Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of May 11, 2025
Newsletter #353 - May 14, 2025
Reader Suggested Links
Superpower Conflict
Are we heading for another world war – or has it already started? — An argument that World War III may already have started and we just haven't noticed.Terror
As Bangladesh Reinvents Itself, Islamist Hard-Liners See an Opening — From Bangladesh, a report on the increasing influence of "Islamic hardliners" -- groups that have, in other contexts, been at the center of so many conflicts.Israel / Hamas War
Hamas’s Human Shield Strategy — A quick summary and a link to an exhaustive and extremely well-documented analysis of the vast scope of Hamas' human shield strategy.Interstate War
The India-Pakistan Crisis Needs Steady Diplomacy — An explanation of the extraordinary dangers associated with the India-Pakistan crisis and the kind of diplomacy that will be required to avert a nuclear catastrophe.US Politics
The Actual Math Behind DOGE’s Cuts — If you thought Elon Musk was really trying to cut costs, you weren’t in on the joke.Education
As ‘Grading for Equity’ Movement Grows, More Teachers Are Pushing Back — A thought-provoking article that asks us how we should define "equity" if we want to be fair.Education
How One Ivy League University Has Avoided Trump’s Retribution So Far — TA report that tries to explain why Dartmouth College has been able to avoid so much of the firestorm that has engulfed the rest of the Ivy League.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
Civil Society
Civil Society in the Second Trump Administration: Reckoning with the Meaning of "Nongovernmental" — An interesting exploration of the ways in which the roles of civil society and nongovernmental actors are being transformed by the Trump administration.Saving Democracy
Hit Refresh on the U.S. Constitution: A Revolutionary Roadmap for Fulfilling the Promise of Democracy — Our Constitution, while brilliant in its time, is nearly 250 years old. In a new book by Paul Zeitz of #unifyUSA, Zeitz lays out how he thinks we can peacefully and inclusively rewrite the "code" of our democracy—so it truly works for everyone.Communication Complexity
Journalism in Jeopardy: From Corporate Consolidation to Coordinated Attacks — David Beckemeyer writes in Outrage Overload about the ways media mergers and political attack are leading to the slow dismantling of the free press that we used to cherish.When Words Start Wars: Why Even “Everyone is Welcome” Sparks Controversy — Our polarization means we’ll often be filtering for offense. We’ll interpret our opponents’ slogans in pessimistic ways. And we’ll also be pessimistic in how we view their objections to our words.
De-Escalation Strategies
Tips for writing in less politically polarizing, triggering ways — For depolarizers, journalists, activists, and politicians: Guidance on how language can unintentionally drive people away.Saving Democracy
Is Gen Z Giving Up on Democracy? — Is Gen Z really giving up on democracy? Not quite. Rabhya Mehrotra writes about More in Common's surprising findings – and what they mean for democracy advocates.Effective Problem-Solving
Cross-Sector Leaders Release Groundbreaking Consensus Report on Child Care in Kentucky — A great example of state-level consensus building in action.Theories of Change
Bob Bordone and Joel Salinas: How to Deal With Conflict — A podcast With Bob Bordone and Joel Salinas MD on their new book Conflict Resilience: Negotiating Disagreement without Giving Up or Giving InRunaway Escalation
Live with Outrage Overload - What does "Rock Bottom" Look Like? — Overcoming toxic polarization through crisis, collective pain, and 3.5% of committed citizens igniting national transformation.Bridge Building
This Week’s Bridge Moment: Cameron Cohen on Narrative vs. Reality — What if we could improve conversations, not by changing our views, but by changing how we talk?
News and Opinion
From around the web, more insight into the nature of our conflict problems, limits of business-as-usual thinking, and things people are doing to try to make things better. (Formerly, Beyond Intractability in Context.)
Superpower Conflict
The crisis of the 21st century is here — As Trotsky famously said "you may not be interested in war but war is interested in you."Social / Economic Complexity
The ‘Significant Risk’ That Republicans Tank the Economy — For those looking for a new and realistic mega-worry, thoughts about the potential downsides of Trump administration policies.Social / Economic Complexity
A New Political Order Emerges — From the International Monetary Fund, one of the cornerstones of the old world order, thoughts about what the new political order might bring.Peacebuilding
The Wars We Still Can Stop — For a time when so many wars seem to be raging out of control, an important argument that we should still stop those that we have the capacity to stop (or, better yet, prevent).Education
My Education Solution — From a right-leaning perspective, a valuable attempt to make those on the left understand why so many think that higher education is in need of radical reform.US Politics
Trump’s Weak Position on Trade — A critical analysis of the flaws in President Trump's "art of the deal" strategy with respect to tariffs.Superpower Conflict
Lessons From World War II to Avoid World War III — From the foreign ministers of countries that only recently escaped the grip of the former Soviet Union, thoughts about what needs to be done to prevent another world war.Social / Economic Complexity
A perfect economic storm might be coming our way — More insight into the complex mega-worry surrounding the global economy that is currently brewing.Artificial Intelligence
Zuckerberg’s Grand Vision: Most of Your Friends Will Be AI — A terrifying vision for the future with big-name backing from Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg -- a world in which we've abandoned reality in favor of AI-generated illusion.US Politics
The Next 1,360 Days — From Yascha Mounk, an effort to rethink, based on recent experience, where the Trump administration is likely to take us over the next three and a half years.Social / Economic Complexity
Experts and Elites Play Fundamentally Different Games — Thoughts on an important but seldom recognized conflict -- the one that divides subject matter experts from society's leaders.Class Inequity
Stop Trying to Make Everyone Go to College — For a society with an oversupply of white-collar workers and an under supply of blue-collar workers, a timely argument against our overemphasis on higher education.Theories of Change
A generation is slipping through our fingers. Here’s what we can do. — From Rahm Emanuel, an argument for using community service to bind the next generation to the society that they will inherit.Education
The High-School Juniors With $70,000-a-Year Job Offers — Further evidence of just how badly we need (and how much we've neglected and disrespected) the blue-collar trades -- occupations that we rely on, but don't think too much about.
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About the MBI Newsletters
Two or three times a week, Guy and Heidi Burgess, the BI Directors, share some of our thoughts on political hyper-polarization and related topics. We also share essays from our colleagues and other contributors, and every week or so, we devote one newsletter to annotated links to outside readings that we found particularly useful relating to U.S. hyper-polarization, threats to peace (and actual violence) in other countries, and related topics of interest. Each Newsletter is posted on BI, and sent out by email through Substack to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy here and find the latest newsletter here or on our BI Newsletter page, which also provides access to all the past newsletters, going back to 2017.
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