NCJ Number
97330
Journal
Peace and Change Volume: 8 Issue: 2/3 Dated: special issue (Summer 1982) Pages: 43-54
Date Published
1982
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This critical analysis of research into the dynamics and processes of typical conflicts considers the process and actors of the whole conflict system, negotiation principles, a matrix for relating various elements of the conflict resolution process, and nonviolent campaigns as stages in the conflict resolution process.
Abstract
Researchers Adam Curle and James Laue have looked at the whole conflict system, whereas Severyn Bruyn, Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Susan Carpenter have looked at smaller segments of the whole. Curle and Dugan propose that a process for resolving conflict normally has four distinct stages: research, conciliation, bargaining, and development. Education and confrontation are two additional activities which represent subsets of the conciliation stage. Laue focuses on the actors in the conflict. He divides the stages into three main chronological ones, with subsets of three under each of the last two. In the first stage, the parties are challenged. In the second stage, conflict, crisis, and confrontation occur. The third stage involves communication, compromise, and change. Laue also proposes five intervening roles: activist, advocate, mediator, researcher, and enforcer. Carpenter has developed more elaborate designations for these roles. Bruyn has delineated the master principles of self-governance and has interpreted Gandhian nonviolent campaigns as stages in conflict resolution. Fisher and Ury have focused on negotiation principles. A chart, a list of 39 references, and a drawing are included.