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No / This article reports on original research designed to track the impact on student learning and development of fundamental pedagogical changes - from tradition to critical pedagogy - in undergraduate conflict resolution teaching in the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. Using grounded theory methodology, the authors researched the transformative learning potential of the pedagogy. They found broad support for the pedagogy on student learning and development grounds in relation to the praxeological challenges of peacebuilding and conflict resolution work many of their students will expect to do after graduation. Out of the data emerged four clusters of learning experience that support transformative learning theory, particularly the role of disruption in learning and the importance of critical reflection, but that also, in a preliminary way, suggest some gaps in our current levels of understanding of transformative learning as praxis.

By studying zones of conflict in the Caspian Sea Basin and examining past and current policies in the region, we can incorporate the successes and failures into other conflicts around the world. This research will add to the discipline of International Relations a new synthesis of different types of conflict for similarly finite resources. It is vital to the study of international politics to study this region and these unique arenas of conflict. Most of the conflicts have ties to ethnic strife. By focusing on both conflict settlement and conflict resolution, an attainable solution may be found to the problems of Central Asia and applied elsewhere in the world.

Large, software intensive systems are typically developed using a feature oriented development paradigm in which feature specifications are derived from domain requirements and features are implemented to satisfy such specifications. Historically, this approach has been followed in the telecommunications industry. More recently, in the automotive industry, features (for e.g. electronic stability control, collision avoidance etc.) are being developed as part of a software product line and a suitable subset of these features is integrated in an automobile model based on market requirements. Typically, features are designed independently by different engineering teams and are integrated later to create a system. Integrating features that are designed independently is extremely hard because the interactions between features are not understood properly and any incompatibilities may lead to costly redesign. In this thesis, we propose a framework for developing feature based systems such that even if features are incompatible, they can be integrated without redesign. Our view is that a feature based system consists of a base system and multiple features (or controllers), each of which independently advise the base system on how to react to an input so as to conform to their respective specifications. Such a system may reach a point of “conflict” between two or more features when they do not agree on a common action that the base system should perform. Instead of redesigning one or more features for resolving a conflict, we propose the novel notion of “conflicttolerance”, which requires features to be “resilient” or “tolerant” with regard to violations of their advice. Thus, unlike a classical feature, a conflicttolerant feature observes that its advice has been overridden, and takes this fact into account before proceeding to offer advice for subsequent behaviour of the base system. Conflict-tolerant features are composed using a priority order such that whenever a conflict occurs between two features, the base system continues with the advice of the higher priority feature. We guarantee that each feature is “maximally” utilized in that its advice is not taken only when there is a conflict with some higher priority controller. We show how to specify conflict-tolerant features for finite state, timed, and hybrid systems and also provide decision procedures for automated verification of finite state and timed systems. This provides a compositional technique for verifying systems which are composed of conflict-tolerant features. Our framework for developing feature based systems enables conflictresolution without redesign. The scope for reusing conflict tolerant features is significantly higher thus reducing design and verification effort.

Thesis (M.Phil.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

LL.M. (Corporate Law) / Please refer to full text to view abstract.

Across four self-contained essays, this dissertation seeks to identify which features make international organizations (IOs) effective peacemakers in modern civil wars. The first essay introduces an original dataset on the institutional design of 21 peace-brokering IOs between 1945 and 2010. The second essay contains a statistical study of 122 IO civil war mediation episodes, examining how variation in institutional design affects outcomes. The third essay presents an in-depth case study, comparing interventions by the Arab League and the United Nations in Syria in 2011 and 2012. The fourth essay is a statistical examination of how IO member state biases influence mediation effectiveness. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates that the performance of peace-brokering IOs cannot be accurately evaluated without taking institutional variation into account. IOs display considerable heterogeneity in de­sign and capabili­ties and this variation has implications for the nature and effectiveness of IO interventions. Quantitative evidence reveals that IOs with strongly centralized instruments for supporting mediation and, in particular, peacekeeping operations are more likely to end civil wars. Qualitative evidence shows that IOs with such capabilities can engage in interventions of greater scope and credibility, enhancing their ability to shape the calculations of civil war disputants. Combined, the studies suggest that although institutional capabilities are necessary for sustained intervention effectiveness, they are conditioned on other organizational attributes. IOs with high preference homogeneity can signal intervention durability, giving them an edge over IOs with divided memberships. IOs that contain member states that have pro­vided direct support to civil war disputants outperform IOs that lack such member states. / <p>This dissertation consists of four self-contained essays dealing with different aspects of conflict management by international organizations.</p><p>Essay 4 previously appeared in 2014 as “Leanings and dealings: Exploring bias and trade leverage in civil war mediation by international organizations” (<em>International Negotiation, 19</em>(2), 315–342).</p>

<p>The aim of this paper is to examine if the two latest Peace Plans in the Palestine-Israeli con-flict observes the sources of the conflict and presents measures in the purpose of solving them. The point of departure is William Azar’s theory of protracted social conflict (PSC). According to Azar, the internal sources of a PSC lies in three clusters of variables: the com-munal content of a society, the deprivation of human needs as an underlying source of PSC, and the role of the state in the deprivation or satisfaction of human needs. The study is de-signed as a multiple-case study where the units of analysis are the Roadmap to Peace and the Geneva Initiative. An analyze instrument, based on operationalization of Azar’s three clusters of internal sources of a PSC, is developed and used to analyze the Roadmap to peace and the Geneva Initiative. The conclusions are that the two Peace Plans observes and present meas-ures to solve the communal content of the conflict, but both Peace Plans are unsatisfactory in presenting measures aiming to solve problems related to the role of the state and human needs. Especially the acceptance need within the state is missing in the contents of the Peace Plans.</p>

The problem of this study addressed how women experience the conflict variables of beliefs about conflict, anger arousal, conflict styles, and received and expressed violence as partners in love relationships and how these factors affect their reported satisfaction. Graduate women (M = 186) from University of North Texas completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), a subscale of Relationship Beliefs Inventory (RBI), the Multidimensional Anger Inventory (MAI), and Interpersonal Conflict Tactics and Strategies Scale (ICTAS), and the Severity of Violence Against Women scale (SVAW). Data were analyzed using MANOVAs with ANOVAs to examine significant differences. Multiple regression procedures were used for the exploratory questions. Women reporting less satisfied relationships were expected to believe that disagreement was more destructive and to report higher anger arousal than those who were more satisfied. The hypotheses were supported. Women who were less satisfied also reported using less constructive conflict tactics and more destructive and avoidant tactics as well as receiving some forms of violence. Expressed violence was not significantly related to low satisfaction. Results suggested that these conflict variables are highly interrelated. Strong feedback loops may develop. Strongly held conflict beliefs may affect the use of destructive and avoidant conflict strategies and increase anger which may reinforce the conflict beliefs. Women who have received violence may use both destructive and avoidant tactics. Use of tactics that escalate then de-escalate conflict suggests that conflict strategies may not be mutually exclusive. However, when a woman is low in anger and has previously received violence from a partner, she may use more avoidant tactics. In contrast women who express violence to their partners may use all three conflict tactics including constructive tactics. This finding suggested that women may express violence as a last resort to get a reaction from their partners.

A society without any conflicts or disputes is not equal to a harmonious society, but should establish a rational and effective diversified system of conflict resolution. This research tries to study group interest conflicts, their causes, mediation processes and the ways of their resolution in urban communities (Shanghai as an example) in China. Two main research objects are: First, to analyze the characteristics and differences of conflict resolution styles in various modes of state-society relationship in different societies; and to analyze the characteristics and differences of group conflicts that are related with governmental interests in the present transforming China. Second, to investigate the way civil mediation organizations use to reconcile and resolve group interest conflicts, especially those between residents and the government; and to study the interaction among these three parties, the different strategies of each party and the limitations of their action. Based on relevant theories and Blake and Mouton's (1964) Managerial Grid of self-report five-style conflict resolution, this study tries to explain the changing relationship between the state and social organizations through conflict mediation and resolution by "Lin Yue Mediation Workroom". It argues that the state-society relationship in contemporary China is neither state-centered nor society-centered, but a state-led social pluralism. Drawing on research, observation, detailed case of group conflict, a lot of open-ended in-depth interviews, and official documentaries in the Shanghai community, it reveals that group conflict and its resolution are influenced by the government in the contemporary Chinese city. State power infiltrated the process of conflict mediation and resolution. In the transforming China, as the state now is facing heavy social conflicts and has limited ability to resolve all of them, it gives power to social organizations and let them working independently on managing conflicts, but still with quite strong control and restrictions on those organizations, no matter in financial or policy aspect. Meanwhile, social organizations are also seeking ways to maximize their own interest and to create more developing chances during the interaction with the state. The new mode of civil mediation workroom (run as GONGO), acting as a bridge and conflict buffer zone between the government and society, though still quite dependent on the government, has led the state to make adjustment of its relationship with the society by conflict resolution. / In nowadays' rapidly developing China, the transformative interaction between the state and plural social organizations could improve the way and outcome of conflict resolution, making harmonious community possible! IV / In the contemporary transforming era of China, how conflict resolution affects the way a state is governed? / 胡潔人. / Adviser: Chan Kim Man. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-10, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p.189-210). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Hu Jieren.