@article{ref1,
title="Intractable Conflict as an Attractor: A Dynamical Systems Approach to Conflict Escalation and Intractability",
journal="American behavioral scientist",
year="2007",
author="Coleman, Peter T. and Vallacher, R. R. and Nowak, Agnieszka and Bui-Wrzosinska, L.",
volume="50",
number="11",
pages="1454-1475",
abstract="Decades of research on social conflict has contributed to researchers' understanding of a wide variety of psychological, social, and community-based aspects of conflict escalation and intractability. However, the field has yet to put forth a theoretical model that links these components to the basic underlying structures and dynamics that account for intractability and transformation. This article presents a dynamical systems approach to conceptualizing intractable conflict as a preliminary step toward developing a basic theory of intractability. The authors propose that it is particularly useful to conceptualize ongoing, destructive patterns of conflict as strong attractors, a particular form of self-organization of multiple elements of conflict systems. Their dynamical approach to conflict intractability is outlined, and some preliminary implications of this approach for conflict de-escalation are discussed.<p />",
language="",
issn="0002-7642",
doi="10.1177/0002764207302463",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764207302463"
}