Browse Exhibits (8 total)
Challenging Conventional Conflict Resolution Practices
John. W. Burton believed that the main goal of the practice of conflict resolution should not be to suppress or remove a conflict. Rather, a practitioner should find an alternative approach with an insight on human behavior and relationships. This exhibit brings together papers dealing with some of the many methodologies developed by Dr. Burton over his long career. They shed new light on existing conflict resolution approaches and challenged existing political systems in the field of international relations.
Mediation and Diplomacy
John W. Burton spent much of his career developing techniques for interactive or analytic problem-solving approaches to mediation. These techniques focused on resolving conflict using a needs-based approach, beginning with an analysis of political needs and fears. This Exhibit contains papers, conference discussions, articles, and notes by Dr. Burton on mediation and diplomacy. His work focuses on alternative approaches rather than a single framework of conflict resolution.
Miscellaneous and Unpublished Works
This exhibit contains several items authored by John W. Burton which do not squarely fit in any of the other exhibits in this site. It includes conference papers, correspondence, documents pertaining to policies, curriculum development, and travel notes, to name a few.
Papers Authored at the Center for the Analysis of Conflict
With the establishment of Center for the Analysis of Conflict (CAC) at the University of Kent in 1965, John W. Burton began developing and applying techniques for dealing with deep-rooted conflicts across a wide spectrum of human relationships. Burton was a co-founder of CAC, which focused primarily on East-West conflict; the threat of thermonuclear annihilation; the difficult Middle East conflict; the Northern Irish "Troubles"; the brutal Apartheid system in South Africa; and the Greek-Cypriot/Turkish-Cypriot conflict, just to name a few. This exhibit presents papers authored by Dr. Burton at the CAC, which deal with these and other themes.
Papers Dealing with International Disputes
A hallmark of the practice of conflict resolution is the ability to address and solve both small and large-scale disputes. This exhibit contains research papers, conference and seminar notes, and articles written by John W. Burton regarding major international conflicts. These include the Korean War, collapse of the Soviet Union, Iran-Iraq War, Middle East Conflicts, conflicts between Britain and former colonial interests, and the Soviet-Afghan War, to name a few.
Papers Pertaining to the Cold War
The Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union was an underlying contributor to many of the world's postwar conflicts. During his long career, John W. Burton analyzed the U.S.-Soviet relationship and tried to formulate meaningful alternatives to traditional, power-based bargaining. This exhibit gathers together some of Dr. Burton's work on the U.S.-Soviet conflict.
Photographs of John W. Burton
This exhibit displays several photographs of John W. Burton covering roughly the period from the 1940s to early 2000s. These images show Dr. Burton with colleagues, family members, and sometimes, pets. Some of the images show Burton's participation in the launch of the biographical study of his life From Power to Politics to Conflict Resolution - The works of John W Burton by David Dunn (2004), while others portray his work with the Australian diplomatic corps and at universities in Europe and the United States. There are also images of him at his home in Australia.
Provention: the Mantra of John W. Burton
John W. Burton coined the term "provention" in the 1990s. "Provention", to Burton, implied anticipation and avoidance of a potetial content, whereas prevention connotes suppression. In Dr. Burton's world conflict resolution is not the most important contribution to be made by analytical and problem-solving approach to conflicts. Decision making to provent conflict in the first place is more efficient.