Several years ago, my life-partner, Susan, and I decided to take a hiking vacation in France. We planned to walk a portion of the Sentier de Grande Randonnée (GR), a network of paths that served during the Middle Ages as pilgrimage routes between towns and cities in northern Europe and famous religious shrines in southern France and Spain. Although we were not going on a religious pilgrimage per se, we did want to spend some good time together, enjoy the charming French countryside, be in touch with nature, and savor a bit of tranquility (which we do not always find in our work as mediators). We also wanted to experience village hospitality, good French meals, and avoid problems and sore feet resulting from potential backtracking due to losing our way. We knew from past hikes on the GRs in unknown territory that this was all too easy to do. So, in preparation for our vacation, we acquired a number of maps—road and trail maps, topographical maps, maps of towns and villages, and those that showed especially noteworthy scenery or places to stay. Although it sounds like we are map fanatics, this is really not the case. We merely wanted to use them as tools to gain a good general understanding of the lay of the land, and then plan an exciting route along often poorly marked footpaths and across fields and streams to quaint villages with good restaurants and open inns (the latter of which we discovered were sometimes few and far between). Once we had planned our general route and could use the maps to pick out landmarks to orient ourselves as we proceeded, we were able to innovate, take side trips, stop at interesting spots, and find alternative routes around any unexpected barriers we encountered.

Although two people traversing an unknown rural landscape is not the same as navigating one's way through a conflict, it is remarkable how similar the two tasks are. In both situations, the people involved have to locate themselves at any given point in time (geographically or relationally); identify significant “signposts” that indicate direction (progress, wrong turns, detours, or backtracking); develop successful strategies to handle a wide variety of unforeseen circumstances (the washed out physical—or emotional—“bridge” needed to cross a barrier, a vicious dog on the trail or the human equivalent—the eruption of strong feelings); and discover and reach mutually desired destinations, resting places, and ways to settle differences.

Successful navigation, whether hiking or resolving conflict, is greatly facilitated by having a good map. Yet, good maps that help people navigate difficulties in relationships and conflicts are often scarce and hard to find. Gary Furlong's groundbreaking book, The Conflict Resolution Toolbox, meets this need.

The second, updated edition, like the first, offers one of the most valuable sets of “maps” available to conflict management practitioners and others involved in resolving disputes. Noteworthy updates include two new chapters that respectively explore the encouragement of reciprocity and use of loss aversion to foster greater understanding and agreement making. Continuing to draw on the work of a number of conflict theorists, psychologists, sociologists, and conflict management practitioners, Gary presents a range of maps and models that anyone involved in conflict will find useful for understanding conflicts and developing a range of productive approaches and strategies to regulate their destructiveness, resolve differences and positively transform conflicted relationships. Gary is careful to note that no one map can provide a sure and successful route through every conflict, but his collection of maps and models provides multiple sources of insight and guidance in the development of a number of plausible “paths” to resolution.

This second edition of the Conflict Resolution Toolbox should be one of the essential reference works on the bookshelf of any conflict resolution practitioner or, for that matter, in the backpack or briefcase of anyone seeking a greater understanding of the causes, dynamics, and development of conflicts, and in search of more effective strategies to address, resolve, and transform them for the better.