THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE: LEADERSHIP AND CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION

The field of conflict transformation has been an outcome of decades of conflict resolution theory and practice for conflict prevention. Preventive approaches towards conflict are people and solution-orientated, peace and truth-focused unlike the “old paradigm ” where violence / war, propaganda, victory and elites are at the crux of the matter. A recent trend in the conflict resolution field has been increased attention to "transfor-mational " conflict resolution approaches, which promise better results in preventing enduring rivalries and protracted conflicts than approaches based on positional negotiating. That means moving beyond symptomatic treatment of the issues to analyzing and considering the underlying root causes and patterns of relations that drive the conflicts so that change is also transformational. Visionary public leadership of complex conflicts also aim at such change that touches on deep assumptions, values, beliefs and biases. While the literature about conflict resolution emphasizes broad and generic sources of conflict at different levels of analysis and mainly “grand ” theories, an exploration of the sources of conflict and creative alternatives for resolving it at each level separately is required for improving social relations at different levels of interaction, i.e., interpersonal, inter-group, and international in practice. Since the late 1990s, the focus has been increasingly on conflicts between identity-based communities,