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Natural Healing as Conflict Resolution  
(IGI Global 2020)

Within the realm of international development, the need for cost-effective, sustainable, and successful methods of healing must be explored.

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Natural Healing as Conflict Resolution is an essential reference book that examines and addresses systemic bias towards natural healing methods and explores the mutually beneficial relationships of natural healing through human and non-human life forms in the context of resolving conflict.

 

It illustrates not only the more obvious biological/physiological benefits of complementary approaches, but also the spiritual, emotional, and psychological benefits of integrating natural means of healing to resolve conflict.

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As such, the book acknowledges the effectiveness and articulates the benefits of traditional indigenous healing methods and how they can be used in complementary, mutually beneficial ways with modern practices. 

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The academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to:

  • Conflict Resolution

  • Ecopsychology

  • Ayurveda

  • Ethnomedicine

  • Healing With Animals

  • Holistic Medicine

  • Therapy

  • Yoga

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  • Spiritual Practices

  • Holotropic Breathwork

  • Indigenous Healing System

  • Integrative Medicine

  • Intuition Communication

  • Parapsychology

  • Post War Community Healing

  • Working with the Ancestors

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Traditional methods for addressing conflict and healing have been largely replaced in elite settings by modern approaches. Rather than old and new complementing one another, bias is present. New is widely perceived as better among elite institutions, even when research indicates otherwise. ​

Executive Sexism: How Men Treat Women at the Highest Levels, Why Law Does not Protect them, and What Should Change
(Praeger 2019)

This book describes the stealthy expressions of sexism and how naturally and easily these beliefs and behaviors meld together into our professional interactions, our social activities, and our personal relationships. We want women to attain higher positions of authority, so it is time to talk realistically about what those spaces look like. Socialized behavior doesn't change when you get higher, it just conceals itself better. Now we break the silence and get real about this subject. 

 

Seventeen executive women from nine different countries relate their experiences in this qualitative research study. The findings presented here, mostly in narrative form, contextualize the elusive ways that sexism creeps into subtle interactions and can derail your career or cause immense financial loss. Getting into high positions is one thing. Staying there is another. 

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Sexism is a socialized set of beliefs and behaviors, a gray area that is absolutely experienced and yet so far has been hard to quantify. By understanding our own experience in a larger context, women can plan and prepare more effectively to respond when these common occurrences happens, Additionally, younger women can learn what sexism looks like so they don't feel like they did something to call it upon themselves.

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This work is developed from the standpoint that character does matter. So different to what is portrayed in media, combatting power structures that perpetuate inequity is not about clever memes, call-outs, or being enraged - it IS about keeping a clear head, staring unflinchingly at our character and conduct, and reorganizing what passes for normal. 

How Donors Understand Content, Process, Relational, and Identity Conflict in International Funding: Gauging Levels of Awareness
(Nova Southeastern University (2013)

This qualitative study examines international funding practices from the personal perspectives of private donors who have contributed at least $1m to international development projects. It discusses how hidden conflict impedes efficient grant making, stifles sustainability, and prescribes specific conflict resolution measures to implemented throughout the funding process in order to achieve practical, measurable, and sustainable results. Noteworthy in the findings is the prominent role of personal identity: What the donor wants to give recipients is the most prominent influence in funding decisions.

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In academic speak: 

Donor preference is a significant component that can either promote or inhibit sustainable development results, yet the involvement of private donors in international development work has not yet been examined in academic literature. Models for integrative negotiation in funding processes have been proposed, but without having the voice of donors present in literature, all previous negotiation models are incomplete because a major party to the negotiation is absent from the model. Conflict analysis and resolution is a new approach that will bring clarity to the role of private donors in international development work and generate integrative solutions for donors to employ in their work should they choose.

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This phenomenographic study analyzed four dimensions of conflict in private international development projects through the viewpoint of individual donors. Among the research findings:

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(1) Substance: a donor's understanding of the problem affects the mode and longevity of funding;

(2) Process: communication processes during a grant cycle are assumed rather than created;

(3) Relational: failure to address the inherently power between donors and grantees can generate irrational expectations on the part of donors;

(4) Identity: donor identity (donor preference)  determines what types of grants the donor will make.

Special Operations Forces (SOF) Engagement in Human Domain in Unconventional & Irregular Warfare 
(Valka-Mir Human Security Foundation, 2019)

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Dr. Nicholson contributes as a Senior Social Scientist for Valka-Mir Human Security, producing peer-reviewed curriculum used by Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs officers training in Unconventional and Irregular Warfare at John F. Kennedy Special Warfare and School, Special Warfare Education Group. 

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Current course texts includes: 

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~ Motivations & Drivers of Indigenous Populations in Irregular Warfare 

~ Culture in Violent Conflict

~ Psychological Warfare in the Special Operations Human Domain

~ Culture in the Human Domain

~ Non-Kinetic Targeting & Engagement in the SOF Human Domain       

~ Trauma in the Human Domain

~ Psycho-Social Emotional Variables of Target Audience Analysis

~ Indigenous Social Re-Engineering  

~ Traditional Governance Engagement in the SOF Human Domain 

~ Revolution, Insurgency, and Terrorism in the Central Sahel

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Course texts are developed to enhance mission goals for US military Special Operations Forces by explaining the Human Domain of warfare, which is the psychological and material realities of civilian populations residing in conflict zones. 

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A Psycho-Emotional Human Security Analytical Framework: Origin and Epidemiology of Violent Extremism & Radicalization 
Centre for 5th Generation Warfare Studies, Sept 2016

From the academic perspective of conflict analysis and resolution, this article explains how ordinary people can be weaponized through the psychological process individuals experience they undergo during targeting, recruitment, and radicalization.

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Positive Sustainable Change: The Wave Makers
Invictus Magazine, April 2016

Shipyards and company owners of the yachting industry address oceanic conservation, education, and public policy through a sustainability lens, and - in their view -  the need to move beyond philanthropy and toward accountability.

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