Conflict Resolution and Human Needs: Linking Theory and Practice

This edited volume examines Basic Human Needs theory and interactive problem solving, looking at recent developments in thinking about both and how these might affect peacebuilding in contemporary conflicts of the twenty-first century.

The era in the immediate aftermath of World War II was, paradoxically, a time of great optimism in parts of academia. There was, especially in the United States and much of Europe, a widespread belief in the social sciences that systematic scholarly analysis would enable humanity to understand and do something about the most complex of social processes, and thus about solving persistent human problems: unemployment, delinquency, racism, under-development, and even issues of conflict, war and peace.

This book examines the evolution of the Basic Human Needs theory and is divided into two key parts: Basic Human Needs in Theory and Basic Human Needs in Practice. Exploring this theory through a wide range of different lenses, including gender, ethics and power, the volume brings together some of the leading scholars in the field of peace and conflict studies and draws upon research both past and present to forecast where the movement is headed in the future.

This book will be of much interest to students of peace and conflict studies, conflict resolution, psychology, security studies and IR.

Kevin Avruch is the Henry Hart Rice Professor of Conflict Resolution and Professor of Anthropology at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and senior fellow and faculty in the Peace Operations Policy Program, School of Public Policy, at George Mason University. He is author or editor of six books, including Context and Pretext in Conflict Resolution: Culture, Identity, Power and Practice (2012), Culture and Conflict Resolution (1998) and Information Campaigns for Peace Operations (2000).

Christopher Mitchell is currently Emeritus Professor of Conflict Research at George Mason University, Virginia, where he was Director of the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution between 1991 and 1994. Most recently he has published Gestures of Conciliation (2000), A Handbook of Conflict Resolution (1995) and (with Landon Hancock) Zones of Peace (2007).