Faculty Updates

Kevin Avruch

Kevin Avruch continues as co-principal investigator on the Walsh Visa Program for Northern Ireland and the six border counties of the Republic of Ireland; President Bush signed legislation in October extending the program for another year. He also continues as a member of ICAR’s Zones of Peace research team. In the past year Avruch has published two journal articles, “Notes Toward Ethnographies of Conflict and Violence” in the Journal Of Contemporary Ethnography, and “Constructing Ethnicity: Culture and Ethnic Conflict in the New World Disorder,” American Journal Of Orthopsychiatry.

He has also written “What Do I Need to Know about Culture?” in Into the Eye of the Storm: A Handbook of International Peacebuilding and “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: A Review Essay and Annotated Bibliography,” in Social Justice and republished in The Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies, 2002 (with ICAR M.S. graduate Beatriz Vejarano).

Avruch published a review of “The Limits of Coexistence: Identity Politics in Israel” (R. Torstrick) in American Anthropologist. He was also especially pleased to contribute the Forward to ICAR Ph.D. graduate Jayne S. Docherty’s new book, Learning Lessons from Waco: When the Parties Bring Their Gods to the Negotiation Table.

Daniel Druckman

Dan Druckman had a busy summer. A month-long trip included a teaching stint in Manila (see article in this issue), a public lecture in Taichung, Taiwan, a visit with a colleague (Dean Tjosvold) in Hong Kong, and the IACM meetings in Salt Lake City. A second trip in July included working meetings in Paris and Marseille with a French team collaborating on developing negotiation training materials, and a visit at Sabanci University in Istanbul where he attended the graduation of the first class from the master’s program on international conflict resolution. A third trip in August to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, with Giselle Ober consisted of consultation with the faculty at Nur University and an eighthour workshop on negotiation skills offered to the public. He continues to pursue his Lynch chair research agenda, including progress on the textbook, Doing Research in Conflict Analysis: Methods of Inquiry. In addition, the ICAR textbook (co-edited with Sandra Cheldelin and Larissa Fast) has been submitted to the publisher, and articles have appeared in such journals as Group Decision and Negotiation and International Negotiation. Druckman has published chapters in the second edition of a book edited by Kremenyuk on international negotiation and a book edited by Bercovitch on mediation, and is theme editor of a set of papers authored by ICAR faculty to appear in the Encyclopedia of the Life Sciences.

Ho-Won Jeong

Ho-Won Jeong published several book chapters and journal articles. He was invited to the workshop “Training of Civil Society in Conflict Prevention” organized by United Nations Peace University’s Central Asian Program, and he presented a paper, “Ethnic Conflict, Identity and Self- Determination,” in July 2002. In addition, he served as a member of an International Affairs Merit Review Panel for 2000 National Security Education Program Graduate International Fellowships (funded by the U.S. Congress and administered by the Academy of Educational Development) last March.

Jeong’s most recent research focused on peace building. It led to the publication of a book titled Approaches to Peace Building by Palgrave Macmillan last summer (see review in this issue). The edited volume includes chapters on capacity building, peacekeeping, reconciliation, rehabilitation, and women and policy design. His coauthored article, “Reconciliation and its Social and Political Dimensions,” with Charles Lerche, was published in the September 2002 issue of International Politics. His other article, “Peace Building: Operational Imperatives and Organizational Co-ordination,” appeared in Hiroshima Peace Science in June 2002. Another article, “Redefining Third Party Roles in Peace Building,” was published in the last spring issue of Peace Times. He also published “Development of Peace and Conflict Studies” in the June 2002 issue of Peace Studies Bulletin. He is currently working on the second edition of Peace and Conflict Studies: An Introduction, published by Ashgate in the fall of 2000. He contributed chapters “Third Party Roles in Peacekeeping and Peace Building” and “Structural Sources of Conflict” included in Daniel Druckman, et al., eds., Human Conflict: Resolution and Practice, to be published by Cassell.

Linda M. Johnston

Linda M. Johnston completed her doctoral work at ICAR in 2000 and returned to ICAR as a visiting professor this year after two years at Antioch University McGregor teaching conflict resolution in their master’s program. While at Antioch, she had the opportunity to develop skills both in online learning and curriculum development. She was also elected vice chair and then chair of the graduate faculty senate.

Johnston recently made two presentations, one at the doctoral conference at George Mason on the updates to the conflict over tobacco in the United States, and another at the Peace and Justice Studies Association on justice, reconciliation, and revenge. Her article on teaching and learning online was accepted by Conciliation Quarterly. Now back at ICAR, Johnston is working on the State Department Project in Ukraine, teaching the applied practice and theory courses, and conceptions of practice.

Michelle LeBaron

Michelle LeBaron’s major focus this year has been on publications. She published Bridging Troubled Waters: Conflict Resolution from the Heart in July 2002 to very positive reviews. The book speaks to practitioners and scholars about multiple ways of knowing, inviting the use of emotional intelligence, intuition, imagination, and somatic and spiritual awareness as partners with analysis and problem solving. Building on the work of Oscar Nudler and Mary Clark, LeBaron explores how metaphors, rituals and narratives can be used creatively in integrating multiple ways of knowing into practice. She presented a workshop on Bridging Troubled Waters at the Association for Conflict Resolution annual conference in San Diego, California, in August 2002, and is currently teaching an ICAR course on creativity and multiple ways of knowing in conflict analysis and resolution.

LeBaron continues work on two books about culture and conflict, the first, Bridging Cultural Conflict, forthcoming from Jossey-Bass in early 2003. She contributed a chapter to a forthcoming book on personal qualities of mediators edited by Daniel Bowling and David Hoffman, and a piece on connecting theory and practice in a post-9/11 world to the Negotiation Journal.

LeBaron presented at Women’s World 2002, a major international women’s congress in Kampala, Uganda, in July 2002 with Ann Baker of the School of Public Policy. With an audience from a dozen countries, their presentation explored the way women’s narratives facilitate interpersonal conflict transformation and community change. Michelle also presented a program on conflict and culture at the Straus Institute of Pepperdine University’s School of Law in Malibu, California, in July 2002, and the University of Victoria, Canada, in June 2002. Her lecture at the University of British Columbia Green College lecture series will be released early in 2003 in a collection of papers.

LeBaron‘s research activities continue in the area of conflict and culture. Most recently, she collaborated on a proposal to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to study the cultural aspects of human rights and commercial cases in China, Japan, Canada, and Australia.

Chris Mitchell

Since the last ICAR Newsletter, Chris Mitchell has continued work on a number of ongoing research and practice projects, including the Ethiopian Notables Dialogue, now entering its third year of discussions among notable individuals from the various Ethiopian diasporas in the Washington and Northern Virginia regions; and the local zones or communities of peace project, which seeks to analyze the manner in which local communities establish and maintain violence-free areas in the midst of violent civil wars.

In connection with the latter he undertook a brief trip to Bogota, Colombia, during June in order to consult with Colombian colleagues about the viability of continuing field work now that the formal peace process between FARC and the Colombian government has broken down—a breakdown immediately noticeable through the greatly increased presence of armed police, army units, and private security guards throughout the Colombian capital. The general feeling among Colombian colleagues seemed to be that things would get much worse before they got any better.

During June, Mitchell assisted alumnus Jannie Botes, Giselle Ober, and other members of the Latin American and Caribbean Working Group in conducting the third joint ICAR/Organization of American States Summer Workshop, this one being focused on the role of the media in conflict resolution in Latin American countries. Participants attending the workshop came from Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Bolivia, among other Latin American societies, and a great deal was mutually learned about the perils of media work in conflict zones on the continent.

Finally, the long-planned and oftpostponed conference of ICAR doctoral alumni took place in September 2002—an occasion for some nostalgia but more anticipating the future and for hoping that relationships re-established both before and during the three-day conference would be maintained and result in a strengthening of ties among the numerous individuals who have returned to the world of full-time work, carrying with them the badge of an ICAR degree (see article in this issue).

Richard Rubenstein

Professor Rich Rubenstein was very active in the fall term speaking and writing on the issues of terrorism, religious conflict, and alternatives to war. He moderated a forum on “Alternatives to War with Iraq” at George Mason’s Arlington Campus, delivered several speeches on this subject at local churches and synagogues, and on George Mason’s main campus, engaged in a dialogue with a proponent of an immediate invasion of Iraq. Rubenstein appeared twice as an expert on terrorism on Fox Cable News and presented a paper on religious terrorism at the American Psychological Association annual convention in Chicago. The paper is to be published as a chapter in The New Global Terrorism, edited by Charles Kegley. Rubenstein also completed drafting his book, Aristotle’s Children: The War between Faith and Reason in the High Middle Ages, which Harcourt Brace will publish in 2003. His previous book, When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity in the Last Days of Rome (1999) has been translated and published in France, Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea.

Dennis Sandole

In March Dennis Sandole attended the Hewlett Theory Centers 2002 meeting on “Extracting New Directions for Theory from Practitioners’ Experience: What Don’t We Know? What Do We Need to Know? And How Can We Find Out?” at John Jay College, City University of New York, New York City. From this meeting emerged his online article, “Exquisite Synergy: A Meeting of the Minds across Levels of Conflict,” published in the proceedings of the meeting.

Sandole attended the 43rd Annual Convention of the International Studies Association in New Orleans, Louisiana, also in March, where he presented the paper, “Virulent Ethnocentrism: A Major Challenge for Transformational Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding in the Post-Cold War Era,” later published online in The Global Review of Ethnopolitics, and he acted as a discussant for the panel on “Conflict Transformation: A Cross- Cultural Perspective.”

In April, Sandole participated as a presenter in the “Workshop on Ethnic, Cultural and Religious Conflict in the ASEAN Region,” cohosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore. He also conducted a two-day “Workshop in Conflict Resolution” for senior officials of the state government of Sabah, in Kota Kinabalu (North Borneo), Malaysia.

In May, Sandole presented the paper, “The Balkans Stability Pact as a Regional Conflict Management and Prevention 'Space': An Evaluation,” at the Third Reichenau Workshop on “The Stability Pact for South East Europe—Dawn of an Era of Regional Cooperation?” convened by the Partnership-for-Peace Consortium Study Group on Crisis Management in South East Europe, Reichenau, Austria.

During September, Sandole participated as a presenter in the Certificate Course on Peace Education in Mindanao, cohosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Asian Institute of Management in Manila, Republic of the Philippines. Sandole’s article, “Terrorism: The Need for a Comprehensive Approach,” was published in Research Papers (Human Rights Conflict Prevention Centre, University of Bihac, Bosnia- Hercegovina).

Sandole has had a number of articles published online and has also done an online presentation, “A Review of the JCPD’s (Japan Center for Preventive Diplomacy) Second E-symposium on Conflict Prevention: The Future of Conflict Prevention in the Post-September 11 World,” which was his contribution to the second E-Symposium on Conflict Prevention convened by the JCPD. In addition, he has written a number of short articles, dealing with, among others, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and terrorism, that appear both on the Dialogue Webpage for Conflicts Worldwide and on ICAR’s September 11, 2001, web page.

Sandole’s chapter, “The Causes of Terrorism,” will be published this fall in Terrorism: Concepts, Causes and Conflict Resolution, edited by Lt. Col. R. Scott Moore (USMC, ret.), Fort Belvoir, Virginia: U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. His ongoing Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe/ Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe project, which he is currently working on as a book, is tentatively titled Brave New Worlds and Beyond: Peace and Security in Post-Cold War Europe.

Wallace Warfield

In addition to his teaching responsibilities and carrying out functions associated with being the doctoral program coordinator, Professor Warfield wrote an article for Negotiation Journal published in October titled “Modest Reflections: The State of the Field as a Moving Target.” The article addresses the importance of being aware of the different epistomies of practice that are taking place in American communities by individuals and groups outside of the so-called professional paradigm. Warfield has also completed a chapter for a Jossey-Bass book edited by Janice Jenner and John Paul Lederach titled “Is This the Right Thing to Do?: A Practical Framework for Ethical Decisionmaking in Peacebuilding.” The focus of this work is on guidelines for practitioners who are just entering the field of international peace building. The book should be available now. On the research front, Warfield continues his work with the Zones of Peace project along with faculty colleagues Chris Mitchell, Kevin Avruch, and a team of doctoral students. A proposal for conducting research about U.S. peace zones and their linkage to civil society has been drafted, and funds are currently being sought for its implementation. A new research project has been mounted that involves Heather Scofield, ICAR M.S. student, and Phyllis Turner Lawrence, an attorney/ mediator active in restorative justice. A draft proposal attempts to determine if there is a body of interest in the Northern Virginia area in developing a restorative justice program, one that has connections to the exploration of underlying causes of conflict in particular communities.