PACE-310, Survey in Peace and Conflict Studies

Week 2: Interest-Based Conflict Analysis/Resolution:

(Interest-based Conflict Resolution is Dual-Use.

It can be used for both making ethical decisions and resolving conflicts)

1. Conflict Partners

2. Third-Party, Interest-Based Conflict Resolution by Type:

Conciliation, Mediation, Arbitration, Adjudication

3. Third-Party, Interest-Based Conflict Resolution

Terminology:
Interest, (Bargaining) Position, Perceived Interests, Real
Interests, Human Needs Theory (Basic Human Needs
Theory)

4. Robert Burrows on Human Needs Theory

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Conflict Partners
In a world governed by Interest-Based
Reasoning, the parties to a conflict can have one
of two attitudes toward the each other:

1. that they are ENEMIES seeking to

defeat each other and win, or

2. that they are CONFLICT PARTNERS

seeking to solve a mutual problem.

Principled Negotiations express this as

"hard on the problem, soft on the
people."

Conflict Partners look at a conflict as a Problem

to be solved, not as an argument to be won.

An attitude of mutual problem solving by

conflict partners is also vital to Disinterested
Reasoning.
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Third Party, Interest-Based

Conflict Resolution
I. Conciliation

II. Mediation
A. Interest-Based Mediation

B. Evaluative Mediation

C. Transformational Mediation

III. Arbitration
A. Binding

B. Non-Binding

IV. Adjudication

(Principled Negotiations/Integrative Bargaining)

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Statement of Purpose and Limitations of

Interest-Based Conflict Resolution
Interest-based conflict resolution strives to produce a
"win-win" solution to a conflict. To achieve this goal, it
emphasizes understanding each party's values (or interests)
rather than focusing on positions or solutions. It recognizes
that an absolutely equality of results is seldom a realistic
expectation for any interest-based negotiation, but that a
fair process can yield a durable agreement.
Rather than design a process to influence decision
makers or judges, as in a court of law, the interest-based
process can be designed to enable all parties to listen to
each other's side so as to identify important values and,
then, to work together toward a common resolution.
In other words, it provides the opportunity for people
on different sides of a conflict to hear the values motivating
the other side without having to jeopardize their own
interests or values. The point, of course, is that, when
disputing parties understand each other's values and
interests, and they understand that those values and
interests can be met; this allows communication to begin.
The moral limitation of interest-based conflict
resolution is that, even though one of the parties may be
morally right and the other morally wrong, the disputing
parties still have to come to a workable agreement that
usually splits the difference, meeting somewhere in the
middle or is somehow equal.
"Positive Vies of Interest based Conflict Resolution.doc"
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Conflict

I. Conflict as a Noun, the Thing Disputed:

A clash or dispute over mutually exclusive or
opposing "interests," either real or
perceived.

"Interests" maybe desires, attitudes,

feelings, values, behaviors,
resources, etc.

II. Conflict as a Verb, a Mode of Being:

"Discordant dispositions over ways of being,
doing, or speaking."
Howes 2005

III. Conflict as a Verb, a Mode of Cooperation:

An expressed struggle between at least two
people who are dependent on each other 1)
who are dependent on each other (i.e., who
are "conflict partners"), 2) who are trying to
attain incompatible goals and 3) who
perceive their conflict partner as interfering.
(William Sharkey
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Interest Based Conflict Analysis/Resolution

1. Position (Bargaining Position): One's preferred

solution stated as a demand.

2. Interest: inter + esse = to be between or that which is

between. The analysis or definition of a relationship
between two parties in terms of each party's desires, wants,
values, concerns, fears, scarce resource, etc.

3. Perceived Interests:
a) Those values, desires, resources thought to be in
conflict by one party.
b) The values, desires, resources expressed by one
party to the other.

4. Real Interests:
a) That subset of Perceived Interests that are not just
"perceived" to be in conflict, but which others agree are
"truly" in conflict. Hence, Real Interests are what really
matter irrespective of whether the parties think so.
b) The values, desires, resources actually wanted or
needed by one party from the other.

5. Human Needs Theory (Basic Human Needs Theory):

That subset of real interests that are necessary, if not
sufficient, for an individual's sense of his own humanity.
Needs are less about existence (food, water, shelter) than
about what it takes to be human.
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Position / Bargaining Position:

One's Preferred solution stated as a demand.

One's Position may be either a perceived

interest, a real interest, a need, or some
combination of the three

Preferred
Solution

All Possible solutions

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POSITION WHAT  YOU  WANT

INTEREST WHY  YOU  WANT  IT

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Interest Based Conflict

Analysis/Resolution
Interest: inter + esse = to be between or that which
is between. The analysis or definition of a
relationship between two parties in terms of each
party's desires, wants, values, concerns, fears, scarce
resource, etc.

The World is simple.

COOPERATION
MY INTERESTS

YOUR INTERESTS

CONFLICT
MY INTERESTS YOUR INTERESTS
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Perceived Interests: What a party thinks his interests are; a purely subjective
assessment of his interests.
Real Interests: What other third parties think are a party's interests; a relatively
objective assessment of a party's interests by others.
(Basic Human) Needs: a subset of real interests that is vital for human physical
and psychic life.

Perceived Interests

Needs

Real Interests
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Human Heeds Theory (Basic Human Needs)

A. From Sites:
a) response,
b) security,
c) recognition,
d) stimulation,
e) distributive justice,
f) meaning,
g) rationality,
h) control

B. From Galtung:
a) (physical) survival,
b) well-being,
c) identity needs,
d) freedom to & from (social justice)

C. From Burton:
a) recognition,
b) security (more psychological than physical),
c) identity

D. From Abraham Maslow:

a) physiological,
b) safety,
c) belonging or love,
d) self-esteem,
e) self-actualization,

(Once the lower need is satisfied, the person is able to begin to satisfy the
next higher need. Maslow was trying to explain human “behavior,”
“motivation,” and “personality.”)
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E. From Steve Reiss:

a) sex,
b) food,
c) physical activity,
d) avoidance of pain,
e) curiosity,
f) honor (desire to live within a code of conduct),
g) order,
h) vengeance
i) social contact,
j) family,
k) social prestige,
l) power,
m) citizenship,
n) independence,
o) fear of social rejection,

(a-l are said to be genetic because other animals also exhibit the same
“desires”; m-o are said to not be genetic.)

F. Eric Fromm
a. relatedness
b. rootedness
c. identity
d. a frame of reference (ideology, religion, cosmology)
e. transcendence

A and B from Burrows Reading #5 (p54); C from Burton, John. 1997. Violence Explained.
Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. (p36); D from Maslow, Abraham H. 1970.
Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Row, ch4; E from McKie, Robin. Desires of
peaceful primates. Guardian Weekly 15 November 1998, p26.
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Interest Based Conflict

Analysis/Resolution
Interests: desires, wants, fears, values, concerns, wants,
needs etc. (Self-Preservation/Self-Defense)

Bargaining
Position

Perceived Perceived
Interests Interests

Real Real Real

Interests Interests Interests

Basic Basic Basic

Human Human Human
Needs Needs Needs
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The Importance of Human Needs

Robert Burrows

1. Reading details the complications and ambiguity of needs theory.

2. Altho expressed differently in different cultures, needs are "a controlling

element in social organization" (p53).

3. MAIN ARGUMENT:
"If these human needs do, in fact, exist, will they be pursued regardless of
consequences to society?" YES, BECAUSE

"All human behavior, then—deviant or otherwise—is that response to the

environment that the individual calculates will best satisfy their needs
and values" (p57)

4. "Consequently, human nature is neither inherently good nor inherently

evil. If a social cosmology provides adequate opportunity to satisfy their
needs, individuals will be "good"; if a social cosmology frustrates human
needs, individuals may be "evil" (p58-9).
***
NOTA BENE:

A. How an interest/human needs analysis explains everything, both "good"

and "evil" behavior, both deviant or otherwise behavior.

B. How an interest/human needs analysis comes exceedingly close to

determinism, to denying free will.

(Interest-based Conflict Resolution is Dual-Use.

It can be used for both making ethical decisions and resolving conflicts)