7 Introduction What Is Conflict 11 Chapter 1 Why Do Conflicts Come Up Every conflict has a beginning these are the factors that get things started 23 Chapter 2 Dividing Lines There are at least two sides in every disagreement Here are the ways they get split 39 Chapter 3 Cooperation or Combat To fight or not to fight How and why conflicts can become wars 57 65 74 76 78 Chapter 4 Making Peace Building and keeping the peace it’s a full-time job Chapter 5 Making Sense of Conflicts The best answers are rarely the easiest ones But they’re out there to be found Conclusion What Do You Think Sources Index 80 Acknowledgments and Note from the Author
introduction No matter how thin you slice it there will always be two sides Baruch Spinoza Jewish-Dutch philosopher 1632 77 6
(cid:34) What Is (cid:38)(cid:50)(cid:49)(cid:41)(cid:47)(cid:44)(cid:38)(cid:55) Battles protests standoffs strikes You hear about them all the time On the surface a battle and a protest don’t seem to have much in common right A battle involves guns and bombs while a protest has signs and picket lines But they’re really just two ways of handling a dispute One uses violence and the other doesn’t or not in most cases anyway Both start as a disagreement between two groups of people BOTH ARE CONFLICTS So have you been part of any conflicts this week Before you say no stop and think about it Did you agree with everything everyone around you said Did you feel like doing everything people asked you to Unless you’re the only person ever who’s okay with everything going on around you chances are pretty good you’ve been in a disagreement before Maybe you had a fight with your sibling over what to watch on TV Or maybe a kid in math class wanted to cheat off your test but you didn’t want her to Since it’s impossible for people to agree on everything all the time conflicts naturally pop up anywhere people get thrown together at school at work at home in big cities and small towns and whole countries Conflicts are part of life Con flict An intense disagreement that can lead either to violence or to a peaceful solution depending on how it’s handled 7
