Summary Of Colonel Monroe Conflict

The conflict between Hawkeye and Colonel Monroe was mostly caused by the misunderstanding Colonel Monroe had as to Hawkeyes role. Hawkeye believed he had no reason to remain in the fort or for the militia men to remain either. The Colonel believed Hawkeye to be a subject of the British Empire and for that reason believed himself to be in command of Hawkeye. The lens model of conflict says that “there are multiple views of conflict, yet each looks “real” to the one seeing it”, and this is exactly the case in describing the scenario taking place between Colonel Monroe and Hawkeye (pg. 57). The root of the conflict was a misunderstanding of the rights each man’s position was afforded. The two parties differ in their desires, Hawkeye wishes to protect those he knows, and

The Seven Elements of Negotiating from the book Beyond Reason written by Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro is useful in serving to examine the conflict. The first element, the relationship between Hawkeye and Colonel Monroe is strained from the outset, despite Hawkeye delivering the Colonel’s daughters, Colonel Monroe thinks little of Hawkeyes desires to protect the frontier families and since Hawkeye is not a military professional the Colonel has little regard for him. The second element, being communication between the two is quite poor, with Colonel Monroe not listening to Hawkeyes reasoning for wanting to leave the fort. In addition to not listening, Monroe sees the negotiation as one sides, with him telling Hawkeye what he desires, with little regard to Hawkeyes desires. The interesting thing is neither side of the negotiation is hiding their interests, with their interests being the third element of negotiation. The two sides are clear on the desires, however, Monroe has little concern for Hawkeyes