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“A huge portion of the human society runs on autopilot, under the authority of biases. That's why, the world is infested with so many conflicts. Once the humans get hold of their biases instead of letting their biases get hold of them, all conflicts would vanish into thin air.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Lives to Serve Before I Sleep

“Of course, our natural impulse in these [intractable conflict] situations is to fight or flee. To lash out, blame, attack, or challenge someone, or otherwise try to get out and avoid the situation altogether. These responses make perfect sense in the short term, but likely will have little effect on the 5 percent [of conflicts that are intractable]. In fact, they may make matters worse in the long term.

So if escaping or resolving this conflict is your goal (and we do not assume this is always the case), we suggest a different approach. And it begins with complicating your life.”
― Peter T. Coleman, The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts

“People from one side of the border most proudly kill people from the other side of the border and they call it patriotism. If this is patriotism, then I'd rather be the most unpatriotic person on earth, than be a savage patriot with no more brains in the skull than a neanderthal. Whom are you fighting, who are your enemies, and on whose orders are you fighting them, and how much sure are you that the superiors and their political authorities who are giving you all those commands, are actually even capable of making decisions on matters of peace and progress! Being a politician, doesn't mean being capable of making the best decisions for a people. So, if you keep following their commands like blind dogs in the hope of some miserable medals, then they'll rip this world apart into pieces and you are going to be the ammunition in that deed. You are born a human, so act like one, not for god’s sake, but for your children’s sake.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Citizens of Peace: Beyond the Savagery of Sovereignty

“It is critical to recognize that we live in an increasingly complex world - biologically, socially, politically, technologically, you name it - that holds many inherent contradictions. In the middle of this complex world are we humans, who have a natural tendency to seek coherence in what we see, feel, think, and do.

When we experience conflict, this tendency intensifies. Conflict is essentially a contradiction, an incompatibility, oppositely directed forces, and a difference that triggers tension. When we encounter conflict, within the field of forces that constitute it, the natural human tendency is to reduce that tension by seeking coherence through simplification. Research shows that this tendency toward simplification becomes even more intensified when we are under stress, threat, time constraints, fatigue, and various other conditions all absolutely typical of conflict.

So what is the big idea? It is NOT that coherence is bad and complexity is good. Coherence seeking is simply a necessary and functional process that helps us interpret and respond to our world efficiently and (hopefully) effectively. And complexity in extremes is a nightmare - think of Mogadishu, Somalia, in the 1990s or the financial crisis of 2009 or Times Square during rush hour on a Friday afternoon.

On the other hand, too much coherence can be just as pathological: for example, the collapse of the nuances and contradictions inherent in any conflict situation into simple 'us versus them' terms, or a deep commitment to a rigid understanding of conflicts based on past sentiments and obsolete information. Either extreme - overwhelming complexity or oversimplified coherence - is problematic. But in difficult, long-term conflicts, the tide pulls fiercely toward simplification of complex realities. This is what we must content with.”
― Peter T. Coleman, The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts

“There is not much difference between a person drunk on alcohol and a person drunk on biases. Both do things, that they wouldn't do, had they not been under the influence.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Lives to Serve Before I Sleep

“In a war, both sides genuinely believe that they are on the side of righteousness, yet no righteousness ever shows them the futility of the very war they are fighting. Because, both sides are driven by the instinctual force of nationalist patriotism. So, think of the countless wars that have caused gallons and gallons of bloodshed, all because warriors on both sides were incapable of reasoning due to the cognitive blindness caused by nationalism.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Citizens of Peace: Beyond the Savagery of Sovereignty

“In any war, except that for freedom from oppression, victory of any nation, is the defeat of all nations, because each war comes at the cost of lives, in the name of the same old tribal loyalty.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Citizens of Peace: Beyond the Savagery of Sovereignty

“We are not an advanced species â€� not when millions of our sisters and brothers still go hungry - not when countless of our siblings still don't have a roof over their head - not when many still spend every second of their life in fear of being bombed to death. And to change this, we need sacrifice - sacrifice of bravehearts - sacrifice of young lions and bold tigresses - sacrifice of boiling blood.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Citizens of Peace: Beyond the Savagery of Sovereignty

“In periods such as the early Middle Ages, which in general were free from social conflict, there is not, as a rule, any radical antagonism between artistic intention and technique; the art forms and the technique are employed harmoniously and say the same thing in different ways, the one factor being no more rational or irrational than the other. But in times like the Gothic age, when the whole of culture was rent by antagonisms, it often happens that the spiritual and material elements in art speak different languages and, as in the present case, the technique appears rational but the artistic aims irrational.”
― Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, Volume 1: From Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages

“Forget the constitution, forget sovereignty, forget your so-called devotion to your homeland, and for once in your life, devote yourself to the making of peace, because if you don't, then your children will be born in a land so narrow and wild, that they will curse you for giving birth to them in a primitive society. They will breathe in gun powder instead of oxygen, they will bathe in blood, instead of water and they will live inside the wreckage of buildings instead of a home. Is this the world you have in mind for your beloved progeny? Is this the future you hope to give to the apple of your eye? Think - put down the weapon and think. Turn off the news and think. Silence your phone and think. Open your eyes and think.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Citizens of Peace: Beyond the Savagery of Sovereignty

“Pain, misery, loss, loyalty, rage, frustration, fear, anxiety, and despair are the fuel and lifeblood of intractable conflict. Yet decades of research on social conflict has paid little attention to emotions. This has resulted in many practical techniques offering recommendations like 'If you become emotional during conflict, wait until it passes before you act' or 'Rise above your emotions and try to get a rational perspective on the situation.' This advice may be useful when emotions are a passing anomaly or inconvenience as they are in many low-level conflicts. But not with the 5 percent [of conflicts that are intractable]. Not when emotions are basic, not when they are enmeshed within the conflict, not when they ARE the rationale. To really comprehend the 5 percent, we need research models that place emotions at the center. We need models that not only see emotions as the energy behind the conflicts, but also recognize that they create the context through which we experience conflict.”
― Peter T. Coleman, The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts

“[Standard social science approaches to analyzing conflict] too often miss the unintended consequences of well-intentioned acts. Dietrich Dorner is a German psychologist who studies leadership and decision making in complex environments. He has suggested that there is more harm done in today's world by well-intentioned people trying to do good, who are unaware of the unintended consequences of their actions, than by people actually trying to cause harm. Remarkably, this may well be true.”
― Peter T. Coleman, The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts

“Integrative complexity: This refers to the level of complexity of the cognitive rules people use to process and analyze incoming information. Research spanning decades shows that people who have higher levels of integrative complexity tend to be more conciliatory in conflict and also that as conflicts escalate, peoples' level of cognitive complexity diminishes.”
― Peter T. Coleman, The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts

“Human beings are driven toward consistency and coherence in their perception, thinking, feeling, behavior, and social relationships. This is natural and functional. Conflict intensifies this drive, which can become dysfunctional during prolonged conflicts. However, developing more complex patterns of thinking, feeling, acting, and social organizing can mitigate this, resulting in more constructive responses to conflict.”
― Peter T. Coleman, The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts

“[Resolving intractable conflicts] takes time. John Paul Lederach once said that he almost got thrown out of a meeting in Northern Ireland regarding the conflict there when he suggested it might take them a long to get out of the conflict as it had to get into it (centuries). This is of course not always the case, but it is a prudent consideration.”
― Peter T. Coleman, The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts