Getting to Peace

Ury, coauthor of Getting to Yes and Getting Past No, takes on a global issue--how people can live at peace with one another. Citing last spring's shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., as an example of horrible violence, Ury examines the myths about violence and offers some surprising insights and solutions. Using his anthropological fieldwork, Ury describes how the African Bushmen solve conflicts: no violence, whether it be raised voices or hitting children, is permitted; instead, there must be a dialogue until a solution to the problem is achieved. Anyone who is unwilling to work on a resolution verbally ends up leaving. Ury reports that Bushmen speak of a ""third side,"" a point of view that represents not the interests of one of two parties to a conflict but rather the interests of the community as a whole. Ury then enumerates 10 ""third side roles"" that can be brought to bear on a conflict. These include mediator, arbitrator, equalizer and healer. Though filled with intelligent insight into the nature of human conflict, Ury's ideas are based on the premise that ""humanity is in the midst of a social, economic, and political transformation just as far-reaching as the Agricultural Revolution ten thousand years ago."" Skeptical readers will find that Ury comes close to asserting that human nature itself is changing. The book is full of good advice about conflict resolution, even if its more sweeping generalizations about the future eradication of war appear to be based more on optimism than on observation. (Oct.)