Mary Whisner at shlep, the legal self-help blog, points to an article on “The Many Costs of Conflict” by dispute resolution consultant Stewart Levine, which describes the heavy financial, emotional, and other tolls that conflict exacts.

According to Levine, these include:

• Direct Cost: Fees of lawyers and other professionals
• Productivity Cost: Value of lost time. The opportunity cost of what those involved would otherwise be producing.
• Continuity Cost: Loss of ongoing relationships including the “community” they embody
• Emotional Cost: The pain of focusing on and being held hostage by your emotions

It made me wonder what shlep and Levine would make of a new book on divorce for women by attorney Sherri Donovan: Hit Him Where It Hurts: The Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Divorce–Alimony, Custody, Child Support, and More.

The pugilistic theme doesn’t end with the title: the book jacket is adorned with a photo of a blood-red boxing glove. Chapters include “Are You Ready to Rumble?”, “Divorce Ain’t for Sissies”, “Sizing Up Your Opponent”, “Conditioning for the Fight of Your Life”, and “Psyching Up for the Fight”.

It should leave us all asking what kind of casualties result when divorce is framed as either prizefight or combat.

Conflict, as history tells us, can put down very deep roots. Long-lived, it can consume great quantities of time–weeks, months, years–and even centuries.

One such conflict is the long-standing rift between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims, which has generated so many headlines and claimed the attention of the international community.

For those who wish to understood the origins of the rancorous division between Sunni and Shi’ite, Time Magazine has done an excellent job of untangling its roots in “Behind the Sunni-Shi’ite Divide“.

Meanwhile, at Maps of War, you can view the “Imperial History of the Middle East“–5000 years of shifting control depicted in a 90-second animation.