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Culture and Conflict Resolution. Kevin Avruch. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1998. 154 pp.
Culture Variation and Conflict Resolution: Alternatives to Violence. Douglas P. Fry and Kaj Bjokqvist, eds. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997. 274 pp.
SAMUEL R. COOK Virginia Tech
How does one define conflict? How does one distinguish conflict from violence? Can a "conflict" be said to have been "resolved" if said resolution merely brings about a cessation of overt aggressive behavior on the part of disputing parties? How does culture influence or aggravate international and localized conflicts, as well as their resolution? The works reviewed in this essay attempt to answer these questions, and in so doing call into question the scope and meaning of terms such as culture, conflict, and resolution.
In Culture and Conflict Resolution, Kevin Avruch offers a concise but critical consideration of the aforementioned terms. He is especially concerned with the manner in which culture has been defined, perceived, or deemed relevant or irrelevant by students and practitioners of conflict resolution and international relations. Avruch chooses the broadest possible definition of culture as "an evolved constituent of human cognition and social action" (p. 4). Accordingly, chapter 1 is devoted to a historical analysis of the manner in which anthropologists and other scholars have defined and/or described culture. In this critical essay, which warrants inclusion in an upper-level anthropological theory syllabus, Avruch highlights six interrelated but inadequate ideas about culture that still pervade fields such as conflict resolution: (1) culture is homogeneous, (2) culture is a static "thing," (3) culture is uniformly distributed among members of a group, (4) an individual possesses but one culture, (5)culture is custom (i.e., uniform behavior), and (6) culture is timeless. This list provides a foundation for the critical analyses in ensuing chapters.
In chapter 2, Avruch looks critically at the concept of "con flict" and its resolution, arguing that the ideas and approaches thereof that have historically dominated international relations and conflict management practices espouse all of the aforementioned inadequate views of culture. Conflict, notes Avruch, is often viewed as either (a) competition over scarce resources and power or status or (b) a difference in principles or beliefs. While Avruch advocates a hybrid definition, he suggests that the socalled "realist"...