Causes of Conflict

It’s been some time since my last post, and I hope readers will forgive the hiatus I took. For better or worse, I’m back! :-) Years ago, through my training in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, I learned…

"Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears." Surely some mistake, I thought; shouldn’t it be the other way round? Swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks?…

  As you read this, put your hand up if you are a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt or anyone who regularly spends time in the company of young children. If you fall into this category (and it…

Daniel Kahneman, the psychologist who won the Nobel prize for economics, died in March. He described himself as the grandfather of behavioural economics, which provides so many insights into how…

  This is Part 2 of a two-part blogpost. Part 1 was published in January 2024. This blog explores what narrative means for us in the field of conflict resolution as we navigate an increasingly…

Tribalism is often referenced as a significant factor in much of the conflict we see around us at the moment. Perhaps this isn’t so surprising when we look back at the story of human evolution as…

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players” In his ‘untold history’ – “The Earth Transformed” Peter Frankopan charts the way in which the natural environment has shaped human…

    This week the facilitator of a conflict resolution group to which I belong posed  this question: ‘What is the greatest challenge currently facing us?’ My answer came quickly – the threat of hyper…

    The work of Daniel Kahneman continues to provide a powerful lens for scrutinising human behaviour – useful for our human interactions in general and our life as mediators in particular. His work,…