You are required to answer one question from the ten listed below. The work must be your own - no collaboration with other members of the class is allowed. However, you may use whatever reading material you wish from that covered in the course and external sources, remembering to reference your answers accordingly. The total length of your essay paper should not exceed 15 double spaced type written pages. Your term paper is due to be returned on March 22, and should be handed in at the end of class. Note that late submissions will be severely penalized.

1. "Embedded enemy images are a serious obstacle to conflict management, routinization, reduction or resolution Once formed, enemy images tend to become deeply rooted and resistant to change, even when one's adversary attempts to signal a change in intent to another. The images themselves then perpetuate and intensify the conflict."

Why are enemy images important for explaining the behavior of conflicting parties? What is the relationship between the genesis of such images and frustration of basic needs?

2. In Getting to Yes (2nd ed.,) Fisher & Ury attempt to answer the following question: "Can 
the way I negotiate really make a difference if the other side is more powerful?" And "How 
do I enhance my negotiating power?" 

Analyze their answer to the above question and assess the viability of principled negotiation 
in conflicts where great disparities in power exist between the conflicting parties. 

3. 'The dual concern model implies that conflict style is determined by the strength of two independent individual difference variables - concern about Party's own outcomes and concern about Other's outcomes.'

Does the dual concern model offer a credible means of understanding negotiating strategies? How might understanding the dual concern model help us devise successful strategies of conflict resolution? What limitations are there to applying the dual concern model to conflicts?

4. Do women, as a result of socialization, have a 'special' role in transforming societal values and approaches to conflict? In answering this question, refer to different feminist approaches to women's 'special role' (these are outlined by Mary Burguieres' article) and how these contribute to a gender perspective on peace and conflict resolution.

5. In Nonviolent Communication, Marshall Rosenburg argues that communication based on 'honest expression' and 'empathic listening' of basic needs and feelings is the key to the nonviolent resolution of conflict. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of his thesis. How persuasive is Rosenberg's overall argument?

6. Compare and contrast the nonviolent philosophies of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi with particular focus on the transformative aspects of their philosophies, and the relevance of their views in the post-cold war era.

7. 'Problem solving' (or 'prenegotiation' or 'consultation') workshops have two purposes: 

First, they are designed to produce changes in the workshop participants themselves - changes in the form of more differentiated images of the enemy, greater insight into the dynamics of the conflict, and new ideas for resolving the conflict and for overcoming the barriers to a negotiated solution.... [A] second purpose of the workshops is to maximize the likelihood that the new insights, ideas, and proposals ... are fed back into the political debate and the decision making process within each community. 
Herbert Kelman, in Managing Global Chaos, 507

What are the principal benefits of workshops that focus on the above purposes? What are 
the main problems that need to be overcome, and how can success be measured for such 
workshops? 

8. It may be argued that a more forceful promotion and implementation of human rights norms might destabilize some states and even entire regions. To what extent should human rights concerns be diluted in respect to countries facing domestic and foreign challenges to their territorial integrity and sovereignty? Discuss with reference to a specific country whose government has been accused of human rights violations.

9. What relationship exists between micro efforts at individual transformation and macro efforts towards global peace? What relevance do the practices of different spiritual/transformative approaches have for larger issues concerning international conflict?

10. Frame your own question concerning one of the topics covered in the course. Clear the question with me before you begin your research and writing!

Note: You need to submit a two page outline of your planned paper on March 1. The outline should contain your main argument and a description of framework you are using.