CONCLUSION

Rosabeth Kanter once said that power is the last dirty word. I have attempted to challenge that notion in this chapter and to emphasize the potential for an expansive approach to power in conflict. The realists of the day may remain skeptical, for the world is filled with evidence to the contrary: evidence of coer­cive power holders, of power hoarding, and of the defensiveness and resistance of the powerful under conditions that cry out for change. Perhaps the time is ripe for a new approach to power.