict resolution in the United States Army. They didn’t call it conflict resolution in the army, they called it combat. The idea was that you win or you die. Confrontational? Yes. It has proven effective enough to make people think that their nation is doing something to be the go to…
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As a scholar in the field of conflict I spend a lot of time analyzing the dual concern model. One of the basic ideas of this model is that the actors in a conflict determine how important their goals are in relation to the other party’s concern for or against the same goal. Basically you are…
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The best definition of conflict that I have ever heard was provided by Dr. Ariane David. I attended a training she gave on the topic of Non-Positional Thinking. She said, “You know you are involved in destructive conflict when you start feeling defensive.” It is the feeling that you are personally being attacked that makes…
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Conflict resolution is relatively easy to define. A conflict is a serious disagreement powered by the idea that one has something to lose. The threat of loss is sometimes real. In many cases the threat of loss is a perception of the parties and is powered by the emotional content of the disagreement, rather than…
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Background I first learned about information asymmetries in the 2001 when I read a newspaper article about George Akerlof, Michael Spence, and Joseph Stiglitz winning a Nobel prize for their work on the subject. At the time the idea angered me, that one party might use another party’s lack of information against them. Not only…
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The Conflict Authority 