Beyond Machiavelli : Tools for Coping With Conflict
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Beyond Machiavelli : Tools for Coping With Conflict Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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Focusing on Conflict Resolution as a Process
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This book is a fine contribution, but does not stand alone and is in some respects incomplete.
It emerges from Harvard's Negotiation Project. If focuses on conflict resolution as a process that requires a checklist, an analytic toolkit, and an action plan.
The comment that got me past being a skeptic of this academic work:
"International relations should not be a spectator sport." The authors are right: IR is about your life and the future of all generations. Prior to 911 Senators and Congressman would brag about not having a passport because nothing oversees mattered to their constituents. 911 made their idiocy plain to all. See for instance, [[ASIN:1400030846 The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage)]].
They focus on points of choice, but overlook the point made by Howard Bloom in [[ASIN:013233951X The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster and Smarter in a Networked World]], to wit, by the time a generation is 30-35 years old, their minds, culture, everything is "locked in" and only force and persistence and waging peace can allow a new generation to be created from scratch.
I have two pages of notes on this book, so it is by no means inconsequential. I liked the part that illustrated how we think we are sending one message but in fact another message is received, one grounded in THEIR historical and cultural and current context.
They share the view that Greg Treverton taught me, that decision-makers are beset by multiple information and influence inputs among which secret intelligence is often the least important in part because it can be ignored.
The four quadrants of analysis are very general, but on page 83 there is an excellent list of ten different academic points of view and 10 different professional practitioner points of view, all of which must be understood and reconciled, and that alone moved the book up to a four.
There is a superb conclusion on morality, and the table on page 113 of seven ethical perspective to consider is righteous and worthy. I am reminded of
[[ASIN:1572703962 The Lessons of History: The Most Important Insights from the Story of Civilization]]
[[ASIN:0321393953 Understanding International Conflicts (6th Edition) (Longman Classics in Political Science)]]
[[ASIN:B000QJDVVA POLITIS AMONG ALL NATIONS]]
[[ASIN:0971566119 The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption]]
The authors end by listing four constraints:
01 Poor design of 3rd party activities
02 Limited staff, limited skill
03 Constraints on officials
04 Roles played by institutions
I am reminded of
[[ASIN:1574880667 Security Studies for the 21st Century]]
[[ASIN:1400065763 Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency]]
[[ASIN:0312424620 Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It]]
There is no mention in this book of the impact of corruption, virtual colonialism, unilateral militarism, or predatory immoral capitalism. It is an essay with no bibliography or index, and thus limited to four stars, but certainly recommended. |
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