As the Cold War recedes and Europe moves into a new union, protracted ethnic conflicts raging around the world pose a major challenge to forging a more peaceful world order in the waning years of the twentieth century. The serious and fresh attention given to these conflicts may also provide valuable conceptual and practical tools for conflict management. This article describes a methodology used for conflict resolution training and intervention in the context of protracted ethnic conflicts, and its application to the Cyprus conflict as a vehicle for research. The methodology suggests that it may be fruitful if parties in conflict, or examinations of conflict, were able to systematically develop a variety of different ways of analyzing the conflict and posing solutions to it. Three different lenses for conflict analysis and management are suggested: adversarial, reflexive, and integrative.
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References
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Diane B. Bendahmane and John W. McDonald, Jr., eds., Conflict Resolution: Track Two Diplomacy (Washington DC: Department of State, Foreign Service Institute, 1984).
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4. While I, ultimately, retain all responsibility for the limitations of this article, I am grateful to several politically and/or academically influential Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots who provided valuable criticism and suggestions. The Cypriots will remain un-named to maintain the confidentiality of my sources.
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Vamik Volkan , Cyprus—War and Adaptation: A Psychoanalytic History of Two Ethnic Groups in Conflict (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1979).
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6. James H. Wolfe, “A Historical Review of the Dispute,” in Perspectives on Negotiation: Four Case Studies and Interpretations, ed. Diane B. Bendahmane and John W. McDonald (Washington, DC: Department of State, Foreign Service Institute, 1986), p. 110.
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9. The use of italics indicates that the italicized passage is not a direct quotation but a composite of representations, orally or in writing, made by various individuals to the author and drawn from various essays. This method was employed in part to protect sources and in part to provide flexibility in portraying various interpretations of the situation.
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13. This is the mutually agreed-upon phrase that Mr. Mustafa Akinci and Mr. Lelos Demetriades used to describe their roles. Within their respective communities each was called “Mayor,” but as use of this title is viewed, particularly on the Greek Cypriot side, which does not recognize the legitimacy of a government structure separate from its own, as capitulation to the other side, they agreed that when they met in public they would use this broader appellation. Unlike other sources consulted directly for this article, their names are provided in this footnote as they publicly, and sometimes on shared podiums, have spoken about their cooperation, which is described herein. Thus the concern for confidentiality in their case is absent.
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14. One of the Turkish Cypriots from whom I requested prepublication critique of this article, a private adviser to Rauf Denktash, commented as follows on my description of this cooperation: “The story of this particular cooperation is, obviously, more complicated than your presentation space allows. It had an intense relationship to internal politics and the economy of both sides. It was done, at least on the Turkish side, under a perceived separateness from the Greeks.” While this criticism surely has some merit and thus is useful to note, examples of integrative problem solving and functional cooperation in situations of intense ethnic conflict are rare and thus this one, while imperfect, is still relatively unique and evocative and therefore illustratively powerful.
