Recent Beyond Intractability Posts
Including Hyper-Polarization Posts
Posts by BI Section
Lists of recent posts are also available separately for each BI Section:
Hyper-Polarization Discussion Posts | Earlier Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog
Things You Can Do To Help | Conflict Frontiers | Conflict Fundamentals
Beyond Intractability in Context | Colleague Activities
- Massively Parallel Peacebuilding: A Strategy for Building a Democracy That Lives Up to Its Ideals -- A summary of the Burgess's latest thinking about massively parallel peacebuilding and democracy building explaining how it is already taking place on a large scale. -- Dec 02
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of November 26, 2023 -- More important ideas from our colleagues and writers in allied fields. -- Nov 29
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of November 19, 2023 -- More articles from our friends, colleagues and others about hyper-polarization as well as the Israel/Hamas war. -- Nov 19
- The Israel/Hamas War: A Perfect Storm of Complexity and Chaos -- A consideration of the factors that are making the Israel/Hamas war so exceptionally difficult even to talk about (civilly at least) let alone solve. -- Nov 15
- Intersectionality, Israel, and Peacebuilding: How Do They Mix? -- Reflecting on messages from readers about our Israel/Hamas writing and why we see this as differently as we do from many of our colleagues. -- Nov 14
- Dignity Press -- Dignity Press has published more than 30 books that explore the dynamics of human dignity and humiliation from diverse standpoints and global perspectives. -- Nov 10
- More On the Israel/Hamas War from Contributors -- New comments from Israeli peacebuilder Julia Chaitin and U.S. psychotherapist Madeline Taylor about the Israel/Hamas war. -- Nov 10
- The Israel-Hamas War Will Reshape Western Politics -- An analysis of the many ways in which the politics of Western democracies is likely to be influenced by the surprisingly intense conflict over whether Israel or Hamas is most deserving of support. -- Nov 09
- The Hyper-Polarization Discussion: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going -- A review of what we've focused on and what we've learned since starting this newsletter 20 months ago, and a discussion of where we plan to go in the months ahead. -- Nov 06
- Why We're Rescuing Local News -- A good news story about a major effort to restore local news -- a cornerstone of effective civic culture and the ability of local communities to govern themselves democratically. -- Nov 05
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of November 5, 2023 -- Colleague and context articles on U.S. hyperpolarization, Israel/Hamas, and other conflicts from around the world. -- Nov 04
- What a Ground Campaign in Gaza Will Look Like -- From a military perspective, an especially detailed and honest assessment of the unfathomable horrors likely to accompany Israel's invasion of Gaza and an explanation of why some better method of defeating Hamas is so badly needed. -- Nov 04
- Restoring Civility in Our Politics -- An overview and summary of an important new book, "The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves" by Alexandra Hudson. -- Nov 04
- Colleagues' Thoughts about the Israel/Hamas War - Part 1 -- A compilation of the first comments we have received about our Israel/Hamas war discussion posts. There is much to think snd debate about here! -- Nov 03
- Bridge Entertainment Labs -- Accelerating the creation of content that fosters social cohesion and pluralistic norms to transform the way Americans see and engage with each other across divides. -- Nov 03
- I Might Have Once Favored a Cease-Fire With Hamas, but Not Now -- From longtime peace negotiator, Dennis Ross, a description of what he sees as the most promising path toward a better future for both Israelis and Palestinians. -- Nov 02
- Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty -- Risk and uncertainty are scary, and are often avoided by cognitive traps which pretend we have certainty when we don't. Better to remain flexible, so we can respond effectively as the situation clarifies. -- Oct 31
- Searching for Humanity in the Middle East -- From David Brooks, an extremely perceptive the analysis of the principal frames/paradigms good people are using to make sense of events surrounding the Hamas' attack. To our three frames, he adds a fourth (which he says is even more important), "authoritarian nihilism." -- Oct 31
- Colleague and Context Posts for the Week of October 29, 2023 -- A mixture of U.S. and Israel colleague and context posts for this week. -- Oct 30
- Julia Chaitin, Israeli Peacebuilder, on the Israeli-Gazan War -- Chilling testimony from an Israeli peace activist living near the Gaza/Israeli border, and her thoughts about ways forward. -- Oct 28
- Daniel Stid Talks about Ways to Strengthen Democracy by Replacing Polarization with Pluralism -- Polarization is afflicting both leaders and followers, and the feedback between the two makes the problem worse. Key to fighting that is reinvigorating the value of political pluralism and openness to divergent views of problems and solutions, starting first at the local and state levels. -- Oct 26
- Special Edition of Colleague and Context Posts: The 2023 Israel-Hamas War -- A special edition of our colleague and context posts, all focused on the Israel/Palestinian war of 2023. -- Oct 24
- The Moral Questions at the Heart of the Gaza War -- A thought-provoking look of complex moral questions that are going to face Israeli soldiers as they enter Gaza (and the rest of the world as they judge the Israelis and the Palestinians). -- Oct 23
- Israel, Hamas, Evil, and the Bad-faith Actor Problem -- From a conflict resolution and peacebuilding perspective, reflections on Hamas' horrific attack on Israel and the role that our field has played and could play in shaping this tragedy. -- Oct 22
- The Deep Roots of the Left’s Deafening Silence on Hamas -- For many, the second biggest surprise associated with the October 7 attack was the reluctance of many on the left to condemn the attack (and the fact that some even supported it). This article looks at the intellectual foundations behind the left's reactions. -- Oct 22
