In "Trust and Conflict Transformation" (Washington, DC: Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy, 1995), J. Notter highlights how trust is crucial for de-escalating, preventing, and transforming conflicts.

Notter employs the following terms to define trust: risk, relationship, expectations, behavior, and interdependence. An individual exposes herself to risk in a relationship (by sharing a problem, telling a secret, etc.) and expects the other person to not take advantage of that risk. If the other person behaves as expected, then trust and interdependence are built. As Notter says, "Trust breeds trust." When we trust someone, and they fulfill that trust, then we trust them more.

If a person/group takes advantage of or betrays our trust, or if we never allow a trust relationship to develop, then inevitably conflict erupts. Therefore, a key to transforming conflict lies in our ability to trust and to be trusted by others. Often, conflict resolution approaches neglect this aspect and simply try to ‘solve the dispute’ without considering the status of the relationship between the parties in conflict. But if we want to do more than just resolve the problem — if we want to transform the nature of the relationship to generate healthy future interactions, then we must work to develop trust amongst the parties in conflict.

This means that all members of a learning community should engage in: (1) examining what level of trust currently exists amongst themselves (across caste, class, gender, etc. groupings); (2) analyzing how and when trust relationships are destroyed (for example, through different kinds of competition), and (3) dialoguing about what mechanisms exist or can be created for repairing/building trust.