In 1994, the Univ ersity System of Georgia embarked on an ambitious eff ort to reduce the costs of disputing by creating what is now possibly the largest comprehensive, integrated confl ict management system (ICMS) in higher education. For almost twenty years, the Consortium on Negotiation an d Confl ict Resolution has provided technical advice and support for this initiative. Th is article reviews the context, summarizes the ICMS design, draws a few lessons, and speculates on the value of this work. Because of my close personal involvement, I am straying from convention and telling this story from the fi rst-person perspective. Although probably skewed by hindsight, the historical context is important because our decisions and actions refl ected the prevailing conditions and our nascent level of knowledge and experience. Th e overarching lessons are applicable to most organizations and particularly salient for the confl ict management challenges facing the diverse colleges and universities in the United States today and any multifaceted, integrative organization.
This article introduces three other articles on transnational conjict resolution practice. Many North American practitioners are "exporting conjict resolution, '' applying their domestic experience and North American conflict-handling models and concepts in other societies and cultures. This practice raises a number of issues, including the cultural appropriateness and tranrferability of the models and the ability of the society to integrate new conjict-handling mechanisms or build conjicthandling capacip This article describes the kinds of work that various practitioners are conducting abroad and the context in which they are operating. It examines whether some of the models are replicable and suggests that the underlying concepts are of2en transferable but that the ultimate form or structure depends on the speczjic cultural context. It concludes that the primary challenge of transnational conjict resolution practice is conceptual transferability and that any emergingguidelines, protocolr, or best practices are use&l if they aid the recipient society: eforts to structurally adapt the conflict-handling model. en the Iron Curtain fell, bringing an end to the Cold War, mem-w bers of the North American conflict resolution community, both practitioners and theorists, turned toward transnational practice. We flocked to the emerging democracies of Central Europe, Russia, and Central Asia to help build democratic institutions. We rushed into Latin America and the Caribbean to teach people in other countries
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