Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution

By Louis Kriesberg

Book Overview

Highly regarded by instructors as the most comprehensive and insightful textbook on conflict resolution, Constructive Conflicts has been significantly revised and updated in this second edition. The new edition builds on the strengths of the first, especially its organization around the different stages at which conflicts emerge, escalate, and resolve. Kriesberg's analysis utilizes diverse theoretical perspectives and data and is relevant for strategies that a variety of people can employ to foster constructive struggles.

"In this second edition to his highly recommended, leading text-book in conflict and peace studies by peaceful means Professor Kriesberg has included very valuable material on South Africa and apartheid, on the women's and Civil Rights movements in the USA, and the justice and globalization movements. And, above all, on international terrorism and the al Qaeda network. In a dynamic world authors have to be equally dynamic. Professor Kriesberg is one of those."
Johan Galtung, professor of peace studies, the University of Hawaii, the University of Witten/Herdecke, the European Peace University, and the University of Tromsoe.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0742520463
• ISBN13: 9780742520462
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.9" x 1.1" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Refreshingly Different

In the ever-expanding field of conflict resolution literature, Louis Kriesberg's work is most prominent. Instead of conceiving of conflict as an abnormal state that needs be abolished, he instead considers that it is a normative state of affairs between parties. The key is not to 'resolve' or precipitate an end to conflicts, but is rather to transform the conflict from a destructive (negative-sum or zero-sum) to a constructive (positive-sum) framework. Toward this end, he offers an impressive catalogue of methods that might be considered for application, and examines a myriad of factors that play a role in constructing the framework of conflict.His is a particularly broad-minded approach, as Kriesberg even refuses to dismiss all armed, violent conflicts as implicitly destructive, rather arguing that there may be tangible positives that arise (though these are, for Kriesberg, primarily oriented toward inducing both parties to recognise the need to broker a settlement). Through this book, Kriesberg looks to alter the manner in which the scholarly and diplomatic worlds consider conflict and its resolution (transformation). This is nothing short of a seminal work.