Welcome
Welcome to the Web site for the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (CNCR). The Center is part of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, located at Civic Square, New Brunswick, New Jersey. CNCR is at the forefront of a movement that believes disputes can be settled by constructive negotiation and consensus-building and problem-solving approaches instead of by force or adversarial argument.
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“If someone had more cows, the family would redistribute the milk so that all the kids in the village would have enough.”
Researchers from Rutgers and Arizona State University will spend the next three years trying to gain a better understanding of cooperation and generosity as part of the Human Generosity Project.
Is Generosity Essential to Human Existence? | Media Relations
news.rutgers.edu
When Dennis ole Sonkoi was a child he never gave much thought to sharing. Growing up in Kenya as part of the Maasai community – a pastoral group of herdsmen that travels throughout Kenya and Tanzania – it was routine to make sure others had resources, like enough milk to drink.
See discussion below on why these cross-border state disputes require fresh thinking in order to avoid win-lose outcomes that fail to solve problems and can often make them worse.
economist.com
BALANCING on an inflatable ring in a river is not easy. Balancing a cooler full of beer at the same time is only for experts—many of whom can be found among the...
Cross-border disputes involving states (which, if not resolved, wind up before the U.S.Supreme Court where original jurisdiction resides) require some fresh thinking. Costly litigation that establishes a winner and a loser generally fails to solve problems much as was the case with the Statue of Liberty and the dispute between NY and NJ, both claiming "ownership" of the island.
Subsequent cases have illustrated the need for alternative processes. The National Governors Association is a likely suspect to provide mediation services but it declines the opportunity. So, absent any process, the disputes get worse and, often, even worse after they are "decided." New case in point: Florida and Georgia fighting over shellfish harvests. They've been battling, since 1990, over the water from two river basins...Now Florida has sued Georgia and Georgia filed its answer in January.
From a recent issue of "The Economist," the concluding paragraph: "Whoever is right, and whatever the Supreme Court eventually decides, one thing is certain: urban growth and climate change between them are likely to trigger plenty more water disputes in America's south-east in future."
So, time, once again, to imagine a better problem-solving process than litigation?
We need more of this kind of thinking! Ms. Mason wants to develop integrated approaches in which schools and nonprofits not only share space, but also share expertise, planning, decision-making power... She asks, "What if we aligned our operations and service delivery modalities with our knowledge....we might find ourselves able to do more with less so that the children and families in our communities could do more with more." Read more....
Opinion: Community schools and nonprofits could work together, 'live' together
nj.com
Another compelling reason why we should integrate efforts between schools and the nonprofit community: the strong connection between poverty and education.
The complexity of negotiations often challenge what may be our intuitive sense about things. Take climate treaties. As this column points out, voluntary agreements are more likely to attract nations and lead to greater compliance than binding agreements.
Surprisingly, a Voluntary Climate Treaty Could Actually Work
nytimes.com
The binding nature of international agreements like the 1997 Kyoto Protocol can do more harm than good by dissuading countries from joining.