They remain essential tools. One does not negotiate about identity, fear, inner security, dignity, personal acceptance, or historic grievance.
People have to change their conflictual relationships before they can come to a negotiating table.
Working with some colleagues who had pioneered in the field of nonofficial dialogue while I was still working in the peace process as an official, I eventually developed a process that I call sustained dialogue. This is a period in which they decide to engage. In stage two, a small group of individuals reflecting major facets of the conflict sit down together and pour out their grievances with each other, and their feelings about the relationships among their groups. Focusing on one problem changes the quality of their dialogue from talking to each other to talking with each other about the facets of a particular problem that draw them together. They even begin to outline options for dealing with that problem and weigh the consequences of those choices.