Shifting Protracted Conflict Systems Through Local Interactions

Tamra Pearson d’Estrée is Professor of Conflict Resolution in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, USA. She is co-author, with Bonnie G. Colby, of Braving the Currents: Evaluating Conflict Resolution in the River Basins of the American West (2004), a co-editor, with Ruth Parsons, of Cultural Encounters and Emergent Practices in Conflict Resolution Capacity-Building (2018), and the editor of New Directions in Peacebuilding Evaluation (2019).

‘Our field has seen much development in recent years, with concepts such as "inclusion" and the "local turn" having come to fore. But we grapple with what these ideas mean in practice. This book presents clear, readable analyses, which are both practical and theoretically informed. It is an essential read for anyone working on these questions today.’Peter Jones, Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs, and Executive Director of Ottawa Dialogue, University of Ottawa, Canada‘This is an exciting book because the authors of the sixteen chapters are distinguished scholars from many countries, who met together with draft chapters focusing on the evolution of interactive problem-solving practices to overcome protracted conflicts. The result is an integrated set of important perspectives about many advances to such practices over time, in varying circumstances.’Louis Kriesberg, Maxwell Professor Emeritus of Social Conflict Studies, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Syracuse University, USA‘This book does more than assemble former students, colleagues and friends to offer us a Gedenkschrift to honor Herb Kelman’s legacy. It brings together outstanding peace and conflict studies scholars and practitioners to engage in the future of learning about complexity thinking and system dynamics, areas that were championed by Kelman as he pursued knowledge to understand the perplexing challenges posed by protracted conflict. In this volume, the contributors build on Kelman’s work to help us to understand better how systems can be shaped through sustained and meaningful understanding and engagement.’Pamina Firchow, Associate Professor of Coexistence and Conflict, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University“…In extraordinary ways the composite contribution found in this volume helps us understand and engage more strategically with the bridges that connect sustained dialogue with system’s change. As such, this volume offers both legacy and pathbreaking ideas, a much needed push at this moment globally with the rise of authoritarian impulses and the militarization of both civil and international conflict.”Extract from the Foreword by John Paul Lederach, senior fellow, Humanity United, and Professor Emeritus of International Peacebuilding, University of Notre Dame, USA

• Foreword Preface 1. Introduction Part I: Complex Intractable Conflict, Theoretical Lenses, and the Vision of Herbert Kelman 2. Interactive Conflict Transformation through a Complexity Lens: Local Actors, Interaction, and the Dynamics of Change 3. Kelman’s Theoretical Brilliance: Complete Social Psychologist and Consummate Conflict Resolution Scholar–Practitioner 4. ‘Conceptualizing Change in the World System’: Towards a More Complex and Comprehensive Understanding of Peace and Conflict Research 5. Critical Realism and Interactive Conflict Transformation: Connecting Integrative Metatheory, Multi–dimensional Social Theory, and Transformative Practice Part II: Expanding Our Scope 6. Interactive Conflict Engagement 2.0: From Solving Problems to Enabling Systems to Sustain Peace 7. Individual Agency in Interactive Peacemaking: Insights from Georgian–South Ossetian Experience 8. Building a Human Infrastructure Across Conflict Lines for Reconciliation and Coexistence: The Case of Cyprus 9. Broadening the Use of Interactive Problem Solving 10. Addressing Persistent Fault Lines in Multi–Ethnic States: Using Inter– and Intra–group Dialogues on Widening Identities and Narratives, Commemoration and Minority Rights Part III: Evolving Our Focus 11. Exploring Reconciliation’s Identity Paradoxes 12. Moving Beyond Dichotomies of Narratives and Identity: The Transformative Process of Dialogue 13. Acknowledging, Understanding, and Adapting to the Complexity of Radical Disagreement 14. Engaging in the Face of Non–Negotiability: From Resolution to Transformation 15. Learning to Accommodate Others’ Worldviews 16. Applying a Complex Systems Lens to Interactive Conflict Resolution: Themes and Lessons