From within the discipline of conflict resolution -- especially as it sought to differentiate itself from the then-dominant perspectives of international relations in the late 1970s and early 1980s -- the notion of "intractability" links to the work of John Burton and Edward Azar. The former, whose conception of intractability was contained in the notion of "deep-rooted conflicts," sought to disconnect certain kinds of social conflict from the simplifying calculus of rational choice and cost-benefit analysis to the foundational level of "basic human needs" (such as security, identity, or recognition). Individuals strove to fulfill these needs against all ("rational") odds; their suppression by institutions, including states, guaranteed forms of social conflict, including violence, that were not bargainable or negotiable by the usual means. Azar adapted the notion of basic needs to his analysis of "protracted social conflicts." These conflicts, seemingly unresolvable, occurred within multi-ethnic, multi-racial, or otherwise multi-communal societies, usually underdeveloped or economically...
(Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2004).