Foreword
Several years ago, I had the privilege of writing the Foreword to Nance
Algert’s second edition of this seminal work. Her third edition is even more powerful, with contributors from a significantly broader range of ethnic, racial backgrounds.
Conflict may be universal, but the ways in which it is manifested and how it is dealt with vary widely. She has added summary figures for each chapter, making it easier for the reader to grasp the central points the writer is making. This is a field guide to conflict and its resolutions, and while the scholarship is very solid, it is intended at least as much for the layman as it is for academics. In addition to the new material, Dr. Algert has updated chapters from the previous edition. She has also reorganized the chapters, improving the flow of the book and its value to the reader.The central thesis is unchanged. In our society, the reflex reaction to conflict is that it is something negative and to be avoided. Not so, say the authors. Conflict in society is normal and natural. Conflict itself is neither positive nor negative. It simply is. What we do about it is where its attributes and consequences are developed, for better or for worse. Dr. Algert and her colleagues stress one central point: Without conflict, there can be no change. As though to underscore this message, we are currently witnessing a dramatic nationwide wave of support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of a series of killings of Black men and women while in police custody.
As a former career foreign service officer with many years of service in the Middle East, I have seen a great deal of conflict, much of it kinetic. It is
Conflict Management and Dialogue in Higher Education, 3rd edition, pages ix-x Copyright © 2021 by Information Age Publishing
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. my belief that the nature and consequences of armed conflict has been well understood at national and regional levels at least since the early 19th century when Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz penned his famous dictum: “War is merely the continuation of politics by other means.” War emerges from politics and to politics it must return.
History is full of examples. In the Middle East, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat launched his 1973 attack on Israel as the first step toward fulfilling an ambitious political agenda that included an Egyptian strategic shift from an alliance with the USSR to the United States, his dramatic visit to Israel to address the Knesset, and ultimately Camp David Accords and the Egyptian—Israeli peace treaty.For whatever reason, we have been slow to apply the well-developed philosophy of war to the multiple conflicts of everyday life. This is why Dr. Algert’s work is so important. Her definition of conflict, her guidelines for managing it, and the positive outcomes that can flow from conflict to the benefit of all parties is something that all of us should be aware of. There is such a thing as win-win outcomes to individual conflict, just as there are on much grander scales. General von Clausewitz would have been proud.
—Ryan Crocker
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Former Dean, Bush School of Government and Public Service,
Texas A&M University
Former American Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon