The Five Percent Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts

by Coleman, Peter

• ISBN13: 9781586489212
• ISBN10: 1586489216
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-03
• Publisher: PublicAffairs

Summary

One in every twenty difficult conflicts ends up grinding to a halt. That's fully 5 percent of not just the diplomatic and political clashes we read about in the newspaper, but disputations and arguments from our everyday lives as well. Once we get pulled into these self-perpetuating conflicts it is nearly impossible to escape. The 5 percent rule us. So what can we do when we find ourselves ensnared? According to Dr. Peter T. Coleman, the solution is in seeing our conflict anew. Applying lessons from complexity theory to examples from both American domestic politics and international diplomacy--from abortion debates to the enmity between Israelis and Palestinians--Coleman provides innovative new strategies for dealing with intractable disputes. A timely, paradigm-shifting look at conflict, The Five Percentis an invaluable guide to preventing even the most fractious negotiations from foundering.

Author Biography

Dr. Peter T. Coleman is associate professor of psychology and education at Columbia University, director of the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, and on faculty of The Earth Institute at Columbia. In 2003, he received the Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association, Division 48: Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence. He lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Problem: Impossible Conflicts
Conflict Resolution Methods That Work-and Why They Do Not Help with the 5 Percent	p. 15
The 5 Percent Problem	p. 26
The Approach: The Attraction of Impossible Conflicts
The Big Idea: Complexity, Coherence, and Conflict	p. 49
The Model: Intractable Attractors	p. 77
The Method: Resolving Impossible Conflicts
Getting Unattracted to Conflict: Three Practices	p. 111
Complicate to Simplify	p. 116
Build Up and Tear Down	p. 146
Change to Stabilize	p. 171
The 5 Percent Solution: Putting It All Together
Realizing the Impossible in Mozambique and Beyond	p. 187
Conclusion	p. 218
The Attractor Software	p. 225
Analytical Contents	p. 231
Columbia University's International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR)	p. 243
Notes	p. 247
Index	p. 261
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