The True Meaning of Society-wide Conflict

At the core of the conflict resolution field are two-party images of conflict and resolution processes (which often involve a third, intermediary party in mediation, arbitration or other roles). "Multiparty" processes may expand this to include a dozen or more parties who jointly try to build consensus around a particular cluster of issues.

Society-wide conflict is even more complex. It involves a staggering and, in many ways, unimaginable array of issues and competing interest groups. One of the great, and as yet unmet, challenges for the peacebuilding field is to find effective ways working at this level scale and complexity.

To do this we have suggested that the conflict fields move beyond its “table oriented” metaphors which trys to reduce problems to the level of small-scale dealmaking. Instead we need to start thinking in terms of “directory (phonebook)-oriented metaphors” with very large numbers of independent organizations working to advance their own interests (and to some degree the interests of their society) through myriad “calls for action.”

One of the big advantages of the new generation of Internet “super sites” is that they make visible the full scope of society-wide conflict. In this regard one of the most impressive sites that we’ve found, the Issues and Actions section of Congress.org provides a comprehensive directory of a large fraction of the websites of political action groups involved in roughly 40 areas of political interest. Even more impressive is that the site provides access to all of the “calls for action” issued by these groups. Put another way the site provides a comprehensive listing of very large fraction of society’s active political disputes.

Browsing the site quickly delivers a much more accurate, gut level feeling of of the nature of the society-wide conflict problem. In this context, the best that alternative dispute resolution and consensus building processes can do is produce agreement based resolution of some of these disputes.

The real peacebuilding challenge is much broader and requires the promotion of a more constructive mechanisms for handling this truly massive and inevitable stream of disputes.

In doing this one must recognize that there are few leverage points through which institutional (and cultural) change at this level might realistically be able to occur.

Issues and Actions section of Congress.org

Legislative Branch Resources on GPO Access

It is reasonable to assume that there are comparable levels of scale and complexity associated with the world's great peacebuilding challenges. (Still, the exact structure of these society-wide conflicts depends upon local cultures, political institutions, and economic means.)