Structure of Intractable Conflict

The Nature of Intractable Conflict introduces the latest ideas that seek to explain the basis of deep-rooted and violent conflict among human groups, communities and nations. It analyses a range of methods by which people have sought to mitigate, contain or resolve destructive processes, for example through customs, courts, humanitarian interventions, peacekeeping and peace-building.

Surveying the field of conflict analysis and resolution in the twenty-first century, Mitchell focuses on developments in theory and practice that have taken place over the last forty years, reviewing the foundations of the field and innovations such as the growth of interest in conflict prevention and long term peace-building, various forms of conflict mitigation, and efforts to introduce courts and legal processes to help with the control and resolution of violent conflict within and across inter-state boundaries.

Informed by fieldwork in Africa, Latin America, the Basque country, Northern Ireland and the former Soviet Union, this volume uniquely explores emerging ideas about the role of creativity and innovation in developing new ways of channelling or resolving apparently insoluble disputes. By examining the wider concepts of truth, reconciliation and post-conflict stability, this book will be an essential resource for all peace and conflict scholars.

Christopher Mitchell is an Emeritus Professor at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, USA. He has written extensively on informal mediation, track two facilitation and local level peace-building. In 1981 he published one of the first ever textbooks in the field, The Structure of International Conflict, to which this volume is a follow up.