ABSTRACT
A goal for US security planners must be to resolve these disagreements before nations resort to violence. Conflict resolution has never been a strong point for US foreign policy. In this chapter, the authors examine four different ways the United States can cooperate with other nations: closer bilateral ties, stronger norms of international behavior, regional and international regimes, and global institutions like the UN and the World Court. Bilateral agreements are the simplest, and most appropriate, means to resolve conflicts between two nations. First, the United States should promote norms that reduce the basic causes of conflict; a second type of valuable norm would view international dialogue as unconditional. Regimes help nations avoid the inadvertent generation of new conflicts by exposing them to the interests of a much larger number of nations. The United States clearly has many tools for resolving conflict without violence.
