John W. Burton: A Pioneer in Conflict Analysis and Resolution

Utilising a chronological approach, the aim of this introductory essay is to explain and illustrate the evolution of John Burton’s approach to politics and, especially, human conflict, culminating in the concept and practical processes of Provention. Burton never intended to be an academic. His early years were spent in the ‘practical politics’ where he encountered problems and conventional ‘solutions’ which were often failures or counterproductive. As an academic he sought an alternative, free from the ‘lessons of history’ and informed by psychological and sociological inputs, to demonstrate that conflicts were capable of resolution, and not an inescapable problem for humanity.

John W Burton authored or co-authored more than 20 books as well as many journal articles and chapters in published academic works. They are listed in chronological order together with references to Library collections of his work, oral histories and sound recordings.

WesternWestern experience now is that in dealing with ‘rebels’ in South-East AsiaSouth-East Asia, it is hopeless to rely upon force, threats of collective action, or repression exercised through colonial or nominated governments, particularly if the peoples of the areas concerned do not feel that the West is acting in their interests. The West cannot win any warWar, hot or cold, if right through South-East Asia and the Middle EastMiddle East in particular, the people – as distinct from the governments which at the moment rule them – believe that the West is on the side of colonialism and feudalism.

International life is inevitably a dynamic condition of unrelenting competitionCompetition among nations for trade and commerce, for prestige and status, and for the winning of allegiances and the promotion of ideologies. Deliberate attempts to outmaneuvre and to defeat in constant battle for position, prestige, and powerPower are a normal feature of relations among states. A condition of stable peaceful relations is not likely to be an undisturbed day-by-day international relationship, nor one in which there is general acceptance of any existing international structure. Competition, even in a theoretically perfect condition of peaceful relationships, would tend to be pushed at least to the limits beyond which peace would be destroyed. Such aggressive competitionCompetition follows automatically from the existence of independent and sovereign statesSovereign state.

“Peace research” organizations are now developing in many countries. They represent a somewhat belated popular intellectual response to the circumstances of the nuclear ageNuclear age, and probably feed to some extent upon frustrations experienced by those who earlier responded emotionally and publicly.

Fresh concepts and terminology help to overcome what could reasonably be described as habits of thought, if not traditional prejudice. New terms—the jargon of a discipline—are not generally welcome, and clearly must be justified. Nevertheless, they should not lightly be rejected in favour of customary language, for it is by a slight shift in emphasis, or the slightly altered perspective of new terms, that thought has developed. Furthermore, we need to remind ourselves that all common language was once ‘jargon’. ‘PowerPower’, ‘equilibrium’, ‘balance-of-power’, are terms derived from mechanics. If altered conditions, or different perspectives attract attention to features not specifically included in a former concept, then new terminology is justified. We will be referring to ‘steeringSteering’ and to ‘communication’ processesProcess within a system. Power and steering refer to different aspects of a mechanical system; both are analogous and derived from the sciences, and the one is no more jargon than the other.

Traditional thinking about relations between States, both in the academic and the political spheres, was characterized by acceptance of the following propositions: (i) Man is by nature aggressive; (ii) The quest for powerPower is universal and a fundamental drive; (iii) States, being led by and comprising men, are aggressive and seek power; (iv) Some States are more aggressive and more inclined to seek power than others because of variations in human qualities and in social institutions and philosophies; and (v) Each State is in these circumstances obliged to organize its defences against the potential aggressive designs of others.

In this study some general hypotheses about the motivation of State behaviour and the nature of conflictNature of conflict and conflict managementConflict management have been formulated. Some of the feed-back process has occurred already and is reflected in the hypotheses put forward (See J. W. Burton, “The Analysis of Conflict by Casework”, in: Year Book of World Affairs, vol. xxi, 1967.). It is now possible to state some propositions about the motivations of international societyInternational society, dysfunctional conflictDysfunctional conflict and policy, and these should help to clarify the original hypotheses.

The bringing of parties to an on-going communal or inter-state disputeCommunal or inter-state dispute into a situation of controlled communicationSituation of controlled communication is an obvious way of examining their relations, of stimulating theories, of arriving at hypotheses and of testing them. One might wonder why it has not been done before.

The purpose of this paper is to set down, step by step, the procedures that seem to be required in the resolutionResolution of a communal or interstate conflictConflict, and to give the theoretical reasons for each.

Thanks to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace at Geneva, I have had the opportunity of hearing searching criticisms of my paper and of the book Conflict and CommunicationConflict and Communication, on which it was based. This is to comment on these criticisms.

When we may learn best by first having a knowledge of the whole, in practice, the existence of this knowledge depends upon the experiences of others who have been able – sometimes over many generations – to build up a total picture from their knowledge of parts and the relations of parts. A map is drawn by exploration of parts. The parts come first. This is the practical means of discovery. Similarly, in exploring human behaviourHuman behaviour we, as persons, commence with the immediate social unit, and only later do we explore the interactions within and between larger societies. We discover relationships first within the family, then the kinship group, the school, the locality, the nation, and only much later in the wider environment. It is our day-to-day habit to move from local to wider knowledge, from discovery of parts to wholes. It is the way of learning in the absence of a total picture.

It is often argued that a natural scientist works on a basis of sure knowledge, that he achieves his objectives, that he produces goods that are wanted, and that the respect engendered leads policy-makers to take him seriously. He is in business when his work results in a new fibre, an electronic device, a heart pace-maker, or a new weapon. Not so the social or political scientist. Of him it is argued that he has no sure basis of knowledge; that there is a wide variety of personal philosophies and prejudices entering into his observations; and that he does not produce ideas of value to policy-makers, who therefore do not hold him in high respect.

The approach to this study of unsolved problems—i.e. how they are analysed and defined—and also the conclusions of this study that dwell on processesProcess by which specific unsolved problems may be resolved, both involve the notion of problem-solvingProblem-solving. This is a familiar notion when it is applied to means of dealing with a situation: it is not far removed from the notion of decision-making. It is less familiar as a particular approach or technique that excludes all means of dealing with or controlling situations except those that specifically seek a resolutionResolution as distinct from a coercive settlement. It is appropriate, therefore, to consider problem-solving as an approach and as a processProcess.

Role is a behavioural concept. It implies function, duties, performance by a role occupant. The State, however, is not a role occupant. The State is a legal notion, a label that signifies the existence of a geographical area, recognised by those who occupy other areas outside it. Within the State, there are authorities with jurisdiction within this area, also recognised by others. It is authorities that enact roles. It is they that have and reflect interests; it is they that interpret and assert national interests.

We have taken the relatively simple case of industrial relations to see what relevance a needs theoryNeeds theory has to conflict resolutionConflict resolution. Now let us look at political relations. The questions we are asking are ‘Which is the better theoretical explanation of political relations?’, ‘Which is the better base on which to make predictions?’ and ‘Which is the better base on which to formulate and to assess policies, traditional powerPower theories or behavioural explanations?’

In theHistory of International Conflict Resolution research and applied areas of international conflict resolutionConflict resolution this is a period of transition from one main thrust to another: from powerPower bargaining and negotiation to analysis and the discovery of agreed options. It is, understandably, also a time of some confusion over concepts and terminology.

TheTheory of conflict resolution generalUnfinished business in conflict resolution thesis of ‘analytical problem-solvingProblem-solving facilitated conflict resolutionConflict resolution’ is that parties to a conflictConflict are able to find agreed options or means by which to cooperate in achieving their goals once they have made a complete analysis of the problems in their relationships. Such an analysis includes perceiving accurately the depths of feelings and the frustrations experienced by each other, and the extent to which apparently hostile behaviors are the consequence of environmental constraintsConsequence of environmental constraints.

Conflict resolution is a recent concept. It is still not part of any consensual understanding. Indeed, the terms disputes and conflictsDisputes and conflicts are used interchangeably, as are settlement and resolutionResolution. In the emerging literature on conflict resolutionConflict resolution these terms have distinctive meanings. ‘Disputes’ involve negotiable interestsNegotiable interests, while ‘conflictsConflict’ are concerned with issues that are not negotiable, issues that relate to ontological human needsHuman needs that cannot be compromised. Accordingly, ‘settlement’ refers to negotiated or arbitrated outcomes of disputes, while ‘resolution’ refers to outcomes of a conflict situation that must satisfy the inherent needs of all. Hence we have dispute settlementDispute settlement and conflict resolution.

Societies, universally, are experiencing the failure of authorities to preserve law and order and, thereby, to ensure an absence of conflictConflict, domestically and internationally. What are the reasons for failure of systems and within systems? Does an extension of conflict analysis and resolutionResolution, as it has now evolved, offer the basis of a preventive system to replace the traditional authoritative, and now failing, preventive system?

In all social relationships there are inevitably ongoing differences in viewpoints. These emerge in discussions and opinions may change. Discussions may lead to arguments. Their settlement is usually by dialogueDialogue, frequently assisted by persons with an open mind, leading to altered opinions. Indeed, research dialogueDialogue is characterized by arguments, leading to discovery and to increased knowledge.

Civilizations in CrisisCivilizations in crisis: poverty and starvation amongst plenty within and between nations, uncontrollable violenceViolence at all social levels, ethnic conflictEthnic conflicts and cleansing, drugs, crimeCrime and corruption, personal insecurity and avoidable environmental pollution and depletion. All increasing at exponential rates.

The last chapter [of the work from which this text was extracted (Eds.)] was based on the provocative assumption that there are certain ontological human needs that will be pursued, that they provide a power greater than police and military power, that they lead the individual and identity group to defy compliance requirements, and that they explain and even justify in some circumstances anti-social and violent behaviours. The assumption of human needs is so crucial to the analysis which will follow that it must be given more substance and justification.

FromConflict Resolution Towards Problem-Solving earliest times human societies, like those which preceded them, have been subject to rule by the relatively strong. In contemporary legal terms there have been ‘those who have a right to rule, and others who have an obligation to obey’. Feudal societies, then industrial societies, had structures that reflected these ‘we-they’ relationships based on relative powerPower.

InConflict resolution the human dimension determining the source of conflictsConflict there is a basic question we cannot afford to dodge.

It seemed to me in the immediate Post-War II period, when IndiaIndia, then countries in South East AsiaSouth-East Asia, followed by colonies in Africa, achieved their independence, that the future of world societyWorld Society would trend away from precarious power alliances and powerPower balances toward independent units which would pursue their own independent policies guided by their own perceptions of national interest. The longer-term interests of these new states would be in collaborative rather than power politicalPower political or adversarial relationships.

ForConflict provention as a political system those of us who identify with the dispute or conflictConflict fields, and their theories and practices, the pressing question is: ‘Where do we go from hereWhere do we go from here?’ I wish to argue that the future of problem-solving conflict resolutionProblem-solving conflict resolution, perhaps unlike dispute settlementDispute settlement, lies not in remaining just an interactive processProcess, but in establishing the basis of an alternative to the adversarial procedures in the legal and political systems that WesternWestern societies have inherited and promoted.

Most peoples in the world today, whatever their age, position or nation, suffer high levels of anxiety. Governments are failing to provide living conditions which are reasonably free of poverty, injustice, violence and crime, or a physical environment which provides for future generations.

Political conflict grew in salience inConflict Research Avant la Lettre the nineteenth century as warWar became more important as a curse of human kind. Other traditional curses, such as famine and the plague, were yielding to the application of scientific rationality to our human and social environment, especially in WesternWestern and Central Europe and the Atlantic seaboard of North America.

Nearly 30 years ago, whileJohn Burton’s contribution to conflict resolution theory and practice a doctoral student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, I had the good fortune to fall in with Professor John W. BurtonBurton, J. W. and his Centre for the Analysis of Conflict (CAC) at University College London (UCL).

ThisFrom controlled communication to problem solving edition of the International Journal of Peace Studies has largely been written as a tribute to one of the pioneers of the field of conflictConflict analysis and resolutionResolution, John W. Burton, who is now in retirement in AustraliaAustralia, his native country.

It gives me very great pleasure to be giving the John Burton Memorial lecture on the 100th anniversary of his birth. We are honouring a complex man who made many important contributions to the formation of an independent identity for Australia and the independent identity of peace and conflict studies.