ICAR Workshops and Projects

Second Organization of American States Summer Workshop: Conflict Resolution and Transformation in Post-Agreement Societies
By Christopher Mitchell, ICAR faculty member

In June, the institute held its second summer workshop for practitioners from Latin America, an event that was again supported by the Organization of American States, which supplied travel scholarships for 12 participants to come to George Mason for two weeks. Last year’s workshop was broadly focused on basic conflict analysis knowledge and resolution skills, but this summer’s event, again organized by the institute’s Latin American and Caribbean Working Group, concentrated on the peace-building skills that might subsequently prove useful once a society has arrived at a peace agreement. A number of Central American and some South American countries have reached this post-conflict, peace-building stage, and we were fortunate to include in the workshop knowledgeable participants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Argentina.

Following the pattern of the first workshop held in August 2000, participants in this year’s event spent some time pursuing a variety of sub-themes around the topic of post-conflict peacebuilding, but they also took time off for visits to peacemaking and peace-building organizations in downtown Washington. The former activities included the two-day workshop on negotiation skills that Daniel Druckman and Giselle Huamani Ober have developed and taught in Bolivia and Peru. The first event on Tuesday, June 12, featured a most interesting panel on the challenges of reintegrating combatants in post-conflict society. Led by Richard Rubenstein, the panel comprised Luis Santiago from Guatemala and Antonio Sanguino from Colombia, both of whom are former guerrillas; Ricardo Esquivia from the Colombian organization JustaPaz; and Jo-Marie Burt from George Mason University’s Department of Public and International Affairs. Other speakers from ICAR were Wallace Warfield, Kevin Avruch, Mary Hope Schwoebel, and Ivan King from George Mason University’s Program on Peacekeeping. Outside visitors were ICAR alumni Rob Scott and Janet Murdoch from the Northern Virginia Mediation Service and Jaco Cilliers from Catholic Relief Service; Hazel Lair from the Meridian Institute; Krishna Kumar from the U.S. Agency for International Development; and our old friend and colleague from the Center for Strategic and International Studies Joseph Montville. A television discussion was arranged with John Paul Lederach, who teaches at Notre Dame University.

To all of the above speakers, ICAR owes a major debt of gratitude, as well as to the Washington, D.C., organizations that welcomed visits by workshop participants. Workshop participants visited Barrios Unidos and the Fairfax County Schools Mediation Service, courtesy of Robert Harris. They also visited the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Organization of American States, the World Bank, and Search for Common Ground’s Media Project. To support the memory and healing discussions at the workshop, participants also visited the Holocaust Museum.

Altogether, the feedback from the 13 participants seemed very positive. Latin American and Caribbean Working Group member Janet Murdoch has created an electronic network to enable workshop participants to remain in contact with ICAR and with each other. The working group is encouraged by the success of this workshop and is considering the possibility of a third workshop for the summer of 2002—this time focused on the topic of the media and conflict in Latin America.

ICAR and the Latin American Network of Universities on Conflict Transformation, Lima, Peru
By Giselle Huamani Ober, ICAR student

From Aug. 8 to 22, ICAR members Christopher Mitchell, Daniel Druckman, and Giselle Huamani Ober met at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru in Lima, Peru, with 20 university professors from Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. This program was part of the Latin American and Caribbean Working Group’s effort that started two years ago and was made possible through the development of relationships with members of the following universities: Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia; Universidad Nur, Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Universidad Tecnica de Loja, Loja, Ecuador; and Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, in Lima, Peru. These institutions and members had become familiar with ICAR’s work through summer courses (see article by Christopher Mitchell), conferences, seminars, and programs that ICAR developed in Latin America.

The program took place through the sponsorship of the Sociology Department of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. The main objective was to help the universities develop or refine their conflict analysis and resolution programs, approaches, and pedagogues. The professors, who came from a wide range of professional disciplines and fields, were interested in incorporating new approaches to teaching, studying, and practicing conflict analysis and resolution. During the first part of the program, we engaged in a very rich dialogue about the types of conflict resolution programs that participants envision or have initiated. We discussed the links the participants have to the social, political, and economic constraints of their societies, and we also discussed the role the universities should play in addressing these constraints. For example, the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, has developed a very interesting program for ex-combatants and is working with them to develop leadership-for-peace modules that can respond to the great challenges of the Colombian conflict.

The second part of the program focused on course structures, academic units, and pedagogues. Comparison of different program structures and methodologies revealed the strength and creativity of many of the Latin American programs. For example, the Universidad Nur in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, has developed an innovative approach to incorporating community service and practice work into its program; this approach responds to the university principles of strengthening moral leadership and community participation. It involves approximately 3,000 students in all kinds of volunteer and community projects organized by the students themselves.

Finally, during the last part of the program, we focused on intervention roles of third parties and the implications for universities. A case study of a socio-environmental conflict gave the participants the chance to analyze and design an intervention using their analytical skills, their existing network of contacts, and their legitimacy as members of an academic institution.

The group also engaged in a two-day negotiation workshop and participated in an ongoing research project, which has been conducted over the last two years by Druckman and Huamani Ober, on the influence of environmental variables on negotiation. Another interesting feature of the program was the development and launch of the Network of Universities in the Analysis and Transformation of Conflicts. In addition to the usual features of a network, such as the sharing of information and the exchange of findings, the network adopted a methodology used in the Sociology Department of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru called the methodology of the laboratory.

This requires that each university invite its faculty members and graduate students who are working, teaching, or researching a particular problem in conflict and conflict resolution to join a multidisciplinary laboratory. In each laboratory, the group will formulate specific questions that will guide the study and the research of a chosen problem. In addition to producing final findings, conclusions, and reports, the work of the laboratory is expected to generate readings, open discussions, and public seminars that will provide more elements for discussion and consideration.

After these stages have been completed in each university, all the universities’ laboratory members will meet in 2002 to compare findings and to learn from the processes used. As a second stage in the development of the network, the red de universidades, plans to have its first meeting of laboratories in Cali, Colombia, hosted by the Universidad del Valle. This meeting will take place prior to the second Ibero-American conference in Bogota, Colombia, which is being planned for the month of July, and will combine efforts with the Latin American Peace and Conflict Resolution Network, a parallel network of research institutions.

(See article by Catalina Rojas.) For the gathering of university laboratories in Cali, Colombia, 2002, the “Red” already invites ICAR faculty members and graduate students to attend the meeting and to work with them on other conflict resolution themes relevant to the challenges they are facing as conflict resolution programs in Latin America.

Advanced Conflict Resolution Workshop for Korean NGOs
By Ho-Won Jeong, ICAR faculty member

In early June, ICAR hosted a five-day advanced conflict resolution skills workshop for Korean nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The workshop was sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee’s Tokyo office. Twelve representatives from Korean NGOs working on such issues as Korean reunification, promotion of women’s status, social and economic justice, and the prevention of sexual violence attended the workshop. Organized and taught by some of ICAR’s core faculty members (Christopher Mitchell, Frank Blechman, and Ho-Won Jeong) and several graduate students (Jen Murphy, Kang Young Jin, and Vivian Leven), the workshop was designed for advanced levels of process and methods for resolving complex issues. It focused on the analysis of the process of conflict, multiparty dialogue, and methods involved in overcoming incompatible interests and values.

This training workshop was aimed at helping the participants learn advanced methods essential to developing various conflict intervention and resolution strategies. While Korea does not have the racial and ethnic divisions found in many parts of the world, social, economic, and political divisions are nonetheless serious. As participants often pointed out, conflict in Korea occurs in political and cultural settings that are different from those suggested by Western-based models. Practitioners have to be sensitive to specific social settings in which conflict resolution strategies can be applied. Skills taught should assist in managing and eventually resolving conflict arising from a particular culture and social context.

One of the workshop’s objectives was to help participants think about structural transformation through the processes of conflict resolution. The topics included conflict resolution methods aimed at reducing regional, social, and economic inequities, as well as tolerance of different perspectives. Facilitation, dialogue, problem solving, and team building were the main sessions for this workshop. One of the goals of the workshop was to provide training that participants could apply in specific contexts. For instance, the dialogue session used an example of an ongoing environmental conflict in the western province of Korea. Team-building exercises chosen by the participants concentrated on how nongovernmental organizations can coordinate their action strategies to mobilize resources for their continued conflict resolution programs.

An academic setting provided a serious environment for analysis and understanding of diverse perspectives. At the same time, a friendly learning environment was created by mutual respect between the trainers and participants. Rich training and teaching experience as well as the knowledge and expertise of the trainers produced confidence among the participants in what they were learning. A short introduction before each session served as an icebreaker for the trainers and participants. During training, participants learned from each other as well as from the instructors. The group actively sought new understanding, and the trainers also provided informal advice and guidance. The number of participants was an appropriate size for an interactive style of training.

The high level of enthusiasm led to active participation by all group members in learning activities. For this reason, strategies to promote more active participation were unnecessary. The participants were knowledgeable about how conflict resolution methods work for their particular circumstances. In addition, the participants had previous exposure to conflict training and were familiar with listening, paraphrasing, and other skills, and their level of experience and understanding of conflict resolution practice was comparable to those of advanced students who are enrolled in postgraduate conflict resolution programs. The workshop used not only scenarios that contain similar structural elements but also real-life scenarios. Role-plays were compared with actual events to see how the conflicts could have been handled differently. In addition, the role-plays of each group produced different conflict processes and outcomes, and the differences were analyzed in terms of group dynamics and assumptions about structural conditions.

Whether conflict resolution skills can be universally applicable is an enduring question. No doubt, training in conflict resolution must consider cultural norms and values. Societies with strong communal cultures stress coming up with solutions collectively. Mediation developed in Western societies can be seen as too formal in non-Western cultures.

The participants raised legitimate concerns about cultural differences. Collective well-being is important in Korea, while family ties, networks of friends, and regional affiliations are less important in Western societies. Korea has a high context culture in which hidden meanings are often important. In Korea, age and gender differences may affect whose views are more respected. Social structure and cultural norms affect the choice of resolution methods and strategies (e.g., confrontation, accommodation, and avoidance). In some societies, conflict resolution is simply attributed to helping reduce intolerance.

Conflict analysis and resolution require a systematic understanding of conflict dynamics and the identification of different methods to be applied to different stages of conflict. Transforming conflict can facilitate a full exploration of the hidden relationships, power dynamics, and issues. Realization of social justice is based on building a coalition on particular issues and issue links. Third parties can play advocacy and activist roles. These issues can be important in understanding the skills and methods that are appropriate to achieving social justice through conflict resolution.

Discussion about how conflict resolution can contribute to social change has also been important for the participants since they work for social justice. Conflict resolution can mean more than lobbying and compromise in a civil society. Confrontation may be inevitable for conflict resolution if compromised solutions force the disadvantaged to give up their critical interests, values, and needs. Attention has to be paid to how different interests are represented and formulated in a problem solving process since negotiation is often conducted in power imbalanced situations.

Korean nongovernmental organizations can play an important role in citizen activism. Internal social divisions (and challenges from both inside and outside) can be overcome through a conflict resolution process. On the other hand, there are no universal techniques applicable to all different cases, and discussion is needed about what kinds of conflict resolution skills are needed for social activities.

Conflict Resolution for Health Professionals Certificate Program

In July and August 2001, I went on my fourth trip to Malaysia as an American speaker with the
U.S. Information Agency’s and the U.S. State Department’s Public Affairs Programs.

ICAR announces the Certificate in Conflict Resolution Program for Health Professionals.

This joint graduate certificate program, offered through the College of Nursing and Health Science and ICAR, allows students and practitioners to enrich their understanding of disputes that are specific to the health care arena.

A series of courses cover such topics as leadership, violence, health and conflict, organizational conflict, and the links between conflict resolution theory and practice. The 15-credit program is open to students currently in a graduate program or already holding a master’s degree from an accredited program.

Application to this program is made through the College of Nursing and Health Science, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MS 3C4, Fairfax, Va. 22030-4444.

For more information, call (703) 993-1947 or (703) 993-1310.