NEW ENGLAND CHAPTER OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION NE-ACR News Volume #20 Issues #3 & 4 Summer & Fall 2012 Guiding a group that has DEEP disagreements An excerpt from Civic Fusion: Mediating Polarized Public Disputes By Susan L. Podziba As I scanned the room, the beauty of the pro-life and pro-choice leaders was striking. Six women, tragically unified by shooting deaths at two women’s health clinics, were talking about partial-birth abortions, also referred to as bans on certain abortion procedures (we used both labels in discussions because neither side accepted the way the other framed the issue). As their absolute and unbridgeable chasm came into clear focus, so, too, did the depth of their relational bonds. It was mysterious. Some called it sacred. As a facilitator of the talks, I called it paradoxical unity. For years after this experience, I walked around with little red bar magnets in my pocket. In spare moments, I’d take them out and turn their positive ends toward each other to feel the combined power of their mutually insistent forces. It reminded me of the gap that existed among the pro-life and pro-choice leaders. But it also left me continuously puzzled over the binding force that had held the two groups together, Thinkstock illustration even as the gap remained intact. I thought there must be a natural, physical force that would help explain the paradoxical unity of the abortion talks. With the benefit In this issue Page of an MIT email address (I was teaching there at the Civic Fusion By Susan L. Podziba 1 time), I wrote to magnetics professors to ask their Shared understandings By Ruthy Kohorn Rosenberg 4 indulgence for a brief conversation. In every issue Dr. Alan Lightman, a physicist, novelist, and director of 10 Questions for: Frederick Barton 2 MIT’s writing program, generously agreed to meet with me. I explained the puzzle I was trying to solve, and he From the president By Jane Beddall 3 quickly suggested I was looking for the nuclear force, Remembering Don Dickey 6 which holds together protons and neutrons in an atom’s nucleus. SAVE THE DATE Having studied basic chemistry, I found myself shocked NE-ACR’s REGIONAL CONFERENCE that I had never questioned how protons — with positive June 14-15, 2013, in Sturbridge, MA Continued on page 5 Published quarterly Page 1 NEW ENGLAND CHAPTER OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION 10 Questions for Rick Barton Frederick "Rick” Barton was confirmed by the Senate in March 2012 as assistant secretary for conflict and stabilization operations and coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization for the US State Department, where he works on development, peace building, climate change, human rights, and related issues. Over the past 15 years, he has served as the founding director of the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Transition Initiatives; deputy high commissioner of the United Nations refugee agency; professor and lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School; and as a senior adviser and co-director of the Post Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Barton, who has degrees from Harvard College and Boston University, has managed complex operations, directed strategic planning and built teams to improve the way the United States and the international community approach the challenges of more than 30 crisis places and fragile states. Paula Craighead, who conducted this interview, caught up with Barton this summer in Maine. Your mother was born in Boothbay had to develop better tolerance to listen to Do you have a favorite tie you wear for Harbor, you spend summers in Maine, the same stories over and over again. difficult or important meetings? you started a business in Portland, and What has influenced your peace work? I do have a tie. It’s kind of gold with black. I you were involved in state political My mother’s approach was influential. She feel like it’s special. campaigns. Are there aspects of your had that genuine optimism that fuels You’ve worked in many cultures. Do they work as a diplomat that are influenced persistence, another New England quality. all value looking someone in the eyes by your connection to New England? Persistence is critical. upon greeting? For sure. New England civil life is one --- No, not exactly, but what is universal is the we’re so institution rich. We have every form You have worked for some of the world’s most influential and powerful women. establishment of some connection. Everyone of democratic practice: public votes, likes to feel respected, so you have to figure caucuses. The second piece is the innovative What advice do you have for others in that situation? out how to communicate your respect to the restlessness of New Englanders. We’ve other person. Once in Angola a few years actually had success at solving significant It’s been really a huge pleasure to work for Eileen Shanahan, [former deputy under ago, we attended an Indian community disputes, looking back through history, all service. We were down on the ground, and I the way from the era of the American secretary of Health, Education and Welfare]; Sadako Ogata, [UN High Commissioner for didn’t have a clue what to do next: I didn’t Revolution. Those strains are informative know whether my head was to touch the and influential. They influence my sense of Refugees from 1991 to 2001]; [UN ambassador] Susan Rice; and Hillary ground or not. Somehow you communicate hopefulness, which at the end of the day is that you want to do it right whether you needed [to do peace work]. Clinton. I’m fortunate that my first boss was my grandmother in Boothbay Harbor. She actually do. During a recent visit to Maine, you was a very skillful teacher, and working for What habits or skills can you share with received the 2012 International her was a real pleasure. While these four mediators? Leadership Award from the Maine women I mentioned have tremendous ranges World Affairs Council. How was that? It helps to have a lot of patience. After that, it in leadership approaches and styles, they are starts with understanding the case as much It was a great visit and a nice event. It was so or were all great competitors, highly as possible. I listen to as many voices as full of a generous spirit it would have been energetic, very well prepared and people of possible in an iterative fashion. Many times hard not to have a great time. high integrity. My advice is to recognize that the choice of words people use gives a lot of Have you ever given yourself the title these qualities make good bosses. information. In Sarajevo in 1994, I heard “mediator?” Eileen Babbitt, an international people characterize the opposing parties in Not really, although more mediation is mediator at Tufts’ Fletcher School, once ways that were as diminishing as possible. I something this office is really interested in said, “international mediation is was hearing, in other words, certain levels of doing. There is a need for more and more domestic mediation outside the United intensity. After this [listening] process, I can people trained in mediation for what we do. States.” Does that seem true to you? be comfortable with sharing new ideas, Do you “sit with conflict” a lot? Yes, because so much of it has to do with especially if I hear looping or circular ideas Yes. And there’s a full range of human human beings and appreciating what going on between the parties. motivates them. Find out what their core emotions, including denial, because lack of Paula Craighead is on the board of interests are and don’t lose sight of those progress may be the situation. Lack of governors of the Maine Association of while finding common ground. The skill sets progress is difficult. I admire all different Mediators and editor of its bimonthly styles [of negotiation]. At one point, I found I that you have you use wherever you are. newsletter, The Bulletin. Published quarterly Page 2 NEW ENGLAND CHAPTER OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION From NE-ACR’s president Connections stretch across time, distance, and interests By Jane Beddall resolution practitioners throughout New Hamden, Connecticut, the site of our 2012 The fall is a busy time for NE-ACR and the England. NE-ACR members, in turn, are Summer Institute, where board member world of conflict resolution. It’s a time for part of other networks in the conflict Jessica Hynes serves on the faculty. Diane meetings and conferences, reflecting and resolution arena. In September, I attended was introduced by Bill Logue, a past NE- recharging. This year, I have been struck by the ACR annual conference in New Orleans, ACR president. In the audience were past a recurring theme: connections. where I met leaders of other ACR chapters board members Joe Mengacci and Peter We had a marvelous fall program in from around the country. We shared ideas to Benner, and past Pioneer Award winner Wellesley, Massachusetts, on October 17, address our common challenges and we Harry Mazadoorian. Later, I was introduced “Conflict, Consensus, and Leadership in the continue to in a break-out session by moderator and past Political Debate.” We started with a board member Frances Caliafore. lively social time, where newbies and I drop these names for a reason: to ask you old friends met, chatted and put faces to take a moment to consider how getting to to voices and names. The panelists and know other NE-ACR members allows you moderator provided so many thought- to be a part of others’ networks of dedicated, provoking observations that I found energetic, fascinating people who practice myself trying to use mnemonic devices conflict resolution.