Learning Lessons From Waco: When Parties Bring Their Gods to the Negotiation Table (Religion and Politics) - Softcover

Docherty, Jayne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0815627769 ISBN 13: 9780815627760

Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 2001

Synopsis

Heated debates about "what really happened in Waco" are a recurring public drama. Yet, little or no attention has been given to the work of the negotiators who talked with the Branch Davidians. In this important book, Jayne Seminare Docherty utilizes largely unexplored sources of data to explain why fifty-one days of negotiations by federal officials failed to get all of the Branch Davidians to exit the compound. <i>Learning Lessons from Waco </i>applies a theory of worldview conflicts to the more than 12,000 pages of the negotiation transcripts from Waco. Through perceptive analysis of the situation, Docherty offers a fresh perspective on the activities of law enforcement agents. She shows how the Waco conflict resulted from a collision of two distinct worldviews—the FBI's and the Davidians'—and their divergent notions of reality. By exploring the failures of the negotiations, she also urges a better understanding of encounters between rising religious movements and dominant social institutions. Finally, the resulting model is applicable to other conflict resolution processes such as mediation and facilitated problem solving.

About this title

About the Author

Jayne Seminare Docherty is the Academic Programs Director at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. She is also the Chief Knowledge Officer and a founding partner of CJP IKON, a software development company created with graduates of CJP.

Docherty earned her undergraduate degree at Brown University in 1978. She has been working in peacebuilding education since 1980, when she developed a peace and social justice curriculum for a Catholic high school. Since earning her doctorate in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University, she has taught at George Mason University, Columbia College (South Carolina), and Eastern Mennonite University. Docherty has also guest taught with programs in Lebanon, Somaliland, and Belgium. Much of her professional practice has involved training and supporting negotiators as they navigate complex negotiation processes in unstable settings.

More details can be found at her LinkedIn profile and her academia.edu page.

 

From the Back Cover

Heated debates about "what really happened in Waco" are a recurring public drama. Yet, little or no attention has been given to the work of the negotiators who talked with the Branch Davidians. In this important book, Jayne Seminare Docherty utilizes largely unexplored sources of data to explain why fifty-one days of negotiations by federal officials failed to get all of the Branch Davidians to exit the compound.

Learning Lessons from Waco applies a theory of worldview conflicts to the more than 12,000 pages of the negotiation transcripts from Waco. Through perceptive analysis of the situation, Docherty offers a fresh perspective on the activities of law enforcement agents. She shows how the Waco conflict resulted from a collision of two distinct worldviews -- the FBI's and the Davidians' -- and their divergent notions of reality.

By exploring the failures of the negotiations, she also urges a better understanding of encounters between rising religious movements and dominant social institutions. Finally, the resulting model is applicable to other conflict resolution processes such as mediation and facilitated problem solving.

Reviews

Docherty (conflict studies, Eastern Mennonite Univ.) presents a conceptual model of worldview conflict, using the example of Waco to extract principles for negotiating with communities motivated by unconventional beliefs. Having researched transcripts of the negotiation tapes, official reports of events surrounding the negotiation, and interviews, she argues that parties with fundamentally different worldviews must first deal with reality, or "worldnaming," before they can begin to confront the issues. Docherty suggests that because they used different "naming, framing, and blaming" language, the two sides in the Waco negotiation were destined to fail. While the Branch Davidians' reality was based on values and spirituality, that of the FBI was scientific and goal-centered, and it dismissed the Davidians' attempts to communicate as "Bible babble." Docherty concludes with 14 lessons for future crisis negotiators dealing with such groups, not the least of which is that they must know their own worldview and work to understand that of the parties with whom they are negotiating. This book is doctoral candidate Docherty's thesis, as reflected in the hundreds of citations, footnotes, and discussions of other theoretical approaches. While the thesis is important and timely, the language is sometimes so academic that it may not be every negotiator's next read. For academic libraries. Julie Denny, Resolutions, Inc., Armenia, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0815627769
• ISBN 13: 9780815627760
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 372