Innovation

If we are to complete our discussion of various types of intractable conflict, we cannot stop at the point where our main analysis has been focused on incompatible demands for, or aspirations to achieve, goods that are in limited supply or wholly integrated goods that cannot be divided — fairly or unfairly — among adversaries. In any full exploration of “intractability”, we have finally to cope with situations where the adversaries have either (a) taken up quite contrary positions that only appear to permit a winner and a loser1 or (b) are aiming for a completely different result, the achievement of which will make it impossible for the adversary to achieve their own favoured outcome. In these cases we seem to face wholly incommensurable goals and maybe a genuinely “zero-sum” situation.