Sustainable Conflict Resolution: Modelling, Analysis, and Strategic Insights

• Main Author: Matbouli, Yasser Talal M
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Waterloo 2015
• Subjects: System Design Engineering; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10012/9847

New methodological contributions for modelling and analyzing conflicts evolving over time are developed to provide strategic insights into the sustainability of equilibria. More specifically, key characteristics of evolving conflicts are identified in order to recognize a long-term conflict. A unique procedure for assessing robustness of equilibria is introduced to measure the possibility of deviation from these potential resolutions. By considering partial achievement of an option or course of action, attempts for a decision maker to improve an equilibrium situation can be formally taken into account. As a consequence of these advancements, certain challenges found in an ongoing Canadian energy conflict can be formally investigated, better understood, and eventually resolved. There have been many successes in the modelling and analysis of strategic conflicts using the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution. But, as illustrated by the re-occuring Great Canadian Hydroelectric Power conflict, many important obstacles remain. This conflict, between the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) and the province of Quebec (QC), continued for over half a century, passing through several distinct stages and raising questions that are difficult to answer using the standard graph model approach. These questions are addressed in this thesis, and the new models and techniques developed are then demonstrated using the NL-QC conflict. A framework for conflict characterization is suggested to help analysts understand the different stages of a conflict that evolves over time. Particularly problematic are instances when a conflict reaches an equilibrium, maintains it for some time, and then re-starts and shifts to another equilibrium. Traditional conflict resolution models, which analyze only a single round of a conflict during a specific period of time, cannot explain such observations. The conflict characterization is specifically designed to provide input parameters for models of conflicts that evolve over time. A new ...