April 30: Identity in Multi-Party Conflicts

Conflict. Chap 17 "Problem Solving"

This chapter discusses problem solving processes and distinguishes them from legal processes, bargaining and negotiation. Mitchell discusses the value of these types of processes - they deal with trying to find underlying issues. Problem-solving processes seek to change the perception of conflict from a win-lose battle of one side against another to a mutual problem that needs to be solved. Mitchell discusses the need to avoid fault-finding activity and blaming the other side. He also emphasizes the importance of setting in problem-solving strategies along with the idea of expanding the pie. In regards to timing, he brings up Zartman's idea of ripeness. He says that different processes of problem-solving at different levels can be more useful at different times. He also concedes that there is not much known about how to judge exactly what time is the best time to intervene.
In this chapter, Mitchell discusses the idea that fault should not be found with parties for several reasons. One reason that was especially interesting was that "those involved often do genuinely perceive that they have llittle alternative to courses of action that, ultimately, make things 'worse'". This reminded me of Kohlberg's idea that moral reasoning should be evaluated based on the reasoning behind an action, not on the action itself. This suggests that it is important for us to keep in mind that parties may have relatively acceptable or at least understandable reasoning behind seemingly appalling actions. Although this doesn't make the actions acceptable, it does require us to take a deeper look. It makes it more difficult, if not impossible to place blame. If we are to blame the party that had the most evil intentions, how do we measure that? It's not really possible, nor is it worthwhile. Instead, finding out why parties were in a situation where they were driven to act against each other and if there is an underlying problem in their society that caused the conflict, is much more feasible and probably more useful. Overall, I liked this chapter and thought it provided a lot of useful information. Mitchell ties in many different concepts and shows how they can be used in problem-solving techniques or their role in conflict to validify the use of such techniques in conflict resolution.