Paradigmatic Framing of Protracted, Intractable Conflict: Toward the Development of a Meta-framework-II.

Abstract

Protracted, intractable conflicts are a form of human interaction that may very well determine our capacity to survive as a species. Their high degree of malignancy, complexity, and mercurial natures present severe challenges to our human abilities to perceive, comprehend, and intervene accurately and effectively. The applied literature in this area presents a wide variety of approaches for intervention. Each approach is based on metaphors, assumptions, and models, which frame intractable conflicts and determine a course of change that is both useful and limiting. This article outlines the processes of implicit and explicit framing of intractable conflicts and presents five major paradigms currently employed in research and practice in this area: realism, human relations, pathology, postmodernism, and systems. This article is the second in a three-part series presenting a metaframework for protracted, intractable conflict-a conceptual framework that views these paradigms and their associated intervention ...