peacebuilding and analysis

Richard Rubenstein attends conference in Rome on peacemaking in Ukraine

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 19:20:16 +0000

Richard Rubenstein attends conference in Rome on peacemaking in Ukraine Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 06/28/2022 - 15:20

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��AV Carter School professor Richard Rubenstein attended a workshop conference at the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences at the Vatican on June 6-7 to discuss peacemaking in Ukraine and other global conflict sites. The conference was organized by the U.N. Development Solutions Network headed by Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs.

Carter School professor Richard Rubenstein speaks on peacemaking in Ukraine at the Vatican. Photo by Gabriella C. Marino.

“The purpose was to produce a statement that would be given to the pope and that might also influence the parties to the conflict in Ukraine,” Rubenstein said.

“The meeting addressed the question of how to prevent the conflict in Ukraine from becoming a ‘frozen conflict,’ and the need for early peace negotiations,” Rubenstein said. “While the issue of what kinds of concessions might need to be made by both parties was discussed, the experts were in agreement that trust needs to be built on both sides and that a guarantee of peace in Eastern Europe is a necessity.”

About 40 VIPs were in attendance, including Romano Prodi, former prime minister of Italy and 10th president of the European Commission; Jeffrey Sachs, university professor at Columbia University; Michael von der Schulenburg, former United Nations assistant secretary-general in UN Peace Missions; Mario Marazziti, former deputy and president of Human Rights Committee, Italian Parliament; and Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at The New School.

Attendees each gave a 10- to 15-minute presentation, Rubenstein said, which included open discussions.

“The statement is now getting more signatories,” said Rubenstein. “It was a good meeting, and it may have some results. We’ll see.”

What do you hope the impact of the statement will be?

“What we want to happen is to get the document into places where it will be discussed by decision makers.”

What was the pope’s reaction?

“Pope Francis has already made a statement on this. The pope says to stop dramatizing, stop trying to turn this into some type of titanic struggle about the fate of an autocracy—that’s not what it’s about. It’s a very interesting statement by the pope and, I think, partly, that’s a response to our discussion.”

What was your role at the conference?

“One of my roles there was to raise the question of when this is all over, how do these people learn to live with each other again? What kind of reconciliation is going to be possible considering how many people are getting killed and how much bitterness has been created by the war?”

What does this say about the Carter School and Mason to be represented at the meeting?

“It’s a really good sign. It’s not just our expertise in negotiation that's being recognized, but our independence of mind and our ability to think about the possibilities of peacemaking even in a wartime atmosphere. Everyone at the conference understood that peacemakers may be blessed, but this doesn’t mean they will be popular.”

Attendees at the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences outside of the Vatican. Photo credit: Gabriella C. Marino

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The conflict in Ukraine is fueled by Putin’s information war, Carter School expert says. Here’s what needs to be done.

Mariam Aburdeineh — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 21:25:57 +0000

The conflict in Ukraine is fueled by Putin’s information war, Carter School expert says. Here’s what needs to be done. Mariam Aburdeineh Fri, 03/04/2022 - 16:25

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Karina Korostelina

Karina Korostelina. Photo by Alexis Glenn.

The ongoing war in Ukraine is unique from other conflicts, and the international community can take five actions to control the situation, said Karina Korostelina, professor and director of the Program for the Prevention of Mass Violence at ��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Korostelina shared her perspective over Zoom:

What makes this war different?

This is not a war between people—it’s completely orchestrated by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his close supporters who made decisions about invasion through a groupthink process that prioritizes selected information, cuts off other sources, and silences people who are afraid to raise their voice because they’ll be ousted or persecuted.

The invasion also was backed by a very strong media propaganda and information war, as they try to convince their population that Ukrainian people are hateful and aggressive, that they prosecute Russians and support Nazis. This has been going on for multiple years to justify Putin [invading] Ukraine and now is a part of the nested model of war. But the conflict is not rooted in negative relations between Russian and Ukrainian people.

Where did Putin’s narrative come from?

Calling Ukrainians Nazis is completely irrelevant, because, for example, the president of Ukraine is Jewish. Every country has nationalist groups, and this one is such a small percentage of the population, which should not be taken into account. Putin is using this to justify his actions to his own people.

Russian forces invaded Georgia in 2008, annexed Crimea in 2014, and the lack of serious consequences for Putin’s actions encouraged continued acts of aggression, such as those we see today, Korostelina said.

What could have been done to prevent escalation?

The president of Ukraine called for preemptive actions, but unfortunately our administration in the United States and the European Union were very reluctant to outline specific sets of sanctions. Now they are establishing sanctions, but it’s too late because so many people already died. Cities are destroyed.

There is also no representative of the United Nations in Ukraine right now. It took six days and devastation of civilians in such cities as Kharkiv and Volnovakha for international organizations to step in and organize humanitarian support. However, several cities, including Kherson, did not receive “green corridor.” We have to save civilians.

For me, this war brings up a question we really need to discuss: What is the responsibility of the United Nations and other organizations, which could not prevent war and could not immediately provide support during a humanitarian crisis?

What needs to be done now?

Sanctions are key for cutting off the financial support of the war and for reducing support for Putin among the Russian population.
Putin is using tactics of civilian devastation to intimidate the Ukrainian government and the West. The continuous support for safe “green corridors” and the creation of a “no fly” zone over Ukraine is essential for protecting civilians.
I believe in stopping visas and stripping citizenship from all Russian oligarchs who live in England, France, and other places, who are still giving money to this war or supporting Putin.
Putting pressure on Putin. It is great that the International Criminal Court opened investigation for civilian devastation. It’s a mandate to prosecute individuals for war crimes.
We need to give Russian people the opportunity to realize, not only by sanctions, but also through information given to them, what Putin is actually doing and that he is a war criminal. A strong response to Putin’s information war is essential for increasing pressure from inside.

You’ve researched resiliency in conflict. What do you see as contributing to Ukrainians’ resiliency?

One of the key components for resilience of Ukrainian society during the regional armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine, which we also see now, was volunteering. Right now, everyone is stepping in, in very creative ways. People are using bottles to create weapons, others are calling every Russian phone number they can find to tell them what is actually happening, other people are medical volunteers, and others are buying food to feed displaced people. Everybody is involved in some creative way, and that is very important.

How has the Carter School played a role in Ukraine?

We've done a lot of work in Ukraine. One project was Dialogue and Difference, supported by the U.S. State Department, which involved teaching students and children how to be engaged in dialogue for resolution of conflicts.

Another ongoing project, also supported by the State Department, involves teaching students conflict resolution skills for dealing with issues in society and creating internships for local administrations and NGOs.

The third project was with the German Civil Peace Service in training history teachers in Ukraine how to teach about peace, different forms of violence, and how to address multiple controversial issues in Ukraine, including armed conflict in the East. There is such a big need for understanding and dealing with issues of peace and violence that we are providing. Mason is deeply involved in work with the Ukrainian community, and we will continue doing this work.

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Rare peace accord signed in the Congo, thanks to Carter School’s community-centered approach

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 00:18:43 +0000

Rare peace accord signed in the Congo, thanks to Carter School’s community-centered approach Mariam Aburdeineh Mon, 12/13/2021 - 19:18

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Alpaslan Özerdem

Charles Davidson

Members of 21 armed groups, Congolese leaders, members of the armed services and local community leaders, including several female peacemakers, met in November to discuss a path to peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo provided by the Carter School.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has not seen peace for more than three decades, but in November 2021, ��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution helped the country take a leap in a hopeful direction.

In the province of South Kivu, the school gathered representatives from 21 armed groups, the Congolese government, military, police, intelligence services, religious leaders, civil society groups, and peace advocates. Not only did everyone discuss a path toward peacebuilding, but they also signed a peace accord to solidify it.

“As a methodology, what we’ve done here is exemplary, and it can really change the way peace processes are designed, peace agreements are brokered, and the role of academic institutions in that,” said Carter School Dean Alpaslan Özerdem. “This is the first of many direct engagements we’re hoping to have in carrying the flag of peacemaking as an academic institution.”

Female peacemakers were also in attendance and played a substantial role in the four day conference. Photo provided by the Carter School.

So, what was new about the school’s approach?

Charles Davidson, PhD ’19, Carter School research faculty and alumnus, said it was reexamining the intersection of local and international peacebuilding—something he calls the “new hybridity” approach.

“It’s about, what would it look like to not have outsiders dominate the conversation? What happens when locals and internationals combine efforts?” Davidson said.

Özerdem said the process gives locals hope and opportunities to build their own peace.

“The role of the Carter School has been to facilitate, to accompany local actors by providing our direct qualities of trust building, and knowledge in the planning and implementation,” Özerdem said.

Members of local armed groups sat alongside members of the Congolese state and armed services in pursuit of peace. Photo provided by the Carter School.

The school’s model flips tradition on its head.

Typically, peace processes are administrated by outside states or international organizations. Özerdem said that dynamic may cause lower trust among locals, due to the nature of the conflict and the legacy of those relationships.

“With this South Kivu process, the uniqueness is that it was really designed and implemented by local leadership and international actors accompanied the process,” Özerdem said. “When an external academic institution comes, that creates a different type of opportunity for trust building.”

In many peace negotiations, money is given to incentivize collaboration.

“We emphasized we are not going to pay [non-essential] stipends—you come if you’re interested in making peace,” Özerdem said. “That gave a different proposition than previous peacemaking attempts.”

Surprisingly, it was effective.

“Many people showed up who were not invited,” Davidson said, mentioning more than 60 people were in attendance. “Knowing they had nothing [financial] to gain…they still came and I think it was a huge testament to what was going on.”

Members of local armed groups sat alongside members of the Congolese state and armed services in pursuit of peace. Photo provided by the Carter School.

That wasn’t the only break from the norm. Özerdem said third parties typically consult academic institutions for expertise only if and when needed.

“In this one, because an academic institution is the lead actor in facilitating the entire process, the knowledge part is integrated in a much more organic and natural way,” he said.

Özerdem said the school plans to replicate the process, piloted in the Congo, in other conflict-ridden zones.

“Particularly with our renaming last year, one of our key aspects of the vision is our relevance for conflict-affected communities and how we can translate this into practice, from addressing issues in our neighborhoods here, to global challenges of peace and security,” he said

It’s a sensitive undertaking with risks the school does not take lightly, Özerdem said, so each step is strategic.

And that’s what the school’s mission is about.

“For units like the Carter School, it’s really important that the practice of conflict resolution is part of our DNA,” Özerdem said.

David Bubasha (center), a former child soldier who left the militia to start AJDC, an organization that works to demobilize child combatants in the Congo, speaks to members of the Congolese press about the peace summit. AJDC, Charles Davidson's nonprofit Innovations in Peacebuilding International, and the Carter School helped facilitate the peace summit in November 2021. Photo provided by the Carter School.

Members of local armed groups sat alongside members of the Congolese state and armed services in pursuit of peace. Photo provided by the Carter School.

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Mason’s Carter School helps bring Restorative Justice to Arlington County

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 05:00:00 +0000

Mason’s Carter School helps bring Restorative Justice to Arlington County Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 10/13/2020 - 01:00

There are times when studying peace and conflict resolution is theoretical. But at ��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, students also put their knowledge into action to benefit the local community.

Susan Hirsch. Photo provided

Since January, the school has partnered with Restorative Arlington, a new initiative aimed at incorporating restorative justice practices into Arlington County’s public schools, legal system and community. The partnership was formalized in July when Carter School Dean Alpaslan Özerdem and Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz signed a joint Letter of Intent.

“It really is an opportunity for students to be on the ground floor of how a major community-driven initiative is built,” said Carter School professor Susan Hirsch, who will teach a conflict course next semester where students can directly support the initiative. “It’s the best of experiential learning.”

Restorative justice is an alternative approach to punitive discipline. At its center is community building and repairing not only the harm done, but also relationships.

“The Carter School partnership offers engagement on multiple levels,” said Liane Rozzell, Restorative Arlington’s project coordinator. “We have students who help us grow the initiative while they’re learning themselves; there are faculty who are knowledgeable and excited, who can contribute their expertise to this process.”

Liane Rozzell. Photo provided

The support from Mason is multifaceted, Rozzell said. Some of those ways the school is and will continue to be involved include evaluating how the initiative is going, training teachers and community members on how to facilitate restorative justice practices, developing curriculum, organizing dialogues and conducting research.

“All of this is very needed and it gives us a tremendous boost that we couldn’t do on our own,” Rozzell said.

What would incorporating restorative justice look like in action?

“We would have way fewer, if any, students suspended,” Rozzell said. “We’d have way more connection and folks thriving in schools.”

Kimiko Lighty. Photo provided

“My hope is that a number of different cases that might have gone to the criminal legal system might find their way to be handled outside that system,” Hirsch said. “I would also hope that community members would [develop] a restorative ethic and feel empowered to resolve other conflicts using approaches that are restorative and not punitive.”

Kimiko Lighty, MA Interdisciplinary Studies ’10, is interim co-coordinator for Restorative Arlington. She is one of several Mason alumni contributing to the initiative. Most recently she helped create Restorative Arlington’s strategic plan and facilitated VCircles, virtual groups held over Zoom that focused on community building.

“The first time I heard about restorative justice was in a peace studies class at Mason,” said Lighty, who works as a restorative justice practitioner for Northern Virginia Mediation Services.

“I think we have a disposability crisis in our civilization, where we have so much disposable stuff that it leads us to start thinking about people as disposable,” she said. “Restorative justice honors the fact that we’re all connected—it gives us a way to see people as whole people that we live in relation with, and that does work in preventing harm before it even happens.”

From Jerusalem to DC, Mason alumna dedicates her life to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Mariam Aburdeineh — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 05:00:00 +0000

From Jerusalem to DC, Mason alumna dedicates her life to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Mariam Aburdeineh Wed, 09/23/2020 - 01:00

After graduating from Mason, Fakhira Halloun returned to Jerusalem, where she works as a civil society and peacebuilding consultant at the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. Photo provided.

Fakhira Halloun holds two contradictory identities: She is Palestinian and an Israeli citizen.

It wasn’t until she began facilitating peace dialogues between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem in 2000, that she realized Palestinian citizens of Israel could be the missing link in bridging ties between the two groups.

“Palestinian citizens of Israel have an important role to play in solving the conflict,” said Halloun, a 2019 PhD graduate of ��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. “We know the mindset of the Palestinians in the West Bank and share the same national identity and culture; at the same time, we know the Jews in Israel because we live with them and a lot of relationships are built there.”

That realization inspired her studies at Mason and life goal of bringing about peace, she said.

After graduating from Mason, Halloun returned to Jerusalem, where she works as a civil society and peacebuilding consultant at the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

“This was my dream work,” Halloun said. “I’m helping civil society organizations engaged in peacebuilding work on both sides to reexamine and redefine their work in order to make a difference.”

Though she is overseas, Halloun’s impact in the Washington, D.C., area remains.

Halloun was part of a team that established the D.C.-based Museum of the Palestinian People, which highlights the history, identity, culture and achievements of Palestinians.

Fakhira Halloun (left) shows a guest around the Museum of the Palestinian People, which she helped establish. Photo provided.

“Usually the story about the Palestinian people is very narrow, and it’s linked with the conflict,” Halloun said. “We wanted to expand their narrative and bring out the complexity of it so that Americans and others can see themselves through the stories of the Palestinian people.”

Halloun has also stayed connected to Mason.

Since 2019, she has been co-teaching a study-abroad course with professor Marc Gopin that takes students to Israel and Palestinian territories to understand the conflict from both sides.

It’s an enlightening course, Halloun said, and one she also took as a student.

“Fakhira is an extraordinary peacemaker who understands intellectually and personally the power of compassion and the heart to heal wounds of war and conflict,” Gopin said. “She combines that with reasoning and strategy to build bridges across lines of adversaries.”

“I brought my passion, commitment and persistence to impact my reality, but professors like Dr. [Kevin] Avruch and Dr. Gopin equipped me with a deep lens in conflict resolution through their knowledge, analysis and approaches to understand,” Halloun said. “I couldn’t be successful now where I work in the UN without their contribution to who I am.”

Creating a better future is Halloun’s top goal, she said. According to her professors, she has what it takes.

“If peace with justice is ever to have a chance, it will be people like Fakhira—on all sides—who will commit to seeing it through, and bring it about,” Avruch said.

Fakhira Halloun (far right) with her students in Jerusalem. Photo provided.

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Building ties across enemy lines

Damian Cristodero — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 16:54:14 +0000

Building ties across enemy lines Damian Cristodero Mon, 02/25/2019 - 11:54

Professor Marc Gopin's students engage in peacebuilding and analysis on both sides of seemingly intractable conflicts.

“One of the reasons people flock to us from other prestigious universities is that we’re one of the only ones who have gotten inside. Most universities don’t do this," Gopin said. Photo by Lathan Goumas.

The Holocaust had ended by the time ��AV professor Marc Gopin was a child, but the suffering it caused his family, neighbors and teachers had not.

Because he knew people who had fled for their lives, were tortured, hid for safety, lost loved ones or were living with post-traumatic stress disorder and the emotional weight of their experiences, Gopin was sensitive to the suffering he felt around him. He was also perplexed by why some enlightened societies in history could become destructive and revert back again.

“I was trying to think about that from the time I was little,” he said.

It’s clear Gopin’s done more than think about issues of war and peace since then. The founder and director of Mason’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) has pioneered projects in Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Jordan and Syria, and has trained thousands of people worldwide in peacebuilding strategies through CRDC for more than 15 years.

“I started becoming passionate about [being] antiwar in the early ’80s,” Gopin said. “It was the time of danger of nuclear escalation, and I had always been particularly wounded by World War II.” Though he cherished Israel as a haven for Jews, he said he “started to disagree strongly with Israel’s use of force in Lebanon and of the treatment of Palestinians.”

On his own, Gopin sought out Palestinians in Israel to talk about peacebuilding and forgiveness. At the time, crossing enemy lines was both unheard of and dangerous, as Jews were hated in many parts of the Middle East due to the Arab-Israeli wars.

“I became stubborn and determined to make peace in the Middle East, and I developed an expertise in conflict resolution, particularly in Arab and Jewish cultures,” he said.

As Gopin combined conflict resolution with his previous studies of religion, philosophy and ethics, he became familiar with Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, where he now teaches and continues his peacebuilding efforts.

At Mason, students get to be a part of the work that includes engaging with families affected by wars, listening and being compassionate to people from diverse backgrounds and engaging in peacebuilding operations and analysis on both sides of seemingly intractable conflicts.

“One of the reasons people flock to us from other prestigious universities is that we’re one of the only ones who have gotten inside,” said Gopin. “Most universities don’t do this.”

Sarah Sadowski, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’16, has gone on three trips with the center.

“I kept going back for more experiences because [CRDC does] an excellent job of showing all sides of the conflict,” said Sadowski, who worked with people who experienced the Northern Ireland conflict, and with Israelis and Palestinians overseas. “These experiences helped me find compassion for both sides of a conflict instead of victimizing or blaming.”

According to Gopin, that compassion is a foundation of peacebuilding that comes about when the contact with others is deep. And the effects are noticeable.

“The most inspiring results of the work have been developing such close friendships across enemy lines that we figured out a way to help people save lives that other people had not,” Gopin said.

For example, when hospitals in Syria were being bombed, his group was able to support people who were working to outsmart the destruction. They were also able to gather people from various backgrounds to help with local councils formed at the time.

No matter the country, the school’s peacebuilding methodologies have led to a coalition of people who put aside differences to work together.

“It becomes a chain of support, which is a new and novel way of empowerment,” Gopin said.

The center’s most recent project is focused on empowering Syrian women in political roles. Because men are the main combatants in war, women are in a potentially powerful position to be the binders of society, Gopin said.

“That’s why they need political empowerment. They need education and they need a voice. Our programs are giving them exactly that.”

The experiences are transformative for students, too.

“Many people report to us that their lives have changed completely because they’ve never been on that side of the war before; they’ve never been able to see the receiving end of conflict,” Gopin said. “My aspiration is for my students to become those ambassadors for a constraint of war as far as possible, and for the rational focus on real recovery.”

And the impact of the program could extend even further.

“CRDC gives you that real-world experience that people in this field need to truly understand the work and to be effective,” said Sadowski. “The experience you have teaches you more than you may ever come to realize.”

Mason students listen to Arab and Jewish members of Non Violent Communication Galilee tell stories about their family histories in villages around Mount Tabor in Israel. Photo courtesy of Mason's Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution.

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Richard Rubenstein attends conference in Rome on peacemaking in Ukraine

In This Story

What do you hope the impact of the statement will be?

What was the pope’s reaction?

What was your role at the conference?

What does this say about the Carter School and Mason to be represented at the meeting?

Topics

The conflict in Ukraine is fueled by Putin’s information war, Carter School expert says. Here’s what needs to be done.

In This Story

What makes this war different?

Where did Putin’s narrative come from?

Russian forces invaded Georgia in 2008, annexed Crimea in 2014, and the lack of serious consequences for Putin’s actions encouraged continued acts of aggression, such as those we see today, Korostelina said.

What could have been done to prevent escalation?

What needs to be done now?

You’ve researched resiliency in conflict. What do you see as contributing to Ukrainians’ resiliency?

How has the Carter School played a role in Ukraine?

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Rare peace accord signed in the Congo, thanks to Carter School’s community-centered approach

In This Story

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Mason’s Carter School helps bring Restorative Justice to Arlington County

Read more about the Carter School

From Jerusalem to DC, Mason alumna dedicates her life to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Building ties across enemy lines

Professor Marc Gopin's students engage in peacebuilding and analysis on both sides of seemingly intractable conflicts.