Congratulations to the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at GMU: The IMTD and ICAR partnership continues

George Mason University in Fairfax, VA started the first Master's in the world on Conflict Analysis and Resolution in 1982. In 1989 they established the first PhD in the field. Beginning July 1, 2011 they will become the first School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution in the world.

Ambassador John W McDonald has been a friend and supporter of this landmark program since 1982 when he was invited to lecture at the University to the first course of Professor Bryant Wedge, the "founding father". This relationship has grown and expanded over the decades. In 1984 the Center for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, as it was called, created an Advisory Board. Amb. McDonald was a member of that first board and is still an active member of the Advisory Board.

When IMTD was launched in early 1992, Dr. Chris Mitchell, the then Director of the Center, invited McDonald to be a scholar in residence. He provided a room, telephone and computer and IMTD was officially launched on May 26 that year thanks to Professor Mitchell.

James Notter was IMTDs' first intern. When he was getting his master's at ICAR, he learned about the new organization and offered to help. He remained with IMTD for six years working primarily on the Cyprus program. Since 1992 IMTD has had a total of 275 interns from 64 countries all getting their Master's or PhDs in the field of conflict resolution. These interns are all unpaid and have kept IMTD young, alive and refreshed over the years. Many of these interns have come from ICAR while they were getting their master's degrees there.

A number of these young professionals have gotten their PhDs at ICAR and are currently teaching at universities. For example: Ekaterina Romanova is now a professor at American University, Cheryl Duckworth is a professor at Nova Southeastern University and Lisa Schirch is a professor at Eastern Mennonite University.

Ambassador McDonald has played a key role on the Advisory Board over these many years. Among the things he first proposed to the GMU administration was to provide disabled access to the house that housed ICAR in the early 90s and he suggested moving ICAR to the Arlington Campus where it has been located for the last 6 years. He also urged the curriculum committee to establish a three-hour master's degree course in peer mediation and most recently proposed the writing of a book on the history of ICAR from 1982 to 2011.

McDonald has also been an adjunct professor and lecturer at ICAR teaching together with Dr. Louise Diamond and later Dr. Eileen Borris, a three-day course for two credit hours on Forgiveness and Reconciliation (see photo of January 2009 class). He has also lectured on various other occasions at ICAR both at undergraduate, master's and PhD levels, as well as with the certificate program (see photo of April 2011 class).

IMTD applauds the achievement and continues to work with S-CAR as is becomes the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution on July 1, 2011.

Photo Credits: IMTD

Photo #1: Dr. Eileen Borris (seated row, fourth from left) and Amb. John W. McDonald (ret.) (seated row, fifth from left) and the Forgiveness and Reconciliation January 2009 class in ICAR

Photo #2: Amb. John W. McDonald (ret.) (front, second from left) and Prof. Alma Jadallah (front center) and the ICAR Certificate Course students April 2011