Search for Common Ground's mission is to transform the way the world deals with conflict: away from adversarial approaches, toward cooperative solutions. Although the world is overly polarized and violence is much too prevalent, they remain essentially optimistic. Their view is that, on the whole, history is moving in positive directions. Although some of the conflicts they are currently dealing with may seem intractable, there are successful examples of cooperative conflict resolution that they can look to for inspiration - such as in South Africa, where an unjust system was transformed through negotiations and an inclusive peace process. There is no conflict that cannot be resolved. Violent conflict is created and sustained by human beings, and it can be ended by human beings. Senator George Mitchell The opportunity for cooperation is there, even in our most vexing disputes, if we only bother to look for it. William Raspberry, Washington Post Columnist