- Massively Parallel Peacebuilding Roles - Part 3 -- Part 3 of a 4 part series examining the many roles played by participants in Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building. This newsletter focuses on those who help us analyze complex problems and develop collaborative solutions. -- May 17
- Crisis, Contradiction, Certainty, and Contempt -- Columbia Professor Peter Coleman, an expert on intractable conflict, reflects on the intractable conflict occurring on his own campus, suggesting "ways out" that would be better for everyone. -- May 13
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of April 28, 2024 -- New suggested readings from colleagues and the Burgesses. -- May 09
- Attack the Problem, Not the People -- "Separate the people from the problem" might be the most often violated fundamental conflict resolution principle, even by people who know better. And it is hurting us. -- May 06
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of April 21, 2024 -- More recommended readings from the Burgesses and readers. -- Apr 26
- Don't Take the "Hate Bait!" -- Returning hate with hate hurts everyone. Much better to return hate with inquiry and respect (even if it isn't deserved), and try to defuse the anger before it explodes. -- Apr 23
- The Taliban Have Restored Barbarism to Afghanistan -- An update on what life in Afghanistan is like, now that the Taliban have returned and US efforts to transform the country have failed (and a reminder of how bad things can get). -- Apr 20
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of April 14, 2024 -- Another of our weekly suggested links from readers and the Burgesses. -- Apr 19
- Become Part of the Solution -- The American electorate includes True Believers, Pro-Democracy Transpartisans, and the Disillusioned, Disengaged, and Politically Homeless. We need to grow the second group, while shrinking the other two if we want American democracy to survive. -- Apr 16
- Knife Edge Elections, the 51% Hammer Strategy, Hatemongering, and Scapegoating -- Why are the United States' elections so close and so bitterly fought? Guy Burgess argues our knife-edge elections are caused by scapegoating, hatemongering, and our drive to get as much as we can for ourselves, by taking it away from the other side. -- Apr 14
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of April 7, 2024 -- Reader-suggested links, along with the Burgess's compilation of colleague activities and outside readings of interest. -- Apr 10
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Roles - Part 2 -- The first of two posts explaining the actor roles needed for a massively parallel peacebuilding/democracy building effort to work, which combined with an earlier post on strategy roles, makes up the current MPP role list. -- Apr 07
- Lorelei Kelly on Strengthening Democracy at the Top and the Bottom -- Lorelei Kelly describes the work of the bipartisan Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress which passed 202 recommendations, many unanimously. Over 1/2 have been implemented and most others are in progress. -- Mar 31
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of March 24, 2024 -- A rename of our regular "colleague and context links" to highlight how these readings and the activities they describe all fit within our "massively parallel" peace and democracy building framework--or show why it is needed. -- Mar 28
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Roles - Part 1 -- People engaged in massively parallel peace and democracy building play at least 50 different roles. In Part 1 of this three part series, we explore the roles played by the "strategizers," or "big thinkers" who help us understand the both nature of the problem and possible responses. -- Mar 27
- Anne Leslie: Slurps, Sulks, and Family History: Do You Care Enough to Argue? -- Sometimes it is better to have an argument, rather than stew in silence, and have it with the mindset of wanting to learn more about the other person's truth instead of wanting to 'win'? -- Mar 24
- Heidi Burgess Talks With James Coan about Taking De-Polarization Work "to Scale." -- Dialogue is great for the few participants, but it simply cannot be scaled up enough to change societal attitudes and behaviors. James Coan and Heidi Burgess discuss alternative ways to scale depolarization work. -- Mar 18
- Colleague and Context Links for the Week of March 17, 2024 -- Submissions from readers, activities and publications from colleagues, and interesting articles from allied fields about conflict, peace, and democracy. -- Mar 16
- Gaza, Ukraine, Increasing Global Tensions, and the Nature of War -- An exploration of Quincy Wright's image of total war, reasons why it is so much more dangerous than lesser armed conflicts, and mechanisms through which it could quickly spread around the world. -- Mar 13
- Colleague and Context Links for the Week of March 10, 2024 -- Our usual Sunday link suggestions from readers, together with our compilation of interesting colleague activities, plus news and opinion articles of interest to the conflict field. -- Mar 09
- Bari Weiss: What it Means to Choose Freedom, Supplemented by Franklin Foer and the Burgesses -- Bari Weiss (The Free Press) and Franklin Foer (The Atlantic) reflect on the meaning of the war in Gaza and world response to it, to prospects for the survival of liberal democracy worldwide. The two, they agree, are linked. -- Mar 08
- Bill Froehlich Talks about the Ohio State Divided Community Project -- A summary of a conversation Bill Froehlich about the work of the Divided Community Project which works to help deeply divided communities come together to prevent, and respond to civic strife. -- Mar 04
- Colleague and Context Links for the Week of March 3, 2024 -- More readings and videos suggested by readers, along with our weekly pick of colleague activities and important writing from outside our field. -- Mar 03
- Lou Kriesberg, Deborah Laufer, and Ashok Panikkar: Hopeful Thoughts About What Could Be, Contrasted with Darker Thoughts About What Is -- One positive, optimistic look at what could happen in Israel/Palestine, and others looking at some of the negative forces that are working against such an integrative outcome. -- Feb 21
- Peter Coleman on The Way Out of Polarization and Intractability -- Polarization is destroying our relationships with friends and family. Peter Coleman has a way to fix that -- and possibly fix our society as well. -- Feb 17