255 Summary Summary Transformative Dialogue On Resolving Identity-related Moral Conflicts February 2023, Florian Bekkers Understanding intractable conflicts as identity-related moral conflicts People come into conflict when the ability to achieve their goals is limited by other people, or when they think that this is the case. It is often possible to reach a solution through a clarification of facts, an exchange of arguments, an adjustment of mutual interpretations and/ or a compromise. This is not possible in the case of ‘intractable’ conflicts, for example because the opposing parties have fundamental and conflicting convictions from which they cannot or do not want to deviate. In today’s world of digital communication, global trade, migration, emancipation and individual development, confrontation with people of different cultural, ideological, philosophical or political convictions is unavoidable. Such confrontations lead to (fierce) discussions about substantive subjects, such as ‘Zwarte Piet’, medical-ethical discussions about abortion, euthanasia or ‘completed life’, stem cell research, the (limits of) freedom of expression, different interpretations of human rights, renunciation of a lifestyle because of environmental effects (‘you are no longer allowed to fly’), animal rights, factory farming, hunting, the refusal to pay taxes that contribute to arms purchases or subsidies for polluting activities, et cetera. Sometimes confrontations lead to protracted armed conflicts, such as between Israel and Palestine, in Kashmir, the civil wars in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, apartheid in South Africa or fundamentalist terrorist attacks. Resolving such conflicts is urgent because it often involves issues that are important, or even essential, to people. In other words, the ability to fully and freely be who they (believe) to be depends on the successful resolution of the conflict. In addition, some conflicts are accompanied by violence and even relatively peaceful conflicts can escalate. Resolving intractable conflicts may be urgent, it is rarely realized. These conflicts are, after all, ‘intractable’. The persistence of this kind of conflict can be understood in terms of unmet fundamental needs. An intractable conflict arises when fundamental needs, such as nutrition, safety, shelter, identity, recognition and participation are not met. Because people cannot relinquish these kinds of needs, they are ‘non-negotiable’. Conflicts about such needs are therefore persistent and ‘solutions’ that do not guarantee the fulfillment of these needs do not last. Fundamental needs are related to the concept of identity on two levels. On the one hand, having a (positive) identity is itself seen as a fundamental need, on the other hand, conflicts about fundamental needs are always expressed through identity groups. For example, under the Apartheid regime in South Africa, not fulfilling the basic needs of a specific group was institutionalized based on a specific characteristic, skin colour. Such a collective frustration of basic needs reinforces the experience of this group identity and makes the conflict express A
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