Conflict Resolution Centre

A complimentary copy of Chapter 1 of my 2023 book, Hamlet's Mirror: Conflict and Artificial Intelligence.

Thank you for the continued support and engagement

COMPLIMENTARY COPY CHAPTER 1 OF HAMLET'S MIRROR: CONFLICT AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - The Conflict Conversations It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly, one begins to twist the facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

During the next few years, especially if the GNU holds in some form, we are really going to have some very serious debates and arguments about how we formalize our diplomatic and trade relationships with US/Russia/China.

It is an immensely complex debate, with thousands of moving pieces, and where we are a very small player in fast-moving, massive global power realignments, and where the consequences are existential and defining of the future of SA and many other countries.

Given the current early debates and positions taken on the questions it is clear that not too many of our decision makers understand the full reach and nuances of these interlinked conflicts and interests. An accurate assessment and then continued, ongoing balancing of interests and alignments will be necessary, such as never seen before. This is the Cold War 2.0, not some simplistic pick-a-team nationalistic exercise.

An already complex set of questions is exacerbated by the entrenched histories and emotional baggage carried around by our various political decision makers, as well as the negative conflict dynamics resulting from our existing, unresolved national conflicts and other conflict dynamics.

So far. I am concerned by what I see and hear. We do not as yet have the questions right, much less the answers. And so much depends on getting it right, keeping it right, as a matter of great urgency. We are already late to these developments. The successful managing of this process, and to keep doing so, requires a greater degree of knowledge, nuance and skill than what we seem prepared to commit to this defining moment in our history

I have been asked to present a conflict workshop to a group of medical practitioners, and in support of that workshop I will be doing an article on some of the relatively unique conflicts experienced by doctors, nurses and other medical personnel. Use my email address if you want to contribute any questions, experiences or suggestions to the article- as always, anonymity guaranteed

Do we have a similar organization in South Africa?

On Friday night I am one of the guest speakers at the EucA Master Meeting, where we will have an in-depth and long form discussion on conflict resolution and negotiation with a group of students.

The European University College Association (EucA) is a Brussels-based NGO that represents colleges in the promotion of skills through discussions like these, boot camps and other mechanisms. It is therefore more than just individual campuses putting together their own programs in aid of their students. I think it is an absolutely excellent idea, and if it does not exist here in SA it should be explored.

With the Handbook published less than a month ago, I am grateful for the wonderful feedback that I am getting on the article on mediation that I contributed. This is going to be an important work for many years to come, and I am privileged to have made a small contribution to the work.

One of the formal reviews:

‘With wars raging around the planet and numerous long-running conflicts unresolved, the need for peacebuilding has never been greater. Roger Mac Ginty has put together a cutting-edge collection of works on making and sustaining peace. The Handbook of Peacebuilding is particularly adept in showing the multi-dimensional nature of conflict and the need for us to take issues of gender, race, climate change, and poverty seriously when seeking to build peace.'

Severine Autesserre, author of Peaceland and The Frontlines of Peace, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA

It is good to see the scholarly treatment of emotion as an important part of complex conflicts in this important volume. The article, by Emma Hutchison and Roland Bleiker, argues for the recognition and inclusion of emotion in reconciliation processes - not the cheap emotion of manipulation or sentimentality, but the emotions caused by lived experiences, the emotions that create, shape and guide our identities, our pasts and our futures. This is overdue and a good development

This is one of the important reasons why the conflict concept of agonism needs work and application in our South African conflicts:

When each party has fortified its self-representation as a victim and depicted the other(s) as the perpetrator(s) attached to narratives of past wrongdoings, inequitable economic conditions and political dynamics, all efforts, including peacebuilding, to transform these emotionally loaded roles generate anxiety and increase ontological insecurity

Marko Lehti

My column in this morning's Herald newspaper deals with our coalition chaos ☕️

Just confirmed...

From October 1st I will be a weekly guest on RSG radio with

Eloise Cupido on her "Intussen met Eloise" program. The series of twelve conversations (09h30-09h40) will focus on various aspects of conflict that are relevant to everyday South Africans. Join us ☕️