ABSTRACT
C. Ernst and D. Chrobot-Mason suggest the need for “buffering” involving the defining of boundaries between people to foster a sense of internal safety. Much work is being done to develop and implement effective monitoring and evaluation of conflict resolution. V. Volkan has described in some detail the psychodynamic of projection in ethnic conflict in his treatise on “the need for enemies and allies.” In systems thinking a very important concept for conflict engagement is that conflicts normally spiral down a violent cycle. Intragroup conflict can be a cause of intergroup conflict, for example as members of groups project internal differences onto shared adversaries as one device for reducing their own animosity. Through a multi-staged developmental process of engaging internal conflicts and then building internal consensus over goals within groups, conditioning may occur to help foster consensus building between groups.
