Prevention

One relatively recent development in thinking about processes for “coping” with conflicts has been a renewed interest in the idea of conflict prevention, linked at the international level to the practice of preventive diplomacy.1 Both of these conceptions arise from the basic, but not particularly startling, idea that it would be easier — and better — for societies not to have to undergo the worst aspects of violent and protracted conflicts if remedies could be found for them early on, well before dynamic processes have escalated into violent behaviour, attitudes and positions have hardened, feelings of hostility have become entrenched and mistrust has deepened. Once goals have changed to include either deriving compensation for losses already sustained or punishing the adversary for past “crimes” and aggressions, then a conflict has truly become intractable.