peacemaking

Remembering Rosalynn Carter: Humanitarian and Global Health Advocate

Paul Snodgrass — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 00:57:18 +0000

Remembering Rosalynn Carter: Humanitarian and Global Health Advocate Paul Snodgrass Sun, 11/19/2023 - 19:57

The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at ��AV remembers Eleanor Rosalynn Carter, 96, former first lady, as an agent of peace, champion of human rights and advocate of mental health research. We send our deepest condolences to former President Jimmy Carter and their family.

The Carters’ dedication to peace and human rights was a beacon to peacebuilders and mediators. Their tireless work inspired the renaming of Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution in their honor in 2020.

“America has lost a public service icon in Rosalynn Carter’s passing,” said Mason President Gregory Washington. “We mourn a world without her, but also marvel at the life she led and the legacy she leaves. Few public figures in America have lived so long and contributed so much as Mrs. Carter did, and she leaves us with a charge to make good on her name in the work of the Carter School.”

“We mourn the loss and celebrate the life of former first lady Rosalynn Carter,” said Carter School Dean Alpaslan Özerdem. “She was an inspirational humanitarian and peacemaker. The Carter School, shaped and inspired by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s legacy, stands as a beacon in today’s turbulent times, and their name signifies more than just a legacy—it's a torch, a commitment, a promise.”

Former first lady, mother, wife, author, and activist, Rosalynn Carter was named "second most powerful person in the United States" by Time Magazine during her time in the White House. However, her humanitarian work extended far beyond her years in the White House. Together with her husband, Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States, she championed democracy and human rights around the globe, from monitoring free elections to working with Habitat for Humanity, with which they worked for more than 35 years. It was with these goals in mind that she cofounded the Carter Center in 1982.

Rosalynn Carter was also a vocal advocate for global heath and campaigned to de-stigmatize mental health issues. She served as a board member emeritus of the National Mental Health Association and was an Honorary Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Rosalynn Carter was also the president of the board of directors for the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, which promotes policies and programs to address the needs of family caregivers.

She received many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1997, The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) established The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award to honor “individuals who have made significant and lasting contributions to public health through scientific achievement, philanthropy, and policy work.” In 2023 Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter received the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers Lifetime Achievement Award.

About the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

��AV’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution is a community of faculty, students, staff, alumni, and partners with a fundamental commitment to building peace. Through the development of cutting-edge theory, research, education, and practical work, we seek to identify and address the underlying causes of conflict and provide tools for ethical and just peacebuilding on the local, national, and global stages.

About ��AV

��AV is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls more than 40,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity, and commitment to accessibility. In 2023, the university launched Mason Now: Power the Possible, a one-billion-dollar comprehensive campaign to support student success, research, innovation, community, and sustainability. Learn more at gmu.edu.

Topics

Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

peacemaking

Campus News

In This Story

Alpaslan Özerdem

Gregory Washington

A Celebration of Legacy and Impact

On October 16th and 17th, the Carter School commemorated Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter as peacemakers and leaders for change.

Watch the Celebration of Legacy and Impact

DMV leaders, organizations react to the death of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter: WJLA

Mason Korea Professor Receives Fulbright Award to Serbia

Paul Snodgrass — Wed, 24 May 2023 01:18:20 +0000

Mason Korea Professor Receives Fulbright Award to Serbia Paul Snodgrass Tue, 05/23/2023 - 21:18

In This Story

Borislava Manojlovic

Dr. Borislava Manojlovic, assistant professor of conflict analysis and resolution at Mason Korea, has been awarded a Fulbright award to conduct research in Serbia.

The prestigious award will allow Dr. Manojlovic to continue her research work in the Balkans with a special focus on southern Serbia. “My experience of wars in the Balkans in the 1990s and my desire to understand the roots of violent conflicts shaped my life trajectory and dedication to conflict prevention and peacemaking,” said Dr. Manojlovic.

From this fall to next summer, Dr. Manojlovic will be working with colleagues at the University of Nis in southern Serbia to conduct research on the best strategies for integrating multiculturalism, tolerance, and inclusivity into the educational programs at higher education institutions in Serbia.

“As a Fulbrighter, I look forward to strengthening connections with local scholars in Serbia to reinforce joint educational programs, and also to publish a volume on the role of higher education in promoting tolerance and peacebuilding,” said Dr. Manojlovic.

Dr. Manojlovic also intends to produce reports and articles containing in-depth recommendations on how to address the challenges of diversity and inclusion of minorities. “My future plan is to grow research initiatives at Mason through faculty and student exchanges, research projects and organizing joint conferences, workshops and guest lectures,” said Dr. Manojlovic.

"I am excited to see that our faculty are being recognized for their expertise by prestigious organizations such as Fulbright," said Dr. Shannon Davis, Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs at Mason Korea. "The award to Serbia is one additional way in which Dr. Manojlovic's scholarship will have worldwide impact on the field and practice of conflict resolution," she added.

Named for US senator William J. Fulbright, the Fulbright program is the US's flagship program to support teachers, students, artists and other professionals in fostering international exchange. It is administered by the US Department of State.

Topics

Mason Korea

Conflict Analysis and Resolution

Carter School leads by listening, as Congolese partners construct their own peace.

Mariam Aburdeineh — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 17:33:14 +0000

Carter School leads by listening, as Congolese partners construct their own peace. Mariam Aburdeineh Wed, 02/15/2023 - 12:33

In This Story

Alpaslan Özerdem

Charles Davidson

It’s been a year since ��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution touched base in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their goal? Accompany locals in creating their own sustainable peace—something the country has not experienced in more than 30 years.

In December 2021, a unique peace accord was signed in the province of South Kivu, with representatives from armed groups, the Congolese government, military, police, intelligence services, religious leaders, civil society groups, and peace advocates, including several female peacemakers.

Carter School Dean Alpaslan Özerdem, and Charles Davidson, PhD ’19, Carter School research faculty and alumnus, visited the Congo in October 2022 to check in on the “Peacemaking + Initiative,” funded by Milt Lauenstein, and assess the direction for its next phase.

Özerdem and Davidson spoke over Zoom with updates from the trip:

What have been the major successes of the initiative so far?

AÖ: The most important success is that the peace process is still there. Considering such processes tend to be so fragile in their first few years, it was wonderful to see that not only was it still sustaining, but also the way that the local actors and all the stakeholders owned the process.

Also, the reduction of violence that we’ve seen over the last six months, particularly in inter-community violence, but also in terms of the number of combatants from the bush start to go back to their communities.

Former armed group members strategizing next steps in the peace process. Photo provided by the Carter School.

What does “the bush” refer to?

CD: There are local defense forces, which remain in their villages and take up arms when they’re threatened. Then there are mobile armed groups that live in the wilderness and fight as a mobilized armed group of tribal and ethnic interest. To go back to the bush means to go back fighting full-time, although there are groups who remain in the bush who are not fighting. They’re just waiting to demobilize and reintegrate when the time comes.

How many people have demobilized?

CD: We have 300 registered demobilizations thus far, and 1,000 people have expressed their willingness to demobilize [and are going through a certification process with the government to make it official].

Why do you think this has been so successful?

CD: I’ve been working in the Congo for almost eight years and have seen a lot of processes not really hit the mark, because you’d see NGOs and other peace prospects go to individual armed group members and try to achieve peace through the individuals.

We asked, “How do we achieve this from the community level, so that not only do the armed group members have the ability to go home to a more sustainable environment, but that environment can nurture that process and therefore reduce recidivism and new recruitment?”

The community level considers the perspectives of all the people who are experiencing this conflict and looking for solutions from this dynamic panorama.

“The peace process was innovative in the sense that many actors were involved: Combatants themselves, women leaders and wives of the combatants, youth [active actors in conflicts], representatives of communities and tribes, involvement of the politicians and government officials at different levels, demobilization programs, religious and civil society organizations, [the] media, [among others]. The peace process was largely inclusive and nobody was left behind without being listened to.”

—Sudi Yahudi Longuet, peace facilitator and independent consultant expert in peace and conflict transformation

Women from local communities analyzing and voting on next steps in the peace program. Photo provided.

How has the community-based approach made an impact?

CD: By engaging from the community level and even the tribal level, we’re getting large groups of people who were fighting each other on the regular saying, “We’re going to stop fighting, and we’re going to officially declare forgiveness of the groups that have been fighting.” That’s so not only the groups can experience forgiveness toward one another, but the individuals who were fighting feel forgiveness as people when they return to their home community.

Forgiveness sounds easier said than done. How does that process work?

CD: We’re investing in a literal ceremony of forgiveness where public crowds come together to watch their tribal leaders pronounce forgiveness with each other. They will do so over the radio so everybody in the province hears, and so all the individuals under their leaders’ authority can join the group and say, “We’re done fighting and we forgive you.”

What’s the importance of publicly declaring forgiveness?

AÖ: When an ex-combatant is registered by the government, that registration legally is important because whatever crimes they may have committed during the war, it gives them amnesty. The support of the Congolese government has been so important.

What also matters is whether or not you are forgiven by your receiving communities—that’s the social-cultural aspect.

Özerdem (left) meets with members of AJDC in their offices in South Kivu. Photo provided by the Carter School.

What is Mason’s role in the peace process?

CD: The Carter School is championing a truly effective model of peacemaking accompaniment.

We didn’t go in and dominate the process, lead everything and make demands. Instead, we’re leading by listening. We’re promoting local leadership and making it to where the locals feel that it is their peace process because it is their peace process.

AJDC is the local peacemaking organization that’s led by a former child soldier. They’re the ones who are in the grind, but we’re sticking to what we’re good at, and that’s peacemaking scholarship at the intersection of peacemaking practice, and lending our skills and expertise in a way that nurtures, grows, and accompanies the process rather than dominating.

“The fact that AJDC was created by former child soldiers allowed us to have a mastery and deep understanding of the armed groups’ logic, desires, needs, and requirements, and allowed us to have no fear in finding them in their stronghold [their post of command in the bush]. Becoming an ambassador for peace is building positively our history which will [distinguish] us across generations. We would like to see our community inclusive, stable, nonviolent, peaceful and developed.” —AJDC

What’s next?

A community reintegration fishing project in Mboko, South Kivu employing former armed group members and community members.

CD: Number one, we’re going to focus on the four armed groups that continue to fight for reasons other than intercommunity violence, mostly based on economic interest. We’re going to bring those groups to the table to look for a solution to bring a total peace to the armed group situation in South Kivu.

Number two is the official ceremonies of forgiveness.

Third, we’re continuing to set the example of community reintegration investments. Throughout South Kivu, 21 villages are being given investments toward creating community-level industry. These are not only creating jobs for the armed group members who are coming home, but for the people in the community who never left. These investments will grow economic sustainability and stability for those communities, which lie at the nexus of ethnicities that have traditionally been hostile to one another.

What are you most proud of with this initiative?

AÖ: Making claims is one thing, but making them happen and showing the world that as an academic institution, we can facilitate a peace process with our local partners is another. On its first-year anniversary, peace is being owned by local actors, and now we are entering the next stage, strengthening what we achieved over the last year. It’s a very proud moment.

Topics

Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Peacebuilding

Carter School Faculty

peacemaking

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Campus News

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

In This Story

Richard Rubenstein

��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

Topics

Carter School Leadership

Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Peacebuilding

peacemaking

peacebuilding and analysis

Faculty and Staff News

Remembering Joseph V. Montville (1937-2022)

Paul Snodgrass — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 16:37:24 +0000

Remembering Joseph V. Montville (1937-2022) Paul Snodgrass Wed, 06/15/2022 - 12:37

In This Story

Marc Gopin

Richard Rubenstein

Kevin Avruch

We at the Carter School were saddened to learn of the passing of our friend and colleague, Joseph V. Montville. Joe died peacefully surrounded by family, a well-deserved blessing.

Professor Emeritus Kevin Avruch has this to say about Joe:

Joe led a full and consequential life as a foreign service officer, educator, author, and committed activist in the service of peace. Among his many accomplishments, he is recognized as having termed the concept of Track Two diplomacy, giving a name to and thereby formally recognizing the contributions citizens – “non-professionals” -- could make in mitigating violence and working to achieve peace. He was a longtime supporter of the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and the Carter School when I was dean of S-CAR (2013-2019). As we worked to name the school in honor of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Joe was my closest and most trusted advisor. He reached out to his own large network to engage the necessary support. Not a few of my letters and memoranda (in the inimitable style of the foreign service, but with a lot more “heart” than one would find in a diplomatic cable) were first drafted by Joe. He believed deeply in what became the Carter School and its mission. Joe was a loving, generous, and empathetic man.

Professor Richard Rubenstein elaborates further on the intellectual foundations of Joe’s work and his pioneering practices of diplomacy:

Joe Montville had many talents and interests in the field of conflict resolution, but his great passion was to develop an understanding of the methods by which religion might become a source of sustainable peace. During the time that I was writing and teaching about conflict and religion, Joe often lectured in my classes or appeared in symposia that I organized. He had a broad understanding of religion both in terms of its more orthodox institutional expressions and as a key element in the “civil religion” that often determines how groups relate to each either cooperatively or with hostility. He also was in close contact with religious leaders in the U.S. abroad whom he thought should work with each other towards the goal of positive peace.

An outstanding illustration of this was Joe’s key role in bringing Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, to give a lecture at National Cathedral. The trip was almost called off half a dozen times because of its political sensitivity at a time of continuing hostility between the US and Iran. I was present on January 6, 2006, when Khatami stood in the pulpit and declared (as Washington Post reporter Robin Wright reported) that “the United States is a ‘great’ country ‘with great people, great capacities, and potential’ -- language that stood in stark contrast to more than a quarter-century of Iran calling the United States ‘the Great Satan.’”

Wright’s article continued: “But he also condemned its unilateral foreign policy, and he cautioned at a news conference before last night's speech that Washington would be more effective if it worked alongside other nations.”

The second strong connection I had with Joe related to his deep friendship with Dr. Vamik Volkan, whose work he consistently advocated and publicized for years. He supported Volkan’s Center for Mind and Human Interaction at the University of Virginia and connected him with government officials to further his own practice in places like the Baltic nations. This made Joe more than the usual “social psychologist” – it allied him with an outstanding depth psychologist whose work deepened his understanding of the relationship of violent political conflicts to deep mental processes.

The person at the Carter School who knew Joe best, and whose relationship to Joe through the School’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, was the longest, is Professor Marc Gopin. Marc reflects on Joe in the following words:

There were key events in Joe’s life that led him to his pioneering and most lasting contribution to world peace and conflict resolution theory. The first was his profound reaction, along with key friends that he had made across the world, to the paralyzing standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was then that they swung into action in 1980 with behind-the-scenes unofficial diplomacy at a far deeper level of relationship between select Americans and Soviets who were in a better position to communicate and build trust.

Joe realized then that practitioners of peacemaking and their unofficial diplomacy were essential to the future of the world. But he knew that he needed to spend a lifetime building the theories as to why and how those relationships could make a difference. Joe would spend the rest of his career supporting, in highly innovative and strategic ways, any and all institutions and practitioners who deepened the work of Track Two unofficial diplomacy.

The second seminal moment that led to a lifetime dedication to Track Two diplomacy was when he himself witnessed the terrible limits of official diplomacy during the Iran/Iraq war. He bore witness to the moral compromises and human rights violations that come with nations making despicable friends against common enemies, instead of healing the roots of conflict. These were stunning moments of revelation for Joe. Joe courageously struck out on his own after ending his official diplomatic work. He singlehandedly built a community of Washington and global influentials to embrace alternative forms of diplomacy. Thus, he continued his work at Esalen in California with his colleagues there, but he also embraced several other tributaries of research and practice that fed into Track Two Diplomacy. He championed research into the psychodynamics of conflict, into the wounds of war and incomplete mourning. He called for the need to innovate healing at a deep level that must accompany peace processes and peace treaties.

Joe built and expanded conflict resolution theory and practice by highlighting the important work of many others. He did this selflessly and generously, placing many other careers above his own when the needs of the world outweighed his own needs as he saw it. He also pioneered the field of memory and history as critical to conflict analysis. Influenced by positive psychology and other luminaries such as Elise Boulding, Joe promoted positive memories of shared civilizations versus the obsessive traditional emphasis on warring civilizations. He did this, for example, through promoting shared memories of the Golden Age of Moorish Spain and its unparalleled examples of Abrahamic family coexistence, a favorite theme of his decades-long writing and practice.

Finally, this direction of research and practice evolved into an intellectual embrace of the central importance of religion and religious actors for the future of inclusive peacebuilding and diplomacy. He did so decades before K street and everyone else scrambled to understand religion and violence after 9/11, which in reality was not a serious interest in religion but a thinly veiled fear of Islam. Joe by contrast embraced all religions in their capacity to promote peace and daringly established beachheads of research and practice right on K Street at CSIS, and at ��AV’s then Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Joe was singularly responsible for the writing and publication of every Oxford book on religion and peacebuilding that established a new field of religion and peacebuilding. Naturally he became chair of the board of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution in 2003 from its inception, a Center that still exists today at the Carter School.

None of these initiatives would have secured platforms for research and practice without the quiet, selfless, visionary and generous helping hand of Joe Montville. He gave and gave for what he believed to be the single most important path to global peace. His students and colleagues have gone on to assert the vital importance to lasting peace of including numerous stakeholders in every corner of the globe who would never have been included in official diplomacy. The United States Department of State, his former employer, established entire departments that began to invest in programming for religion and peacebuilding and the inclusion of many stakeholders in peacebuilding. It is difficult as I look back to imagine any of these important innovations coming about without Joe’s dogged determination and quiet hand behind the scenes.

Joe claimed to have been not religious personally, and yet the zeal with which he pursued world peace, his dogged determination, and his tireless optimism combined with savvy strategy, all spoke to Joe Montville being a man on a mission – a man of vision, hope, and abiding faith in the future of humanity.

Topics

Mason students map the Russia-Ukraine war through personal stories

Mariam Aburdeineh — Mon, 09 May 2022 17:17:45 +0000

Mason students map the Russia-Ukraine war through personal stories Mariam Aburdeineh Mon, 05/09/2022 - 13:17

In This Story

Alpaslan Özerdem

Karina Korostelina

Solon Simmons

Despite being more than 5,000 miles away from the war in Ukraine, students at ��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution are actively assessing the conflict dynamics, with hopes that their research could improve the situation.

Keil Eggers is part of a team at ��AV that is digitally mapping the Ukraine-Russia war.

“A lot of students in [Solon Simmons’ Peace Engineering and Participatory Approaches to Narrative] class felt it would be important to do what we could locally with our set of methods and tools to try and help,” said Keil Eggers, Peace Engineering Lab manager and Carter School PhD student.

They’re creating a digital map of the war through peoples’ lived experiences.

Mapping the Conflict

The team, which includes faculty and seven students ranging from the undergraduate to PhD levels, is creating this map using SenseMaker, a program that allows for a large-scale collection of narratives.

Their SenseMaking in Ukraine project asks participants—ranging from U.S. citizens to those impacted on the ground in Ukraine and Russia—to answer one of three prompts. Responses can be submitted in English, Ukrainian or Russian:

How can ordinary people support peace in Ukraine? Share one of your lived experiences that shows how help can be given or how it has been blocked.
Start a conversation: Tell us one of your lived experiences that you would want people who are on the other side to hear.
What have you noticed about the conflict in Ukraine that makes you hopeful or concerned about a peaceful future

A unique aspect of SenseMaker is that participants evaluate their submissions through questions, including a series of triangles, where each point represents an opinion.

SenseMaker Triangle showing where participants placed their answer among the three choices within the triangle.

For the question, “The situation will improve when people…,” the points represent:

Thoughtfully react to the needs of the present
Overcome historical divides
Achieve security over the long term

“By placing their dot as a balance between one of those factors, you get quantitative data for each person’s story,” Eggers said, adding that Mason students designed the survey questions and will support the data analysis.

The data will help uncover patterns, he said, and will become part of a public dashboard the team is creating to support understanding and next steps.

Impacting Change

This is the first time the school has used SenseMaker in an active conflict, Eggers said. The class hopes to influence change by hosting workshops about the narratives.

“Most of the time in those stories, you start to ask people, ‘What can you do tomorrow to create more stories like ones you want to see and fewer stories like the ones you don’t,’” Eggers said, quoting SenseMaker thought leader Dave Snowden.

“You get people directly thinking about what they can do in their own lives, whether that’s giving aid, doing some kind of really local small action, or for somebody who’s actually making decisions, to change policy.”

More Than a Story

“The SenseMaking tool is one way to uncover the very complex process of meaning-making in how people see the peace process,” said Karina Korostelina, professor and director of the Program for the Prevention of Mass Violence.

Karina Korostelina, professor and director of George Mason's Program for the Prevention of Mass Violence.

In Ukraine, she said, peacemaking will likely include territorial concessions, which create moral dilemmas. Another dynamic, she said, is that people on both sides view the conflict drastically differently because of Putin’s information war.

“Helping reveal these complex patterns, and how people think about the issues, is very important for informing the peace process because governments and international actors have to know how people see and think about it,” she said.

The class, which is part of the school’s Peace Engineering Lab, exemplifies the Carter School’s key principles of innovation, integration of research and practice, and global impact, said Dean Alpaslan Özerdem.

“At the Carter School, we always strive to incorporate the cutting edge of scholarship and practice in our classroom experience,” Simmons added. “This project is a great example of how to do just that.”

Solon Simmons, Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason.

Students also benefit from the experience, as their contributions have peace-impacting potential.

“SenseMaking in Ukraine brings an innovative way of responding to the war, and preparing our future capacities and knowledge base for the war’s end, so that the Carter School could respond to its peacemaking and peacebuilding challenges from a more informed basis with solid partnerships on the ground,” Özerdem said. “It shows the real impact that our Peace Labs have started to have.”

Topics

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Carter School Leadership

Peace Engineering Lab

Ukraine

Russia

Narrative

Point of View Statement on Conflict in Ukraine: Negotiate Peace Now

Paul Snodgrass — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 19:38:10 +0000

Point of View Statement on Conflict in Ukraine: Negotiate Peace Now Paul Snodgrass Wed, 03/30/2022 - 15:38

In This Story

The opinions and views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the Carter School or ��AV, its affiliates, or employees.

Add Your Signature

Peace and Conflict Resolution scholars and foreign affairs practitioners convened at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School’s Point of View research and retreat facility in Mason Neck, Virginia issued the following appeal to the conflicting parties in Ukraine:

All parties to this conflict are now hurting. The costs in human life and suffering are mounting and the damaging effects of the conflict are rippling around the world. It is high time for the parties to agree to an immediate and complete cessation of hostilities. Continuing the struggle inevitably multiplies the damage and poses increasing risks that nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction may be used.

Along with the U.N. Secretary General, we believe that conditions now exist for negotiating an agreement acceptable to all parties. The parties should therefore set about negotiating a comprehensive peace agreement with no preconditions.

We call on the international community to support peace as it emerges, offering humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding support for the long-term process of recovery.

In addition, it is imperative that all OSCE Participating States commit to a throughgoing review of the existing security architecture. This review should begin immediately with a view to updating the Helsinki Final Act and other security agreements at the OSCE’s forthcoming 50th Anniversary in Helsinki in 2025.

Signatories are listed below. Others are invited to join the statement and to distribute it widely. To be added as a signatory, please provide your information here.

John M. Evans
Former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia

Jeffrey Sachs
University Professor at Columbia University

Jack F. Matlock, Jr.
U.S. Ambassador to the USSR, 1987-91

Richard Falk
Professor of International Studies, Emeritus, Princeton University

Ambassador Jacques Paul Klein
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (Ret.)

Alpasian Ozerdem
Dean, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, ��AV

Christopher R. Mitchell
Professor Emeritus, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, ��AV

Susan H. Allen
Director, Center for Peacemaking Practice, ��AV

Richard E. Rubenstein
University Professor, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, ��AV

Karina Korostelina
Professor, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, ��AV

Sergey Utkin, Leading Researcher, Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences

Daniel Rothbart
Professor, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, ��AV

Prabha Sankaranarayan
President and CEO, Mediators Beyond Borders International

Hugh DeSantis
Former career office, U.S. State Department, Author

Sara Cobb
Professor, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, ��AV

Dr. Margarita Tadevosyan
Research Assistant Professor
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, ��AV

Ivan Kislenko
Fulbright Scholar

Alex van Oss
(Former) Coordinator, Caucasus Area Studies
Foreign Service Institute

Michael Shank
Adjunct Professor at New York University's Center for Global Affairs and ��AV's Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Dr. Lara Olson
Consultant, Peacebuilding and Conflict Sensitive Development
Research Fellow, Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies (CMSS), University of Calgary, Canada

David Carment
Professor of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Fellow, Institute for Peace and Diplomacy,

Cynthia Lazaroff
Founder and Director, Women Transforming Our Nuclear Legacy

Omar Grech
Director, Centre for the Study and Practice of Conflict Resolution, University of Malta

Rene Wadlow
President, Association of World Citizens

Kevin Avruch
Henry Hart Rice Professor of Conflict Resolution Emeritus
Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, ��AV

Peggy Mason
Former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament to the United Nations
Current President of the Rideau Institute

Antonio Carlos da Silva Rosa
Editor, Transcend Media Service

Jake Lynch
Associate Professor, Peace and Conflict Studies
The University of Sydney

Diane Perlman
U.S. Convenor, TRANSCEND

John Scales Avery, PhD

Michael Loadenthal
Executive Director, The Peace and Justice Association

Jeremy Wildeman
Adjunct Professor, Adjunct Professor at the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies, Carleton University; and in International Development Studies, Trent University

J.M. Flagg
Chicago, Illinois

Jan Oberg, dr hc, director
The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, TFF
Lund, Sweden

Dr. Mary Wade
Founder, Building Respect in Community (BRIC), Philadelphia, PA

Professor Marianna Muravyeva
Russian Law and Administration
For Legal and Peaceful Conflict Resolution
Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki

Tatsushi Arai
Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, Kent State University

Dr. Paula Garb
University of California, Irvine Center for Citizen Peacebuilding

Alma Abdul-Hadi Jadallah
Advisory Board Member and Part-Time Faculty, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Sean Howard
Adjunct Prof. of Political Science, Cape Breton University

Douglas Irvin-Eriksen
Assistant Professor, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Dr. Peter Langille
Director, Sustainable Common Security

Marie Myers Lloyd
Member, Ceasefire.ca

Nicholas Ourusoff
Educator in Computer Science, Chomskian Activist

Dr. Gordon Yanchyshyn
Psychiatrist

Connie Duchene
Council of Canadians

Emmanuel K. Akyempong
Graduating Senior, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Irene McPhee
Mother, Grandmother, Human

Dr. Paul Owen
Retiring Politician, Counselor

David Parnas

Phyllis Creighton
Honorary Life Member, Science for Peace

Sara Petite

Eleanor Coffey

Larry Kazdan
Global Citizen

Crl Boychuk

Sk. Tawfique M. Haque, PhD.
Professor and Director South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) and Center for Peace Studies (CPS) Chair, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Dr. Katherine Li
Assistant Professor, Department of English & Modern Languages Adviser, Center for Peace Studies (CPS), North South University

Ambassador Shahidul Haque
Professorial Fellow South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG), North South University

Dr. Abdul Wohab
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Sociology Coordinator, Center for Peace Studies (CPS), North South University

Dr. Ishrat Zakia Sultana
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Dr. M Jashim Uddin
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Dr. Bulbul Siddiqui
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Dr. Helal Mohd. Mohiuddin
Professor, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Dr. Harisur Rahman
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Dr. Md Rizwanul Islam
Professor & Chair, Department of Law, North South University

Dr. Norman K. Swazo
Professor, Department of History and Philosophy, North South University

Ahmed Hossain
Professor, Department of Public health, North South University

Dr. Nova Ahmed
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North South University

Dr. Raymond Kwun-Sun Lau
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Dr. Mohammed Nuruzzaman
Professor, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Ms. Parisa Shakur
Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, North South University

Tata Zafar
Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Tasmia Nower
Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Dr. Hasanuzzaman
Assistant Director, Office of External Affairs, North South University

Dr. Md. Jakariya
Professor, Department if Environmental Science and Sociology, North South University

Mizanur Rahman
Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Sociology, North South University

Fahd Bin Zahed
Lecturer, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, North South University

Dr. Tasnuva Enam
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Department of History and Philosophy, North South University

Farin Shabnam Ritu
Research Associate, South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) and Center for Peace Studies (CPS), North South University

Md. Parvez Hasan Yousuf
Research Associate, South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) and Center for Peace Studies (CPS), North South University

Rudmila Khan
Research Associate, South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) and Center for Peace Studies (CPS), North South University

Miad Islam
Research Assistant, South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) and Center for Peace Studies (CPS), North South University

This image by Zach Rudisin is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license via Wikimedia Commons.

Topics

Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

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

In This Story

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.

Topics

Ukraine

Carter School Faculty

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

peacebuilding and analysis

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.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Carter School Affiliate Faculty

peacemaking

peacebuilding and analysis