Grasping the devastating impact of violent conflict can be difficult, particularly for Americans who have not experienced ongoing full-out war on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor. It is hard as well to imagine the land where missiles and mortar fly or to understand the distances between the cities and towns named in this morning’s headlines.

One blogger, Andy Carvin, determined to map out the geography of conflict between Israel and Lebanon and to measure it against the contours of more familiar terrains, has created a short video which overlaps a map of the Middle East with a map of New England to understand better the scale of the distances between the regions. Andy observes,

For Americans who are used to countries being thousands of miles wide, it’s quite astonishing to realize what a compact area of land is affected by the fighting. For example, the distance between Haifa and Beirut isn’t much difference than the distance between Providence, Rhode Island and Lowell, Massachusetts.

You can view Andy’s video at his blog.

Technorati tag: conflict resolution

Those of you who track representations of lawyers in popular culture will want to check out “A Coloring Book for Lawyers” (in PDF), which my son, a Legal Studies and Philosophy major at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, just sent me a link to (hey, thanks, Adamo). (A gold star for everyone who can color inside the lines.)

For additional posts that describe or deconstruct pop culture depictions of attorneys, please visit the following articles from this blog:

• The eyes have it: gauging public opinion of attorneys
• Bad reception: new television program distorts image of attorneys
• Hold the anchovies: law firm spoof seeks clients wronged by mediocre pizza
• All bets are off: should mediators and negotiators learn lessons from poker players?

Technorati tags: Culture and Society, Lawyers, popular culture

Settle It Now, a web-based dispute resolution journal which launched earlier this year, has issued a call for articles for an upcoming issue. Settle It Now, published quarterly, was founded by Victoria Pynchon, a California-based attorney-mediator and author of a negotiation blog, Settle It Now Blog Spot. The submission deadline is September 15, 2006.

Vickie Pynchon has asked me to share with my readers the following information about Settle It Now and its inaugural issue:

We have a distinguished Advisory Editorial Board and intend to become one of the five top academic journals of note in the fields of alternate dispute resolution and restorative justice practices, as well as the social, cultural, psychological and political study of conflict. We are looking for articles in the fields of mediation, arbitration, restorative justice, international relations, consensus building and peace activism.

Our first volume (see http://www.settlenow.org) is eclectic in subject matter and international in scope. Robert M. Nelson of the Canadian Gowlings law firm contributed an article on the use of alternate dispute resolution programs in post-Communist societies. Robert Dobbins provided an incisive essay on best practices in drafting mediation and arbitration agreements — the commercial litigation “pre-nup.” Kenneth Cloke graciously allowed us to publish a chapter from his new book, The Crossroads of Conflict. The chapter published, “Mediating Evil, War and Terrorism — the Politics of Conflict”, is an unflinching look at the evil we suffer and the evil we do. Troy Anthony Thomas provided us with a fascinating study of the conflict resolution style and substance of Jesus of Nazareth — a much needed investigation given our nation’s present religious polarization on nearly every critical issue from religious study and practice in the schools, to “intelligent design,” gay marriage, and abortion. How would Jesus have resolved these conflicts in modern society? Finally, Editor-in-Chief Victoria Pynchon included her own article on restorative justice practices in the criminal justice system. She reviews the ways in which former offenders can find peace and purpose in post-offender communities in much the same way that recovering alcoholics have pursued healthy and productive lives through the principles and practices of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Upcoming issues will feature other original articles, essays, book reviews, practice updates and transcripts of programs that are of interest to all those involved in conflict resolution, be they students, volunteers, working mediators, arbitrators, ombuds, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists or artists.

For further information, you can contact Vickie at vpynchon [at] settlenow.com, or view Settle It Now’s submission guidelines.