War and Peace

‘Drama is conflict, conflict is drama.’

Published on Friday, 10 February 2012 10:31 | Print


So says TV scriptwriter Eddy Canfor-Dumas to explain his parallel careers – penning TV hits like The Bill and Supervolcano with one hand, while running a social enterprise dedicated to conflict resolution with the other.

‘When I’m writing TV drama I take the conflict of daily life and try my best to turn it into a compelling, entertaining story,’ he says. ‘When I’m wearing my conflict resolution hat I’m often looking at the same stuff but from a completely different angle – how to help people find a way to solve their conflicts with as little suffering as possible.’

He maintains that, handled well, conflict can actually improve relationships, and his social enterprise, Engi (the word means ‘interconnected’) not only looks after the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues at Westminster but also runs regular training courses in how to manage conflict positively. ‘We believe that everyone has the potential to improve how they deal with conflict,’ says Eddy. ‘They just need the right tools and skills, which can be learnt.’

To support this he points to the feedback the training courses have been getting. A young woman recently wrote:

'A few months after the course I had a breakthrough with a friend I'd been having difficulties with. Thanks to Engi I had the extra awareness and tools to say something that moved her, which broke the ice.'
 
He also cites the example of a woman who realised during one course that she'd been 'in a sulk' for seventeen years with her ex-partner and determined to come out of it for both their sakes. Another participant realised that his lifelong history of conflicts with women stemmed from 'a story' he'd been telling himself for years that he could simply change. 
 
'These course aren't designed as therapy,' says Eddy, 'but what we see is that when people start to unpack why they have the sort of conflicts they do, they realise that they've unconsciously been making choices that have produced these results. With the new awareness they gain through the course they see that they can choose differently and get a different, more positive result. It's not about avoiding conflict - it's about using it to reach a better outcome.'
 
What is more challenging, perhaps, is his belief that the same basic approach can be applied to conflict on a bigger scale, even between countries.
 
'The dynamics of human conflict are essentially the same at all levels,' he explains. 'If leaders get deadlocked and can see no alternative to violence they will use it, just as an individual might. The difference lies in their power to do damage with that violence, the scale of it.'
 
It's little surprise, then, that Engi has partnered with a world-renowned training organisation to offer high-level courses for officials from government, the UN, the EU and other international organisations. Winners of the 2011 World Vision International Peace Prize, PATRIR is running courses with Engi in April and September this year on designing and evaluating peacebuilding projects, making peace processes work and conflict prevention.
 
That could seem a long way away from patching up a relationship with a friend or family member but Eddy insists they're just different points on the same spectrum.
 
'Conflict of any sort can be incredibly painful and destructive,' he says, 'or it can lead to deeper understanding and richer, more fruitful relationships. People just need to see that they have the choice - and then learn how to use it.'
 
Managing Conflict Positively

 PATRIR/Engi Courses