Faculty Updates

Kevin Avruch:

Kevin Avruch is collaborating with Dave Davis, a faculty member in the School of Public Policy, to direct George Mason University’s contribution to the Irish Peace Process Cultural Training Program, also known as the Walsh Visa Program, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1998. Working with them are ICAR doctoral students who make up the nonprofit organization the Alliance for Conflict Transformation. The Walsh Visa Program is designed to assist disadvantaged areas of Northern Ireland and the six border counties of the Republic of Ireland (Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Louth, Sligo, and Leitrim) in their transition to a peacetime economy. The program grants nonimmigrant working visas to men and women, aged 18 to 35, from the designated areas. These visas allow them to live and work in the United States for up to 36 months. During their time in the United States, program participants receive job training and, unique to this visa program, the opportunity to develop conflict resolution skills through a series of ongoing workshops, which begin before they leave the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The curriculum is designed and delivered by members of George Mason’s Alliance for Conflict Transformation. As part of a broader Irish peace-building process, the goal of the program is to help participants develop an experiential, business, and cultural skills base with which they can return home to work on promoting the economic regeneration of Northern Ireland and the border counties of the Republic of Ireland. Participants are supported in hubs located at present in Washington, D.C.; Colorado Springs; Pittsburgh; and Boston. A hub in Syracuse is planned for summer 2002.

Sandra Cheldelin:

Sandra Cheldelin spent the past several months preparing for the transition of ICAR’s leadership. (Sara Cobb, the new director, arrived Aug. 15.) In addition to wrapping up the 2000–01 academic year and preparing for academic year 2001–02, she continued her active consultation practice, providing mediation, strategic planning, coaching, and conflict resolution services to two boards of directors, that of a nongovernmental organization and a private liberal arts college; two large banks; and several small groups and organizations. She serves on the core planning committee of the spring 2002 Hewlett Conference, has submitted a chapter on organizational conflict for publication, and, along with Daniel Druckman and Larissa Fast, is editing an ICAR textbook. In addition, she is writing a book on organizational conflict in higher education to be published by Jossey Bass in the winter of 2002. She was the keynote speaker at the Fall Institute for College and University Chairs and Deans in Asheville, N.C., on the subject of change and has served on several panels at national conferences on the topic of change and conflict.

Michelle LeBaron:

Michelle Lebaron has continued her work on developing processes to address conflict involving identity and worldview differences. She taught courses this spring and summer in Asia, Europe, Canada, and the United States. One of the highlights was her April keynote address at the Society of International Education, Training, and Research in Tokyo, Japan. In Switzerland, she worked with ICAR Ph.D. graduate Amr Abdalla to provide a week of training in intercultural conflict resolution skills to a group of young people from around the world participating in the Caux Scholars Program. (ICAR alumnus Barry Hart directs the Caux Scholars Program.) With colleague Mark McCrea, LeBaron returned as a faculty member to the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, drawing an international group of participants for five days of intensive exploration of the intercultural dynamics of reconciliation and conflict transformation.

LeBaron’s forthcoming research publications include an article on the dynamics of shame and guilt in conflict intervention, cowritten with ICAR alumna Linda Johnson, who is now on the faculty of the McGregor School at Antioch University. She has also written “Learning New Dances: Finding Effective Ways to Address Intercultural Disputes,” which will appear as a chapter in Intercultural Dispute Resolution in Aboriginal Contexts: Canadian and International Perspectives, to be published by the University of British Columbia Press. She has had papers accepted by the International Association for Conflict Management in Paris, France, and for the upcoming Women’s World Congress 2002 in Kampala, Uganda. LeBaron continues work on her book about creative approaches to conflict involving worldview differences.

Terrence Lyons:

Terrence Lyons has continued his research on comparative peace processes, with particular attention to the role of elections in implementing peace agreements in civil wars. He has written “Implementing Peace and Building Democracy: The Role of Elections,” which will appear as a chapter in Ending Civil Wars: Evaluating Implementation of Peace Agreements, edited by Stephen John Stedman, Elizabeth Cousens, and Donald Rothchild and to be published by Lynne Rienner in 2002. He has also written “Transforming the Structures of War: Post-Conflict Elections and the Reconstruction of Collapsed States,” which will appear as a chapter in a forthcoming book edited by Robert Rotberg of the World Peace Foundation at Harvard University. His most recent publication is African Foreign Policies: Power and Process (Lynne Rienner, 2001), a book he coedited with Gilbert Khadiagala.

Lyons also has worked on policy-oriented research with the Africa Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. He contributed a working paper titled “U.S. Diplomatic Strategies to Resolve Conflicts in Africa” to a CSIS project titled “Beyond the Clinton Administration’s Africa Policy.” He also cowrote a paper for CSIS Africa Notes titled “Time for Concerted Action on Zimbabwe” and participated in the CSIS Sudan Task Force.

Lyons continues his involvement with the Africa Working Group at ICAR. Wallace Warfield and Lyons traveled to Rwanda in May 2001 to conduct a week of training workshops with a group of Rwandan nongovernmental organizations engaged in peace building and reconciliation. They plan to return in December for another set of workshops. Christopher Mitchell, Tamra Pearson d’Estrée, Ph.D. candidate Lulsegged Abebe, Lyons, and several ICAR students are continuing to facilitate the Ethiopian Notables Dialogue.

As chair of the publications committee at ICAR, Lyons recently finalized publication of four new papers: Daniel Druckman’s “A Journey from the Laboratory to the Field: Insights to Resolving Disputes through Negotiation”; Natalya Tovmasyan Riegg’s “Conflicts in the Second World: A View on Track 2 Diplomacy”; Dennis J.D. Sandole’s “Peace and Security in the Post-Cold War Europe: A ‘Community of Values’ in the CSCE/OSCE?”; and Mike Oquaye’s “The Liberian Crisis: Lessons for Intra-State Conflict Management and Prevention in Africa.”

Richard Rubenstein:

In April 2001, Richard Rubenstein and the ICAR Working Group on Religion and Conflict hosted a conference titled “Religious Proselytizing, Conflict, and Conflict Resolution.” The distinguished participants represented every major faith, as well as the field of conflict studies. A summary of the proceedings is available from ICAR. ICAR students who served as facilitators were Luisegged Abebe, Elham Atashi, Mike Dante, Pushpa Iyer, Deirdre Ritchie, and Aleksandar Vidojevic. The work of this group continues and involves joint projects with George Mason University’s United Campus Ministers, the planning of a conference for 2002 on religious violence, and discussion of a proposed ICAR Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict.

In May, Rubenstein traveled to Havana, Cuba, to present a paper titled “Global Sources of Conflict and Conflict Resolution” at a conference of the Cuban United Nations Association and the Jose Marti Society. His article “Basic Human Needs: The Next Steps in Theory Development” was published in the fall 2001 issue of the International Journal of Peace Studies, and he completed two chapters titled “The Sources of Destructive Conflict” and “Law, Tradition, and Conflict Resolution” for the forthcoming ICAR textbook. Meanwhile, his recent book, When Jesus Became God, was published in France by Editions Decouverte, and a previous book, Comrade Valentine, was published in Poland by Bellona Publishers, Ltd. He is continuing work on Aristotle’s Children: The War between Faith and Reason in the High Middle Ages, to be published in fall 2002.

In September, following the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Rubenstein appeared on television (NBC News, Fox News, and Newschannel 8) and gave press interviews (National Journal, Los Angeles Times, U.S. News and World Report, El Journada, Dai-Ichi News, etc.) on the causes of terrorism and the potential role of conflict resolution in dealing with the current crisis. His letter to the editor of the Financial Times attracted international attention, and he spoke at a United States Institute of Peace forum and two ICAR teach-ins on the same issue.

Dennis J.D. Sandole:

From April 9 to 11, 2001, Dennis J.D. Sandole served as a facilitator for the “Roundtable Seminar on Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding and NGOs—Lessons to be Learned,” convened in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, by the European Centre for Conflict Prevention (headquartered in Utrecht, The Netherlands). While in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sandole was asked by the U.S. State Department’s Public Diplomacy Program to travel to Bihac, the northern-most Muslim-held town, where, on April 13 at the University of Bihac, he made a presentation on conflict resolution in the Balkans.

From April 26 to 30, Sandole traveled with ICAR professor Tamra Pearson d’Estree and ICAR students Dawn Gresham and Idil Izmirli to the National Taurida Vernadsky University in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine, where, in addition to a number of presentations on ICAR and aspects of the field, he presented “Violent Conflict and War: Insights from Political and Social Psychology.” As a speaker for the U.S. State Department’s Public Diplomacy Program, Sandole presented “Burdens from History, Insecurities and Suspicions” at the “International Workshop on Stability and Peace in the Caucasus: The Case of Nagorno- Karabakh,” at the Evangelische Akademie in Loccum, Germany, in early May. Later that month, Sandole presented “Virulent Ethnocentrism, The ‘Last Frontier’ of Resistance to Former Yugoslavia’s Integration into European Civilization: Origins and Prospects for Reduction” at the second Reichenau workshop titled “Multiethnic State or Ethnic Homogeneity—The Case of Southeast Europe,” convened by the Partnership for Peace Working Group on Crisis Management in Southeast Europe, Reichenau, Austria.

Sandole travelled to Istanbul, Turkey, where, from May 28 to June 1, he taught a one-week version of his course titled War, Violence, and Conflict Resolution as part of the new conflict resolution program headed by ICAR Ph.D. graduate Nimet Beriker at Sabanci University, one of Turkey’s newest universities.

In late July, Sandole presented online “A Review of the Blooming of Multiple Flowers: The JCPD’s E-Symposium on Conflict Prevention” as his review of the contributions to the first E-Symposium on Conflict Prevention convened by the Japan Center for Preventive Diplomacy (JCPD), a program of the Japan Forum on International Relations.

During July and August, Sandole travelled to Malaysia as a speaker for the U.S. State Department’s Public Diplomacy Program (see related story in the newsletter).

From Sept. 27 to Oct. 8, Sandole visited the Rockefeller Foundation’s Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, where he worked together with Lyudmila Harutyunyan, chair of the Department of Sociology and director of the Center for Regional Integration and Conflict Resolution, Yerevan State University, in Yerevan, Armenia; Larissa Lemberanskaya, director of the International Center for Social Research in Baku, Azerbaijan; and George Khutsishvili, director of the International Center on Conflict and Negotiation in Tbilisi, Georgia. The objective of the collaboration was to continue a process started in August 2000 as part of ICAR’s Caucasus Working Group to help our colleagues from the region develop their surveys of public and elite opinion into a book, Conflict and Potential for Integration in the South Caucasus: Public and Elite Opinion. This book is to include chapters by ICAR’s Christopher Mitchell and Sandole, as well as by our partners (see ICAR’s fall 2000 newsletter, page 20).

On Oct. 10, Sandole participated in the second of four teachins at George Mason University’s main campus as part of ICAR’s response to the events and aftermath of Sept. 11. This event considered the question, “Is this a clash of civilizations?” On Oct. 18, as part of ICAR’s brown bag lecture series, Sandole presented “Peace and Security in Post-Cold War Europe: An Update on the CSCE/OSCE Project.” He is also working on a book tentatively titled Brave New Worlds and Beyond: Peace and Security in Post-Cold War Europe. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers has expressed an interest in the manuscript.

In recent months, Sandole has had the following works published: “John Burton’s Contributions to Conflict Resolution Theory and Practice: A Personal View,” which appeared in the summer 2001 issue of the International Journal of Peace Studies; “Preventing Future Yugoslavias: The Views of CSCE/OSCE Negotiators, 1993 and 1997,” which appeared in Ten Years After: Democratisation and Security Challenges in Southeast Europe (Vol. II), edited by Gustav E. Gustenau; and “Peace and Security in Post-Cold War Europe: A ‘Community of Values’ in the CSCE/OSCE?” ICAR Working Paper No. 18, June 2001.

Following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, radio and print media in the United States and abroad have interviewed Sandole.

Finally, among his other academic duties this fall, Sandole is teaching the required research methods course for M.S. students, Philosophy and Methods of Conflict Research as well as the elective War, Violence, and Conflict Resolution. He serves on several Ph.D. dissertation and M.S. thesis committees. He is also involved with a number of working groups, including those dealing with war, violence, and terrorism; Southeast Asia; and the Caucasus/Newly Independent States.

Wallace Warfield:

Wallace Warfield moderated a panel on the implications of self-determination and social justice for mediation and dispute resolution as part of a symposium hosted by Hamline Law School in St. Paul/ Minneapolis, Minn., Oct. 27 and 28. Utilizing critical race t heory, the symposium examined the issues of race and racism in relation to mediation and dispute resolution in the United States.

Warfield continues his work, along with Christopher Mitchell and Kevin Avruch, on the Zones of Peace research project in Colombia, which is funded by the United States Institute of Peace. Warfield is interested in comparing Zones of Peace in the United States with the more familiar international versions. This will be the subject of a research proposal in the near future.

Warfield participated with Tamra d’Estree and Daniel Druckman in a weeklong workshop development and training session with faculty members and students from the Crimea Peace Institute and Tavrichesky University in Yalta, Ukraine, at the end of August.