Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of June 1, 2025

Newsletter #358 - June 4 2025

Last weekend, our hometown, Boulder, Colorado, was the latest target in the ongoing wave of anti-Semitic violence that has been sweeping the world in the wake of October 7. For us, this attack was yet another reminder that the conflicts and violence that have been the focus of this newsletter and the larger Beyond Intractability project threaten everyone. Violent conflict is not just an "over there" problem. It threatens those that we all care about, wherever they might live. It can strike without warning in the most peaceful of settings (as it did in Boulder). While the number of such incidents might seem small at the moment, it is important to remember that that could change quite quickly, should our tenuous efforts to restrain the escalation spiral collapse.

We also need to remember that this was not a random, senseless act of violence. It was the product of a deliberate and carefully cultivated campaign — a campaign that has been able to effectively use massively parallel techniques to draw large numbers of independent actors into a "globalized intifada" campaign against Israel and Jews worldwide (as well as the larger Western civilization of which they are a part.) Sadly, on the continuum of intifada-based terror attacks, as terrible as it was, the Boulder attack was minor. Things easily could have been much, much worse. We simply have to find ways to work through the difficult conflicts that plague Israel and the Palestinians (as well as the West and the Muslim world). The alternative is too terrible to contemplate—and close at hand.

Reader Suggested Links

Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.

• Israel / Hamas War
  The Boulder Attack Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere — A review of the larger context in which the Boulder attack took place and the things that so many are doing to promote such violence as well as, more hopefully, the things that are being done to help combat it.

• Israel / Hamas War
  The Deadly Virus of Anti-Semitic Terrorism — An early effort to try to understand the anti-Semitic violence behind the June 1 fire bomb attack on Boulder, Colorado.

• Israel / Hamas War
  J'Accuse — With respect to the recent violence at a Gaza aid distribution hub, an explanation of how mainstream media's failure to follow the most basic journalistic standards of honest, objective reporting has helped drive the global wave of anti-Semitic violence.

• Israel / Hamas War
  Welcome to the Global Intifada — An all-important argument that the ongoing spate of anti-Semitic violence is the inevitable result of widely supported calls to "globalize the intifada."

• US Politics
  The Unconstitutional Conservatives — With respect to one cluster of issues, a reminder that, while the political parties may appear stable, the beliefs espoused by those parties can change radically.

• Civil Society
  Decline of Civility in Public Discourse — A C-SPAN panel discussion that considers the meaning of civility, how we lost it, and what might be done to reclaim it.

• US Politics
  Living Among the DOGE Wreckage — A report on what it's like to be (or have been) a civil servant during this time when you and your labors are so widely disparaged and demonized.

• US Politics
  The murders outside the museum were foreseeable: That’s the problem — Recent attacks on Jews are not random acts of senseless violence, they are the logical consequence of a widely supported political philosophy.

Colleague Activities

Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.

• Peacebuilding
  How to Stop a Civil War — A podcast with John Paul Lederach on America's dangerous polarization and the rising risk of political violence. Lederach shares lessons from global conflict resolution to show how we might prevent civil war here.

• Violence
  Explainer: How Did the Trump Administration’s First 100 Days Impact Political Violence Risk? — This explainer from the Bridging Divides Initiative answers frequently asked questions about the trajectory of current political violence trends and highlights positive steps local leaders are taking to keep their communities safe.

• Artificial Intelligence
  Everyone thinks AI is biased, but it doesn’t have to be — A report on new research showing that Democrats, Republicans, and independents all agree that essentially all large language models lean to the left.

• Saving Democracy
  Diagnosing and Treating a Withering Democracy — An editorial from Doug Linkhart, President of the National Civic League, about our current predicament and how to address it.

• Psychological Complexity
  Why Good Conflict Management Is Essential for Psychosocial Safety — While organizations rush to implement wellness programs, leadership coaching, or team-building days, many overlook the engine room of psychosocial safety: how you manage conflict.

• Non-Violence
  There is Another Way — Award-Winning Documentary That Demonstrates the Power of Choosing Nonviolence - a film documenting peacebuilders in Israel and Palestine, to be live streamed across the world on June 12.

• De-Escalation Strategies
  Make It A Habit: Ask ‘Why Is This Issue Important to You?’ — Most of us go into political conversations armed with stats and comebacks, ready to win the argument. But what if we started with a different question: “Why is this issue so important to you?”

• Communication Complexity
  Deep Dive with Brad Porteus on Hard Conversations — Kelly Corrigan explores a radical new way to rate politicians with Brad Porteus, the Executive Director of Bridge Grades, who reveals that the most collaborative members of Congress are complete unknowns, while the divisive firebrands are celebrities.

• Peacebuilding
  Threads of Peace: Leadership and Conflict Resolution in Nested Negotiation Networks — This article analyzes the intricate dynamics of protracted, asymmetric, and ethnonational (PAE) conflicts across continents, spanning the period from 1960 to 2021.

• Authoritarianism
  Don’t Fight Authoritarianism. “Drain” It. — Start by correcting the faulty, overblown threats people perceive from others across politics. If the threat perceptions can be reduced and right-sized, the activation of authoritarianism and censorship should also decline.

• Theories of Change
  Unpacking David Brooks 4/17 NYT Opinion Piece as it relates to a Thriving Together US Civic Uprising (or Not). What is the Optimal Generative Response to the Breaking? — "It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. ...Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power."

• Saving Democracy
  The Democracy Index - May 23, 2025 edition — An examination of some of the ways Donald Trump is increasingly becoming an autocrat, unbounded by any sense of decency, empathy, or rule of law.

• Saving Democracy
  What is democracy, anyway? — To explain the threat, focus on the *why* not the *what*

• Peacebuilding
  Alliance for Peacebuilding 2024 Annual Report — This report outlines what the Alliance has done in this past year and is working toward in 2025 and beyond.

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.)

• US Politics
  The No. 1 Rule for Understanding Trump — An argument for tempering fears about the consequence of extreme Trump administration actions with Trump's long history of abandoning such actions before they ever fully go into effect.

• US Politics
  ‘TACO’ Is the Secret to Trump’s Resilience — An argument that the TACO (Trump always chickens out) strategy is, surprisingly, the key to the President's remarkable political resilience.

• Interstate War
  Ukraine just rewrote the rules of war — An analysis of yet another way in which the Ukraine war is dramatically changing the nature of warfare and highlighting weaknesses in national defenses.

• US Politics
  Six-Chart Sunday – Overruled: POTUS v SCOTUS — An interesting series of historical information graphics documenting through both Democratic and Republican administrations the conflict between the Presidency and the Supreme Court.

• Race / Anti-Racism
  The Progressive Moment Is *Still* Over — Thoughts about whether, in the wake of the Trump administration, the "status quo ante" might reassert itself and Biden-era progressive beliefs once again take charge.

• Israel / Hamas War
  How the Muslim Brotherhood Is Capturing Europe — An article about a leaked, top-secret, report prepared for France's Ministry of the Interior outlining the dangers associated with Muslim Brotherhood operations in France.

• Race / Anti-Racism
  Discrimination cases unravel as Trump scraps core civil rights tenet — An article describing Trump's efforts to roll back one of the most significant and controversial aspects of civil rights law -- that governing "disparate impacts."

• Israel / Hamas War
  The New Dark Age — A thoughtful exploration of the many implications of society's repudiation of expertise.

• Corruption
  The Trump Presidency’s World-Historical Heist — An update on the things that the Trump administration is doing that would previously have been considered grotesquely corrupt and unacceptable.

• Developing a Unifying Vision
  Feelings, Facts, and Our Crisis of Truth — A thought-provoking exploration of the complex relationships between narratives, objective fact-finding, journalism, and the nature of truth.

• US Politics
  ‘Original Sin’ Review: A Conspiracy in Plain View — A review of an important new book, Original Sin, about the scandalous way in which the Democratic Party machinery concealed President Biden's failing health and, essentially, hijacked the government.

• US Politics
  Hispanic Moderates’ Big Swing Right — More information about just how many voters and, especially, Hispanic voters are switching their political allegiances away from the Democratic Party.

• US Politics
  Does the Working Class Vote Against Its Interests? — An argument against the notion that voters can (and should) focus almost exclusively on economic interests when deciding who to support.

• Education
  Is the University Of Austin Betraying Its Founding Principles? — An article that has generated a lot of interest and controversy by highlighting the ongoing debate over how, exactly, the University of Austin should pursue its mission of reforming university culture.

• Theories of Change
  Persuasive Beats Abrasive — A timely essay reminding us that persuasive power is a far more successful and sustainable way to pursue one's interests

• Superpower Conflict
  When Trade Wars Become Shooting Wars — Amid continuing uncertainties about the vigor with which President Trump will pursue his ongoing trade wars, a retrospective look at the relationship between trade wars and real wars.

• US Politics
  The fate of Trump’s agenda rests with the House GOP’s ‘five families’ — A description of the quite different voting blocs that make up today's Republican Party -- a description that illuminates the role of the bipartisan problem-solver caucus.

• Israel / Hamas War
  In Gaza, Long-Suffering Palestinians Are Directing Their Anger at Hamas — For those concerned about Palestinian welfare, an update on the conflict between Hamas and the people they rule —a conflict marred by Hamas' ruthless suppression of the Palestinian people.

• Culture and Religion
  The moral collapse of the West — A thoughtful essay that goes beyond lamenting what's wrong with society and starts trying to imagine something new and better.

• Superpower Conflict
  My fellow Republicans, the responsibility to speak out rests with you — From Jeff Flake, an appeal for Republicans to do what they can to at least assure the reversibility of Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle the web of alliances upon which US security has traditionally relied.

• Social / Economic Complexity
  The Inequality Myth — Another one of those contrarian arguments that asks us to reconsider (or at least temper) the conventional wisdom. This one makes a hopeful argument that inequality is not as bad as we previously thought.

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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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