TRAINING RESOLUTE CONFLICT NEGOTIATORS
A chapter on training and education in conflict resolution can go three ways: either it gives us the state of the art in training and education (Hemery 2005), or it is a recommendation of how trainers should train and educate (Boomen 2001), or it is a tool for training (Muhlen 2005).
This chapter aspires to fulfill all three options in the limited space available. But it will first look at the question of why, and to what extent, training is of use to enhance the effectiveness of ‘conflict resolutionalists’. After this, an overview of the present situation in ‘Trainingland’ (Seminaristan) will be given. Thirdly, recommendations will follow, expanding on some earlier work of the author. Fourthly, this chapter will provide interested readers with a selected set of instruments to be used in training those who need to be resolute in conflict situations. It is a very specific set of tools, though one could also use other mechanisms. It is hypothesized that the educators know—or will find out by themselves—how to use the exercises in this chapter, though limited assistance will be given through a short introduction to each instrument. The exercises themselves can be found in the Annex. The chosen modes of conflict management are international negotiation processes. Any other inroad might have been legitimate: facilitation, mediation, arbitration, adjudication or even warfare. For practical and ideological reasons, as this Handbook of Conflict Resolution also bears the seal of the Processes of International Negotiation (PIN) Project of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), international negotiation has been chosen as the focal point. It is postulated that negotiation is one of the most important and effective tools in prevention and resolution (Zartman 2001), and it is therefore useful to train conflict managers in the art and science of this process. An effective negotiator will be able to deal with conflicts in an efficient way. But what is an effective conflict manager/negotiator and what can training contribute? Can it make a difference?
More on the topic TRAINING RESOLUTE CONFLICT NEGOTIATORS:
-
Conflictology -
Ecology -
Economy -
Finance -
History -
Law -
Medicine -
Philosophy -
Religious studies -