I have always used the words \u201cconflict\u201d and \u201cdispute\u201d inter-changeably. The dictionary definitions seem to show, as law school professors would say, a distinction without a difference. So I am grateful to Brian Muldoon of HeartWorks Mediation Center, keynote speaker at this year\u2019s ANDRI, for offering a way to distinguish them: He says a \u201cdispute\u201d is two or more contesting positions claiming to be true or just, whereas a \u201cconflict\u201d involves a difference that tends towards destruction or domination. Dispute is linear; conflict is complex.
\nMy simplistic understanding of this distinction is that a dispute involves our rational minds, whereas a conflict involves our emotions. If this is true, then the two are related in that a legal dispute results from an underlying conflict. So, our goals in mediation are both to resolve the dispute and to resolve the conflict.
\nIn the law, we appropriately use the word \u201cdispute\u201d because the legal process uses facts and logic to determine which position is \u201cright.\u201d Thus, \u201calternative dispute resolution\u201d is the proper term to describe alternatives to litigation. But I\u2019m not sure that \u201cconflict management\u201d is the correct term, given this distinction, because conflict management often offers superficial tools that do not address the passion of conflict.
\nIn Christian peacemaking, I\u2019ve tended to use the word \u201cconflict\u201d and shy away from \u201cdispute,\u201d without having a good reason for doing so. Based on Muldoon\u2019s distinction, this is valid, because biblical peacemaking addresses the problem wholistically, recognizing that the dispute\/conflict affects people mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
\nI\u2019m going to try to be more careful about which word I use from now on and see whether this distinction helps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have always used the words \u201cconflict\u201d and \u201cdispute\u201d inter-changeably. The dictionary definitions seem to show, as law school professors would say, a distinction without a difference. So I am grateful to Brian Muldoon of HeartWorks Mediation Center, keynote speaker at this year\u2019s ANDRI, for offering a way to distinguish them: He says a \u201cdispute\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}