(04-30-2019, 09:11 AM)Encaitar Wrote: That was an enjoyable and insightful read, especially for this relative outsider.  I find it fascinating to see how this region continues to struggle with maintaining a cohesive and stable union, which I fear is almost inevitable as long as we're a community of diverse personalities and perspectives.  As long as there are positions of power (unavoidable) and as long as decisions are being made that have tangible impact on the region (unavoidable), there will be tension and conflict.

Conflict as an broad concept may be unavoidable, but conflict turning to violence, as it so often does here, is avoidable. TSP in general is terrible at processing conflict. As I outlined in my post, the region's usual approach is to repress conflict until it spirals out of control, and when it does the region generally goes right back to trying to repress it.