Political Conflicts, Dialogue and the Evolution of Democracy – What Can Mediators Do? 

We are now in the midst of a global political crisis, each day filled with hostility, hatred and personal attacks.  The problem is, we haven’t figured out how to talk to each other about political ideas and beliefs, or discuss social, economic, and political disagreements in ways that can lead to learning, win/win outcomes, increased empathy, mutual understanding and collaborative problem solving.  Yet we are all citizens of the same countries, the same planet, and the same environment, and we all care about our futures.

How, then, do we talk to each other about difficult and dangerous issues?  How do we exercise our responsibility as citizens without losing what we’ve learned as mediators, negotiators, and conflict resolvers?  How do we advocate for what we believe in without becoming biased and adversarial?  What is an interest-based form of political discourse?  What higher order skills do we require for democracy to work?  How do we design, organize, and facilitate dialogues over political issues?  How do we conduct meaningful discussions of highly contentious, values-based topics without degenerating into pointless diatribes?  What are the limits of collaboration and democracy in political conflicts?  How do we respond democratically and humanely to authoritarian and inhumane actions? How do we build trust between adversaries in difficult circumstances where time is limited, history is long, and positions have hardened? What can interest-based approaches to conflict teach us about political conflicts?  What is politics anyway, and what are the components of political conflict?  Are we slipping into fascism, how can we know, and if we are, what do we do about it as mediators?  So many questions, so few answers.