People involved in racial conflicts, either disputants or potential intermediaries, can do a lot to transform and resolve such conflicts if they design an effective response strategy. The following checklist offers things that intermediaries and disputants should think about, and it offers links to many sources of further information on each of the question topics.

The links are of two kinds. First are links to essays on related topics from the Beyond Intractability website and project. Second are links to relevant sections of interviews with CRS mediators, in which they discuss related issues.

Reading the essays will give you general background knowledge about the topic, and then reading the interview segments will be like sitting with a group of highly experienced and skilled mediators at a cocktail party or office de-briefing, where they tell stories about what they did, how they did it, and how it worked in real-world situations.

• Conflict Assessment

  Have you done a thorough conflict assessment?

  For more information about this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essay: Conflict Assessment
  • CRS mediators' discussion of conflict assessment

  Also consider the following assessment-related questions:

• Identify Stakeholders / Interest Groups

  Have you identified all of the interest or stakeholder groups (as well as individuals) who are likely to become involved?

  Have you determined how these groups are likely to react to the situation? Who will be allies? Who will be opponents? (Here, it is important to recognize within-group differences in interests and positions.)

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Parties to Intractable Conflict, Disputants, Stakeholder Representatives,Within-Party Differences, Moderates, Extremists / Spoilers, Leaders and Leadership, Conflict Profiteers, External Supporters
  • CRS mediators' discussion of stakeholder issues

• Clarify Goals

  Are you clear about the parties' underlying goals and interests? Do you understand how these are different from the parties' positions, and why the distinction is important?

  For more information about this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Setting Goals, Interests, Integrative or Interest-Based Bargaining, Distributive Bargaining, Positional Bargaining, Creating and Claiming Value, Underlying Causes of Intractable Conflict, Frames, Framing and Reframing
  • CRS mediators' discussion of goals

• History

  Do you understand the history of this conflict, including the underlying issues that led to it?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Addressing Underlying Causes of Conflict
  • CRS mediators' discussion of historical issues

• Determine the Conflict Stage
  

  Is the conflict latent, developing, or fully escalated? Has it become intractable? Is the conflict ripe for resolution, or do the parties involved feel it is in their best interest to continue with the status quo?

  For more information about this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Conflict Stages, Nature of Intractability, Ripeness
  • CRS mediators' discussion of conflict stages

• Intervention Options

  Have you considered all the available intervention options?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Intervention Processes-Overview, Mediation, Consensus Building, Policy Dialogue, Arbitration, Adjudication, Hybrid Processes
  • CRS mediators' discussion of intervention options

• Intervention Processes
  

  Have you considered how to convene a meeting? How to structure the meeting? How to facilitate the process to increase the likelihood of a successful conclusion?

  For more information on these topics, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Mediation Strategies and Techniques
  • CRS mediators' discussion of intervention processes

• Culture and Conflict
  

  Are cultural misunderstandings contributing to the conflict? Are there differences between the parties in things like nationality, language, gender, or age? Do you know some strategies for overcoming cultural differences?

  For more information about this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Culture and Conflict, Women in Intractable Conflict, Communication Tools for Understanding Cultural Differences
  • CRS mediators' discussion of cultural issues

• Persuasion
  

  Do you have a strategy for explaining the stakeholders' goals and actions to each other? For persuading them that the other stakeholders' goals are reasonable and equitable? Or that negotiation or mediation is a viable approach to the problem?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Channels of Communication, In-Depth Communication, Persuasion
  • CRS mediators' discussion of techniques of persuasion

• Reframing the Issues
  

  Have you thought of ways to get the parties to "reframe" the issues to make them more negotiable? To identify areas of common ground?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Frames, Framing, Reframing, Interests, Rights, Power, and Needs Frames, Cultural Frames, Process Frames, Competitive and Cooperative Frames, Identity Frames, Stereotypes and Characterization Frames, Enemy Images, Prejudice, "Into-the-Sea" Framing, Fact Frames, Worst-Case / Loss-Oriented Frames, Reframing
  • CRS mediators' discussion of reframing

• Trust
  

  Have you been able to help the parties build trust with each other?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Trust and Trust Building, Managing Interpersonal Trust and Distrust, Limiting Escalation / De-escalation, Humanization of Extremists
  • CRS mediators' discussion of trust

• Power / BATNAs
  

  Are you clear about the nature of power and how it affects the parties' "alternatives to a negotiated agreement?" Are you clear about the powers available to other stakeholders? Have you been able to demonstrate to people the powers that the parties are willing to use to defend their interests? (Here you should consider legal, political, and economic power as well as the ability to resist violent assaults.)

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA), Understanding Power, Coercive Power, Exchange Power, Integrative Power, Nonviolence, Power Inequities, Empowerment
  • CRS mediators' discussion of power and empowerment

• Misunderstandings
  

  Do you know how much of the conflict might be attributable to misunderstandings? If not, do you know how to set up communication processes that might be able to answer to this question? And, do you know how to set up communication processes that might limit these misunderstandings?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Misunderstandings, Channels of Communication, In-Depth Communication, Cross-Cultural Communication, Large-Scale Communication, Interpersonal / Small-Scale Communication
  • CRS mediators' discussion of misunderstandings and other communication issues

• Emotional and Psychological Dimensions
  

  Do you know how much the parties' responses are due to emotional and psychological dimensions such as anger, fear, or prejudice? Do you know what is causing these reactions and how to defuse them?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Prejudice, Anger, Fear, Managing Interpersonal Trust and Distrust
  • CRS mediators' discussion of emotional and psychological issues

• Fact-Finding
  

  Do you know how much of the conflict is attributable to disagreements regarding the basic facts? If not, do you know how to set up communication processes that might be able to answer this question? And, do you know how to set up joint fact-finding processes that might limit factual disagreements?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Fact-Finding, Factual Disputes, Uncertainty, Obtaining Trustworthy Information, Distinguishing Facts from Values
  • CRS mediators' discussion of facts and fact-finding

• Escalation
  

  Do you know how much of the conflict is attributable to escalation and polarization? Have you developed and implemented effective steps to limit or reverse this effect?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Escalation, Constructive Escalation, Polarization, Limiting Escalation / De-escalation
  • CRS mediators' discussion of escalation

• Violence
  

  If the conflict becomes violent, do you have a strategy for de-escalating the violence? Is it possible for you to prevent the violence or is there anything you can do to decrease the suffering caused by it?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Interpersonal Conflict and Violence, Violence
  • CRS mediators' discussion of violence and violence prevention

• Dispute Systems Design
  

  Do you expect a continuing series of similar disputes? Do you know about options for developing a system for the handling of routine disputes?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Designing New Dispute Resolution Systems
  • CRS mediators' discussion of designing dispute resolution systems

• Unrightable Wrongs
  

  Does the conflict involve a history of unrightable wrongs? Are you aware of options for transforming such conflicts?

  For more information on this topic, see:

  • Beyond Intractability Essays: Transformation, Apology and Forgiveness, Trauma Healing, Reconciliation