fandomhigh | Conflict Management and Resolution: Mon Period 4 - Class # 8

Wilson sat behind his desk carefully sorting through the sheets he’d made up to critique the students on their mid-term assignment. He had been extremely pleased with the whole class and today there were muffins and other snack items, as well as tea, coffee and cocoa laid out for anyone who wished for a quick bite as they signed in.

When everyone was settled, Wilson stood up and smiled.

“Good morning. I hope everybody enjoyed their break; I can assure you that mine was quite…enlightening. Okay a few house cleaning items I need to go over and we’ll get started on today’s lecture.”

As he spoke, he walked through the rows of seats, handing back the critiques.

“First of all, I’d like to compliment all of you on the work you did for your mid-terms. These were excellent and I think you’ll find that your grades reflect this. If you have any question about your grade, see me after class.” [ooc: Feel free to mod your grade, everybody rocked last class, thank you all for that!!]

Once he had everything handed out, he went back to the front of the class, gave the kids a moment to flip through their grades and then called for their attention once more.

“So, in two weeks we’ll be taking a field trip up to New York to observe some of the practices of the U.N. We’ll be leaving on Friday the 16th after classes and returning Sunday evening, sometime before midnight. I will have an itinerary and room assignments ready for you in next week’s class but if you know for some reason that you will not be able to travel with us, please let me know this week. After class, voicemail or during my office hours, whatever suits. The same if you just have general questions or concerns.”

Looking across the group, Wilson nodded and pushed away from the desk.

Lecture:

“Okay, let’s get started.”

Moving to the overhead, Wilson flipped off the lights and put the first film on the projector.

“Today we’re going to talk about intractable conflicts. An intractable conflict is first and foremost, a process (not just a single violent episode) of competitive relationships that extend over a period of time, and involves hostile perceptions and occasional military actions. The term itself acts as an integrating concept connoting processes where states become enmeshed in a web of negative interactions and hostile orientations. This pattern is repeated, indeed worsened, every so often, with the parties involved unable to curb, or manage, the escalation of their relationships.

These conflicts are characterized as follows:”

Wilson had the notes written up on the overhead.

1. In terms of actors, intractable conflicts involve states or other actors with a long sense of historical grievance, and a strong desire to redress or avenge these.

2. In terms of duration, intractable conflicts take place over a long period of time.

3. In terms of issues, intractable conflicts involve intangible issues such as identity, sovereignty, or values and beliefs.

4. In terms of relationships, intractable conflicts involve polarized perceptions of hostility and enmity, and behavior that is violent and destructive.

5. In terms of geopolitics, intractable conflicts usually take place where buffer states exist between major power blocks or civilizations.

6. In terms of management, intractable conflicts resist many conflict management efforts and have a history of failed peace making efforts.

“Given the characteristics of intractable conflicts, the lack of contact between the parties, the hostility and repeated violence, it seems plausible to suggest that one path out of this dilemma would be to accept some form of third-party mediation. Third parties can play a very useful role in the context of intractable conflicts.”

Class Activity:

Shutting off the overhead and turning on the lights, Wilson leaned back against the desk and smiled at the class.

“Well, we’ve already worked on third party negotiation in class. So today I would like you guys to take the remainder of the class, think about an intractable conflict you may have heard about, been involved in, be curious about and I want you to write out a brief essay on how you would approach it, were you asked to be a third party mediator to such a conflict.”

[ooc: Class cribbed from The Conflict Resolution Information Resource website. ~~Please wait for~~ The OCDs are up! Class is in session.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's expected that there might be some whispering and chatting in between essay writing.

Bel? Sitting waaaaaaaaaaaaay in the back of the class, slumped down in his seat, trying way too hard not to be noticed.

Phoebe is sitting next to Cole. "It'll be okay."

He reached over and squeezed her hand, trying to believe it.

Also trying not to think of all the homework he'd missed.

Phoebe squeezed his hand back and kept ahold of it.

Too bad for him that Marie spotted him immediately. She stopped in her tracks and stared, wondering if she was hallucinating.

Bel ducked his head for a minute, then looked up and gave Marie a feeble little wave. "Um. Hi," he said.

Marie? Still staring. She glanced at Phoebe and then back to Bel. "Am I hallucinating? Is this some kind of weird haunting thing?"

"No," Bel said quietly. "It's me. I'm, um, back. I was dead, but . . . I got better?"

Re: Talk Amongst Yourselves

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Conner? Staring.

Bel couldn't look at Conner. Because Conner reminded him of Anders and thinking of Anders? Therein lay madness.

Annette saw him. But she was a little confused. The hot sexy doctor was in class today? Because she was at Bel's memorial, held a candle and everything.

Bel say Annette staring at him and gave her a weak and fleeting smile, then briefly considered shimmering back to his room and hiding there for the rest of his life.

She sort of gave him an opened mouthed nod with a little finger wave then she promptly wrote down on her tablet: Bel alive? Hot doctor has conflict issues? Hmmm...

Summer blinked. So Chris wasn't crazy when he told her Bel was alive? Huh.

Blair bounced and waved excitedly at Bel from his seat.

Bel looked at Blair guiltily, remembering possessing him to hide out at the school. He waved a little back and sunk down further in his seat.

Blair frowned at the sinking and bounced more, scribbling on a piece of paper before tossing it to Bel.

What's wrong?

Bel stared at the paper for a long moment, before writing something and tossing it back.

I'm sorry.

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Tori spotted Bel from where she was sitting and stared for a moment. She then smiled, glad to see he was back.

She knew Phoebe must be extremely happy, from what Wyatt had told her before they destroyed the Source.

Bel saw Tori staring and gave her a tenative smile and wave, then ducked his head to focus on his essay.

Tori waved back, smiling at Bel.

She knew it must be weird for him to be back and the staring wasn't helping, so she went back to working on her essay.

Pippi waved happily and a little spazzy.

Bel waved back, unable to help but smile at Pippi and her spazziness.

Pippi pointed at him, then pat her chest to indicate a beating heart, then gave a double thumbs up.

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