International Conflict Resolution After the Cold War (2000) / Chapter Skim
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Interactive Conflict Resolution: Issues in Theory, Methodology, and Evaluation
Interactive Conflict Resolution: Issues in Theory, Methodology, and Evaluation
Pages 294-337
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From page 294... ...
, I use the term interactive conflict resolution to denotes "small group, problem-solving discussions between unofficial representatives of identity groups or states engaged in destructive conflict that are facilitated by [an] impartial third party of social scientist-practitioners" (p.
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From page 295... ...
This scrutiny will be expressed in three areas. First, programmatic attention should be focused on theory building that could guide the practice of interactive conflict resolution activities in the field; these activities should be anchored in theories of conflict and conflict resolution that delineate theory-guided goals for unofficial intervention in ethnonational conflict and variables that influence the achievement of these goals.
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From page 296... ...
Perhaps the most important conceptual task for interactive conflict resolution is to delineate the theoretical relationships between the intervention method that a practitioner uses, the microobjectives of the intervention effort, and how these objectives could contribute to macrogoals of conflict resolution. In this section I describe the three components and the two theoretical paths that should connect them (see Figure 8.1~.
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On the intergroup level, participants examine the dynamics of the conflict between the two societies and the collective needs and concerns that have to be met for a satisfactory political solution to emerge. Reference to the here and now of intergroup dynamics is only relevant to the extent that it helps participants understand the dynamics between the two societies at large.
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For example, it is not clear what tools are used, how active and directive the third party is, what the agenda is that the third party prepares, or even what participants are invited to do. Yet some general description of the role of the third party is provided by some scholarpractitioners.8 For example, third parties can prioritize different levels of analysis even in the same workshop design.
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The participants are the third party's conduits to the desired change. So far, within the broad problemsolving workshop methodology, the target of change and the conduit of intervention in the conflict are assumed to be the participants' views (not the third party's)
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Problem-solving workshops are designed to influence the dynamics of conflict, even if in minor ways. Putting aside, for the moment, the difficulties of validating such influence, interactive conflict resolution should at least be able to articulate the goals of unofficial activity in terms of the intended impact on conflict dynamics on the ground.
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These connections lend themselves to a variety of research methods that are described below. Theoretical Path 2: How the Microobjectives Lead to Macrogoals of Influencing the Conflict Dynamics Perhaps the most difficult task that scholars and practitioners of interactive conflict resolution face is demonstrating how the objective they designate for their problem-solving workshop, if attained, can lead to the change in conflict dynamics they seek to achieve in other words, how the variables in the second component of interactive conflict resolution are connected to variables in the third set.
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At a minimum, scholars and practitioners have to explicate the theoretical or conceptual relationships between the two sets of variables and produce a set of hypotheses on how the objectives of their problem-solving workshop can affect the dynamics of conflict. While demonstrating such connections empirically is not always attainable, producing clear theoretical connections is a minimum requirement without which the whole field of interactive conflict resolution risks becoming an empty exercise with little theoretical foundation and scientific value.
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The objectives of the one-time workshops were defined in terms of having the participants understand the political needs and constraints under which each party operates. A major objective of the continuing workshops was defined in terms of jointly creating new ideas based on the needs of both parties and to have these ideas disseminated by the participants to upper-echelon leaders and constituencies; the goals were defined in terms of interjecting new political insights, acceptable to the mainstreams of both societies, into the political discourse of both parties.
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A theory-driven taxonomy of interventions is needed to answer such a question (Rouhana and Korper, 1999~.~3 ASCERTAINING THAT INTERACTIVE CONFLICT RESOLUTION ATTAINS ITS MICROOBJECTIVES As described above, one way to conceive of the political contribution of the problem-solving workshop to participants is the opportunity it provides for acquiring new ways of analyzing the conflict. This is achieved by learning about the dynamics of the conflict as perceived by the other side, their collective needs and fears, their political constraints, and the social and political dynamics that drive the conflict.
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Increased differentiation of the other side and expanded familiarity with the range of political thought and social forces are immediate achievements of problem-solving workshops. In many cases participants learn about the diversity of the other party's political thinking, social forces, political structures, and the range of political perceptions and analyses of the other side.
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Depending on the stage of conflict, the problem-solving workshop will be designed to generate such ideas and insights and to introduce them into the political discourse. Interactive conflict resolution does not provide empirical evidence that the objectives described above are achieved, although the literature provides some anecdotal evidence.
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The idea is to examine whether the learning that is expected to take place generalizes from the insulated climate of the meetings out into the reality of conflict when participants go back to their home environments and, perhaps, whether they use their learning to analyze new events in ways they would not have done without the workshop experience. It is certainly possible that deep insights that participants gain in a problem-solving workshop will last and be used in the analysis of new conflict-related events and that therefore participants will incorporate what they learned into their political discourse.
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Potentially, and depending on their access and influence, participants can share their new learning with decision makers and political leaders, or they can share it by writing, giving speeches or interviews to the news media, or in other interactions with members of their own group. To what extent participants share these educational outcomes with others is a question that research on interactive conflict resolution should try to answer.
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Second, the goals of interactive conflict resolution are often confused with official diplomatic intervention goals that are defined more sharply in terms of bringing parties to the negotiation table, ceasing hostilities, or reaching agreements, depending on the stage of conflict. Unrealistic goals and unsubstantiated claims by scholar-practitioners only exacerbate this confusion and increase the likelihood that the same yardstick used in official intervention will be applied to evaluate unofficial intervention.
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It is against these three challenges lack of clarity about goals, the absence of theoretical connections between objectives of the problemsolving workshop and the desired effects on the conflict, and the evaluation of impact in terms of demonstrable achievements that questions about the utility of interactive conflict resolution have been raised by some diplomats and scholars.~5 As a beginning to responding to the first of these challenges, the goals of the problem-solving workshop should be defined depending on the stage of conflict, the nature of the conflict, and the particular dynamics of the conflict. With regard to conflict stage, in most general terms, before negotiations between the parties begin, the goals could be defined in terms of creating visions of peace that are acceptable to both communities and that can support dynamics for bringing parties to the negotiation table.
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Answers to these questions lie in the complex nature of the process of social change, which defies the linear thinking of the standard social research methodologies.~7 Accordingly, interactive conflict resolution could have a slow but dynamic and potentially important impact through a number of effects that characterize social change but that are hard or even impossible to measure. CONCEPTUALIZING THE IMPACT OF INTERACTIVE CONFLICT RESOLUTION: PLAUSIBLE EFFECTS ~ ~ The impact of interactive conflict resolution should not be conceived against the goals determined by official diplomacy, such as reaching agreements between adversaries.
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The Innovation Function Once participants formulate new ideas acceptable to both sides, they can be instrumental in introducing those ideas to the political discourse in their political communities. They can share ideas with policy makers and political elites through their participation in seminars, professional and journalistic writings, speeches, and so forth.
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Third, participants can explain that the ideas are based on the political needs and concerns of both sides, which strengthens the rationale for adopting the ideas and for seeing greater possibility that any formal agreements linked to those ideas has the potential to contribute to an enduring peace. Until now there has been only anecdotal evidence of these innovation mechanisms, such as the observation that participants engage in dissemination of ideas to various publics, including higher echelons of political elites.
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But when the possibility of negotiating with the enemy emerges, deep division in the society may surface. One effect that interactive conflict resolution can have on the dynamics of conflict is to bolster the forces that favor negotiation.
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The Clarification Effect The in-depth analysis of political issues that the interactive conflict resolution makes possible, particularly when workshops between the same participants are held on an ongoing basis, gives participants (and third parties) good understanding of what is possible and what is not in the existing structure of power relations.
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A broad understanding of these issues can become most useful when an official process of negotiation starts. Interactive conflict resolution could contribute to a political culture of the political elite that is familiar with the other.
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calls this potential contribution of interactive conflict resolution a capital investment in political ideas. The unique value of these ideas, which increases the chances of payoff, is their foundation in both sides' political needs and their development by participants from both sides in a context that is less bound by power relations than the negotiation context.
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The refinement of intervention tools and the establishment of a repertoire of activities to be used in the problem-solving workshop require empirical examination of the elements in the problem-solving workshop and the methods of third-party facilitation that lead to the intended outcomes. By using experimental research methods it will be possible to examine hypotheses connecting some elements of the workshop package of activities with intended outcomes, to compare various methods of intervention, and to test and compare the effectiveness of various third-party intervention techniques (for a similar approach to negotiation, see Druckman, 1993~.
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In addition, there might be a violation of confidentiality as all information about the workshops will become a public record which many problem-solving workshop organizers see as essential to the process. Although interactive conflict resolution is not inherently conducive to experimental studies, such studies are not impossible to conduct.
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Similarly, there is a problem of sampling in terms of defining the universe of situations of which the simulation or field experiment is representative. (For further discussion of these and other problems in the context of international conflict resolution, see Chapter 2 by Stern and Druckman)
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The question of retention of new learning in a nonconducive conflictual environment can be studied, in theory, with other methodologies. Social scientists can use other experimental designs, as discussed above, to examine the extent of learning retention in conflict settings and to test variables that increase or decrease the likelihood of retention in such climates.
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After all, given the absence of hard evidence, many scholars and practitioners will make their own judgments about the value of interactive conflict resolution based on some assessment of the hypothesized impact. Scholars and practitioners should identify ways to provide their audiences with as much information as possible to make such a judgment.
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WHY THE IMPACT OF INTERACTIVE CONFLICT RESOLUTION IS LIKELY TO BE OVERESTIMATED Overestimation of the achievements of interactive conflict resolution by scholar-practitioners could be prompted by conscious and unconscious motivational and cognitive processes geared to present the outcome of interactive conflict resolution in its best light. On the motivational side, it is often the case that the professional and scholarly identity of practitioners becomes intertwined with such activities and that the funds and effort exerted will have to be justified.
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There is the danger that for the third party the dynamics on the ground that steer the direction of the conflict gain secondary importance to the dynamics in the problem-solving workshop. This is, perhaps, why many third parties do not care to learn the details of the conflict, its history, or, most importantly, its recent developments on the ground and thus judge progress by relationships in the problem-solving workshop disregarding the relationship between the parties in reality.
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Thus, in estimating the impact of interactive conflict resolution it should be noted that, even if the long chain of variables work in the desired direction the objectives of the problem-solving workshop are clearly designed and demonstrably achieved, the goals are articulated, the theoretical connections proposed above are delineated, and the new insights gained and ideas generated in the problem-solving workshop are disseminated there are serious questions about the impact of the problem-solving workshop in its present form. INCREASING THE VALUE AND AUGMENTING THE IMPACT OF INTERACTIVE CONFLICT RESOLUTION Given the various nonlinear ways in which interactive conflict resolution can contribute to the resolution of ethnonational conflict, one can, on the one hand, argue the merits of the method, at least in its potential.
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Most importantly, we need to devise new means for increasing the impact of interventions, as well as a more careful delineation of variables that could be expected to influence the impact. For example, the third party is a key component in interactive conflict resolution, but surprisingly its role in increasing the impact of this effort has generally been neglected.
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he practical concern with how best to develop generic knowledge about what works in international conflict resolution leads to a perhaps surprising conclusion: there is a critical need to develop theory." Developing theory is even more important for interactive conflict resolution given its status of double marginality: both within the academic disciplines and with the diplomatic practitioners, policy makers, and decision makers. Assessments of the state of the field range from full satisfaction with "a significant track record" for a "systematic, wellthought-through approach" (Saunders, Chapter 7)
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From page 329... ...
Furthermore, new innovative methodologies could be applied to examine some of these hypotheses. Theory building in this sense contributes not only to the academic disciplines or to persuading policy makers of the value of this work, it also contributes to interactive conflict resolution practitioners to becoming more persuaded (or perhaps less depending on the outcomes)
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NOTES 1In earlier papers I used the term unofficial intervention (to emphasize the distinction from official interventions in conflict) , whose definition overlaps broadly with Fisher's definition of interactive conflict resolution (Rouhana, 1995a, 1998~.
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, for example, argues that "in reaching judgment about how [interactive conflict resolution] contributes to peace making and peace building, we must probably reach beyond the methods of present social science....
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, for example, articulated many of the criticisms and concluded that unofficial activities represent a model of mediation that is ineffective in dealing with ethnonational conflicts. 16Kriesberg (1991,1992)
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. 25Consider the following components that the third party takes a leading role in implementing: selection of participants, setting the agenda, setting the ground rules, choosing the level of analysis, and the initial design of the end product, all of which are components that should be part of a clear contract between the third party and the participants (Rouhana and Korper, 1996~.
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, International conflict resolution: Theory and practice. Brighton: Wheatsheaf.
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1997 Interactive conflict resolution. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press.
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Rouhana, N.N. 1995a Unofficial third party intervention in international conflict: Between legitimacy and disarray.
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1999 The who, what, and when of interactive conflict resolution: A taxonomy of intervention design in ethnonational conflicts. Unpublished manuscript.
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