Rename edge case...

I've been browsing StackOverflow answering git-related questions, and
ran across this one:
    <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13300675/git-merge-rename-conflict>

It's a bit of an interesting situation.  The user did a couple of
renames in a branch:
    foo.txt => fooOld.txt
    fooNew.txt => foo.txt

Meanwhile, master had an update to fooNew.txt. When the user tried to merge master to the branch, it gave a merge conflict saying fooNew.txt was deleted, but master tried to update it.

I was a bit surprised that git didn't follow the rename here, though I do understand why: git only sees it as a rename if the source disappears completely. So I played locally with a few ideas, and was surprised to find out that even breaking up the two renames into two separate commits git still didn't follow it.

I'm just curious--I don't run into this often myself--but is there a good strategy for dealing with this that avoids the conflict?

Thanks!

-John