Hamid Sadeghipour’s Personal Website

managing conflicts

Hamid Sadeghipour

                                                                          05/03/2010

1. Avoid jumping to a solution before fully analyzing the problem.
2. Describe the facts: What is the unsatisfactory situation? What is the context of the conflict? Who is involved? Who are the stakeholders? What is each person’s point of view?
3. Define the conflict: Where is the contradiction between the different points of view? Analyze each member’s viewpoint by speaking to them individually about the situation.
4. Diagnose the conflict: What preceded the conflict? What are the individual interests? What advantages does each party have? What are the power issues?
5. Consider the alternatives, for there is no “best” solution. Sometimes, when the conflict is due to a misunderstanding, explaining the situation in an explicit way may help to resolve the conflict. In other circumstances, the differing points of view cannot be changed, only accepted.
6. Implement the solution that has been chosen.
7. Evaluate the solution. If the unsatisfactory situation still exists, begin the process again.
8. Most of us follow the courses, even during college or university we had conflict solving course. But we forget these points and look for our immediate interests. During 1960-1980 we had philosophers who were protesting the world human conditions, but now, militarism is over everything. People are worrying about their own economic situation. When we had Bam earthquake in Iran, people died, without the need for reconstruction. The lack of people in south of Iran like bam, mobilized people to replace them. Then Indonesia Earthquake with 180 000 people around Indian Ocean died. American and NATO forces were moving to Iraq and Afghanistan. We agree over Carbon two oxides content in the atmosphere but do not agree that military actions around the world could be anti- environmental. We have enough ship movements for goods and merchandises, that earth could not support our conflicts.             5 millions of Chinese after the china earthquake eased the American and NATO presence in Afghanistan. Now we have again 4 millions people without shelter and nothing to do for a while. Of course, again some army attacks to restore the justice and again another devastating earthquake. Arms producing countries, Drug traffickers, smugglers, etc, all should agree like G20 in Copenhagen to reduce their activities. Of course, the earthquake could only be emphasized by human activity and the source of the earthquake remains as before.

When along the coast the soil slides heavily, you have to fix the ocean basin near the coasts. You spend a lot about your militarism, but when something happens to you, you sell more arms to defend you. Some of you say the earthquake never happens in your country, but what about fire in the woods and shrubs, or flood, or hurricanes, or storms. We have to agree on constructing our earth or, one day soon or late is our turn.