Conflict Resolution And Prevention John Burton Pdf

John Burton's theoretical work on conflict resolution has been highly influential in setting up conflict resolution as an academic discipline in its own right, which is very much needed in the modern globalised world because of the greater potential for disputes between different ethnic and religious communities. In Australia, Burton's work greatly influenced the pioneering course in conflict resolution at Macquarie University, Sydney[12]

Most recently, following his efforts to institutionalise further the field of conflict and conflict resolution (Burton, 1987; 1990ab; Burton and Dukes, 1990ab), his Violence Explained (1997) makes explicit what had always been implicit in his systems approach to conflict and conflict resolution at all levels: that to deal with deep-rooted, intractable conflicts at any level, one requires a comprehensive, holistic framework to "capture the complexity of conflict" (Sandole, 1999):

Conflict Resolution And Prevention John Burton Pdf

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At about the same time that Burton was making some of his major contributions to the developing field of conflict and conflict resolution, a pioneer in the related field of peace studies, Johan Galtung, had conceptualised that the more intense the cause of gaps between potential and actual fulfilment of somatic and mental needs, the greater the violence inflicted upon the actors concerned (see Galtung, 1969). Galtung then went on to distinguish indirect, structural violence from the more direct, physical manifestations of the term:

Burton and others employing his, or modified versions of his problem solving approach to facilitated dialogue and conflict resolution (Azar, 1986, 1990; Kelman, 1986, 1991; Mitchell & Banks, 1996; Fisher, 1997), enter the "space" of conflicting parties to help them do what they seem unable to do alone, not for lack of intelligence but through an overabundance of emotional commitment to progressively narrower means for achieving narrowing goals. The aim is basically to improve the fit between BHNs and the means for fulfilling them for all concerned.

A third party in this regard has to do more than simply convene meetings and facilitate dialogue, presumably to change parties' perceptions of each other and of their conflict. They also have to facilitate changes in political, economic, social and other structures in the human-made world, allowing the relatively more disenfranchised parties greater access to what structural violence had previously denied them - resources in the human-made and natural worlds for fulfilling their BHNs. Conflict resolution for Burton is much more than "getting people to the table" although that may be no small feat in some circumstances. It is also a political philosophy and political system (Burton, 1989, 1993) concerned with conflict provention (Burton, 1990a; Burton and Dukes, 1990b). This involves transforming "structurally violent" structures which otherwise impact people's lives to the extent that the latter are quite prepared to explode their way into our consciousness, if not also literally into our lives. For example, note the terrorist attack on the USS Cole on 12 October 2000.

Pillar 3 deals with conflict intervention, and includes, initially, third party objectives: violent conflict prevention, management, settlement, resolution, and transformation (leading to Burton's provention). Subsequently, it also includes third party means for achieving any of those objectives, such as competitive and/or cooperative processes; negative peace and/or positive peace orientations; and Track-1 and/or Track-2 actors and processes.

This is Burton's contribution, his message, and his impact. This is the message of conflict resolution as a political philosophy and as a political system: to pursue conflict provention and maximize the fit between Basic Human Needs and the means and resources for fulfilling them, or to bear the consequences! A sobering, sombre realization. Hence, my location of BHNs at the core of what I call -- as an alternative to the dominant Realpolitik paradigm -- non-Marxist radical thought (NMRT) (Sandole, 1993; Sandole 1999, Ch. 6).

[31] explained that by security and/or safety needs of the individual, focus is on the reduction of physical threats to personal safety including protecting people and their livelihoods and providing a foundation for them to ensure progress in other dimensions of development. Fresh minds in the discussion on human needs may critique the entry of development into the subject matter. This however, cannot escape mention because of the inextricable link between security and development. Indeed, [5] explained that conflict prevention must be mainstreamed in all development strategies in order to avert the structural causes of conflict. These causes were identified as group inequalities, poverty and exclusion of certain groups. At the risk of mentioning the obvious, these causes threaten the realization of human needs. Frustration of the mentioned basic needs, undoubtedly is reason enough to spark off conflict.

"By becoming the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, we've started the next phase of our journey as an institution committed to furthering both the research and practice of conflict resolution. In this effort, we are taking the Carters' unwavering dedication to peace as our beacon and our guide."

Burton's theoretical work on conflict resolution has been highly influential in setting up conflict resolution as an academic discipline in its own right, which is very much needed in the modern globalised world because of the greater potential for disputes between different ethnic and religious communities. In Australia, Burton's work greatly influenced the pioneering course in conflict resolution at Macquarie University, Sydney.[11]

The purpose of this paper is to offer my impressions on the recent debate generated by critical theorists in their approach to understanding Conflict Resolution. The articulation of such critiques is in fact contributing to the construction of a framework of understanding which might direct future peace research and conflict resolution investigations as well as prescriptions.

Finally, the essay wishes to discuss those merits inherent in Conflict Resolution (CR) theory and critical theory with a view at maintaining the richness of both but also re-evaluate the much criticised "deficiencies" of CR assumptions. The validity of such an exercise lies in the fact that any attempt to map the fields of conflict and conflict resolution becomes more than an intellectual exercise as one contemplates conflicts where the parties seem more intent on continuing and escalating their violence and destruction than taking advantage of efforts by third parties, who try to broker cease fires initiating a process of conflict resolution or who address their action at a more grass-root level with the ideal in mind that when civilians "are helped to envisage another future in concrete ways, they will stop providing legitimacy to those social forces who profit from continued warfare" 1.

Different paradigms, that is different descriptions and explanations of the same thing, and a different sense of problems related to that thing as well as of the methods relevant to solving them, mean different realities. That there may be multiple and even competing conceptions of reality makes the concept of paradigms particularly relevant to conflict and conflict resolution where parties are quite prepared to die and to kill to defend their competing worldviews.

On the opposite side representatives of political idealism might agree with the Realists counterparts about the alarming frequency and intensity of violence but disagree with them on the reasons for it and on how we should respond to the problem. For the idealists violence can be the result of many factors including learned responses to frustrating situations which can be generated by inequality in the economic distributive processes and injustice in the societal structures . The responses to be adopted in these circumstances mayinclude counter-violence (in self defence) but also non-violent means for bringing about political, social and economic change in order to eliminate the causes and conditions of violent conflict. In Conflict Resolution Idealism tends to be associated with constructive approaches, promoting non-adversarial, non-zero-sum, win-win solutions, that is to say resolutionproper. The emphasis is, contrary to Realism, on the changeabilityof the environments (shaped by institutional and social structures) and also of the behaviours. In research the idealists' focus has been on evolutionary change whereby the inequalities of the system can be eliminated.

In its prescriptive mode, resolution is based on a more subjective view of conflict whereby the parties work together to change their perceptions of each other and of the conflict which is seen as a common problem they share and have an interest in resolving 10. The third party's role is one of facilitation without coercion aimed at helping the parties to review their relationship in a co-operative role in order to generate a sustainable resolution. Resolution aims at removing not only the manifest causes of the conflict but also the underlying ones having as its ultimate scope the reconciliation of the parties with each other.

Nevertheless CR theory has also been concerned with activities performed at other spheres of civil society and aimed at increasing the level of shared values both in a conflict prevention and a conflict resolution setting. In this context it is perhaps more appropriate to speak of "multi-track" diplomacy, meaning not only activities that resemble those performed by official diplomats (such as negotiation, mediation, arbitration etc.), but any kind of action aimed at influencing decision makers and at increasing the level of shared values in the international community. Broadly speaking, it is possible to talk of multi-track diplomacy referring to cultural relations' programmes among states, or to the work of ad-hoc groups of experts or businessmen, as well as international non-governmental organisations and opinion groups. 12 2ff7e9595c