Research and Policy Implications

This article focuses on intractable conflicts and how they are transformed. Specific attention is given to the kinds of questions raised by research on such conflicts as well as the policy implications of selected research efforts. Although we believe that in most cases reducing the intractability of conflicts is desirable, we also recognize that often one (or more) adversary believes that any likely settlement of its conflict would be worse than maintaining the struggle. Whether or not an intractable conflict is preferable to any particular settlement depends upon one's values and interests. Whether the reader believes that inhibiting the intractability of a particular conflict or class of conflicts is desirable or that fostering intractability is preferable, policy suggestions can be stated as if either were true. The reader can invert the policy suggestion in accord with her or his preference. The policy implications suggested pertain to a phase in conflict settlement that is beginning to receive needed attention: prenegotiation. In the past, most attention among analysts of conflict resolution was focused on * Printed with permission of Syracuse University Press. This article was the last chapter in Intractable Conflicts and Their Transformation (1989), pp. 210-220, edited by L. Kriesberg, T. A. Northrup, and S. J. Thorson.