Carter School Faculty

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

peacemaking

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.

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Ukraine

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

peacebuilding and analysis

Joe Camplisson (1929-2021): An Appreciation

Nora Malatinsky — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 17:53:39 +0000

Joe Camplisson (1929-2021): An Appreciation Nora Malatinsky Fri, 07/23/2021 - 13:53

In This Story

Christopher Mitchell

Susan Allen

Joseph Scimecca

Students and faculty from the early days of the Center for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (CCAR), the center that later became the Carter School, will undoubtedly recall Joe Camplisson, who passed away in his native Belfast on Friday, July 9, 2021, at the age of 92. Joe was the very first of CCAR’s planned series of annual “Practitioners in Residence,” followed subsequently by scholar activist Helena Cobban and then by Ambassador John W. McDonald. They all brought practical experience of peacemaking to CCAR and introduced the realities of practical peacebuilding in a wide variety of settings to the campus world.

Joe was able to bring home to the CCAR community what it was like to be raised in a large Catholic family in a small house in a highly divided city. Joe grew up in part of a volatile province that could explode again into major violence and did so in 1968, at the start of the 30 yearlong “Troubles.”

Joe had originally left Catholic school (education in Northern Ireland was divided along sectarian lines) at the age of 14 and one of his early jobs was working in a butcher’s shop. By the mid-1960s he was working as a television repairman, travelling all over the city - and crossing sectarian lines as part of his work. This made him a familiar figure in many parts of Belfast. He and his family were also living in a house in a small Catholic enclave bordering a larger, mainly Protestant and Unionist district, so that when the sectarian violence began in 1968-9 and many living in mixed areas began fleeing to safer areas within their own religious community, Joe found himself and his family on the frontline of this process of “flight.” In this way, he started his career as intermediary, go-between, and bridge builder by setting up an information and tracing service, focused on who had fled from where, and who could therefore be found by concerned relatives and friends, who themselves were often displaced by bombings, burnings, or threats.

Subsequently, Joe was active in organizing grassroots meetings across the sectarian divide, usually involving members of the local clergy and community leaders, often hosted in a local synagogue, but often involving members of rival, paramilitary organizations - the Official IRA, the UDA, the Provisionals, and the UVF. He became a field officer for the newly formed Community Relations Commission (CRC) and in that capacity met John Burton who was acting as a consultant to the head of CRC, Maurice Hayes.

That established the first partnership between Joe and John Burton, working together as local, grassroots bridge builders. Much later, when Joe was on a visit to the United States, he ran into Bob Reid, then taking the new Master’s degree at CCAR at ��AV, and the contact between the former television repairman and the former head of the Australian Department of External Affairs was renewed. For Burton, Joe was an obvious choice for the first CCAR “Practitioner in Residence,” and this was duly arranged by CCAR’s Director, Joe Scimecca, in Academic Year 1988-89. The link was thus established between Joe Camplisson, eventually working from FARSET in Northern Ireland, and CCAR, which later became ICAR in Virginia - a link which later involved Joe in carrying across some of Burton’s problem-solving ideas into other situations, most notably the conflict between Moldova and Transniestria in the former Soviet Union.

That, as they say, is another story. During his semester at CCAR, Joe had a major impact on a cohort of M.S. students and our first PhD class, while the Center at Mason made a lasting impression on Joe in his later work. The partnerships involved joint conflict resolution work with Jim Laue, Chris Mitchell, Susan Allen (MS ’95, PhD ’00), Kevin Avruch, Landon Hancock (PhD ’03), Tim Plum (MS ’16), and a number of ICAR students who undertook fieldwork in Northern Ireland over the next 20 years, many taking advantage of Joe’s local knowledge and contacts.

Joe always remained a staunch friend - and fan - of CCAR, ICAR, and later of S-CAR and the Carter School. But we might, in turn, best remember him as an ordinary bloke who turned out to be extraordinary in his ability to build bridges across daunting divides, to get people to listen to the other side, to understand the other’s pain and what caused it, and to look at, and into themselves as players in an often destructive game. Above all, he knew the people who lived, worked, and clashed at the real grassroots, because he was one of them. And, as Susan Allen said, “He had a big heart.”

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Decreased support for Black Lives Matter will not stop progress for racial equity, Mason professor says

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 20:28:51 +0000

Decreased support for Black Lives Matter will not stop progress for racial equity, Mason professor says Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 06/22/2021 - 16:28

In This Story

Tehama Lopez Bunyasi

Though several public opinion polls have shown a decrease in support for the Black Lives Matter Movement year after the murder of George Floyd, the political victories gained by the movement’s earlier momentum will set the stage for what’s next, said Carter School professor Tehama Lopez Bunyasi.

“#BlackLivesMatter and the Movement for Black Lives have played critical roles in not only shaping our contemporary discourse on racism, but we have seen how those mobilized in concert with this movement have brought about important electoral victories,” Lopez Bunyasi said. “This racial justice movement endures and evolves alongside a countermovement that seeks to restrict who participates in our democracy and what stories get told about our country.”

The countermovement, Lopez Bunyasi said, has voting rights under attack in several states, and a renewed call against the instruction and use of critical race theory in schools and workplaces.

Also concerning, she added, is that most Senate Republicans failed to support an independent commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol, which violently disrupted a joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes to formalize Joe Biden’s victory.

Many aspects of Black Lives Matter have brought positive influences in the year it saw heightened support.

“The conviction of Derek Chauvin on all three charges for the murder of George Floyd is an important and rather exceptional event,” Lopez Bunyasi said. “That millions around the country waited anxiously and skeptically for the verdict says a lot about what we've come to expect of our judicial system.”

Despite enhanced expectations, Lopez Bunyasi said more people of color have been brutalized and unnecessarily killed by police since Chauvin’s conviction and that this is one of many indications that unequal systems of policing and courtroom justice endure in our country.

Lopez Bunyasi said comprehensive transformation at multiple levels of government is a necessity.

“Attaining racial equality will need to involve every sphere of American life: the courts, policing, health care, education, labor, housing, voting rights and so forth,” she said.

“One year out from the murder of George Floyd, which re-energized a multiracial movement for racial equality, this is a time to recommit to egalitarian action.”

Tehama Lopez Bunyasi is a political scientist whose scholarship is broadly concerned with matters of race, racism and antiracism in the United States, with specializations in structural inequality, racial attitudes and ideologies, racial marginalization, and the politics of whiteness. She can be reached at 703-993-9363 and tlopezbu@gmu.edu.

For more information, contact Mariam Aburdeineh at 703-993-9518 or maburdei@gmu.edu.

About George Mason

��AV is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls 39,000 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. Learn more at www2.gmu.edu.

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Race

Justice and Race

Carter School research finds compassion can be built in conflict zones, sometimes

Mariam Aburdeineh — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 18:23:52 +0000

Carter School research finds compassion can be built in conflict zones, sometimes Mariam Aburdeineh Thu, 06/03/2021 - 14:23

In This Story

Daniel Rothbart

Carter School professor Daniel Rothbart interviewed students attending the Rondine program about their sense of compassion for their "enemies." Photo provided by Daniel Rothbart.

Can enemy groups learn to develop compassion for one another? That was the question Carter School professor Daniel Rothbart set out to answer in his research at Rondine, a two-year “laboratory for peace.” Now, the results are in.

“This is the first in-depth case study of compassion among civilians who live in conflict zones,” said Rothbart, who collaborated with ��AV professors Thalia Goldstein, Marc Gopin and Karina Korostelina. “We hope this is a model that can help create new practices for peacebuilders to cultivate compassion.”

Rondine brings in graduate students from conflict zones to live together and learn about peacebuilding. At three points during the program, Rothbart interviewed 23 attendees about their sense of compassion. The students, ranging in age from 24 to 32, hailed from war zones including Colombia, Nigeria, Israel, Palestine, Georgia, Egypt, and Sierra Leone.

Rothbart said all participants exhibited compassion for civilian victims of violence, but when it came to compassion for the perpetrators, three kinds of responses emerged.

“Ten people conveyed compassion for all of the enemy militants,” Rothbart said. “This is pretty amazing because they knew about horrific violence committed by militants like Boko Haram and FARC (The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), who committed human rights atrocities.”

Daniel Rothbart. Photo provided.

“I will always feel empathy towards people who are suffering no matter where they come from or who they are…I don’t find it too difficult because I think during the conflict or war everyone loses,” an anonymous participant said in an interview.

Other participants from the 10 felt that militants are exploited by the government, and others thought the notion of an “enemy” is a militaristic fabrication.

Eight people had a more nuanced view, Rothbart said, where they felt only somewhat compassionate for the militant groups. The remaining five expressed no compassion.

“I was surprised at how many people conveyed no compassion at all, that there was a deep sense of bitterness,” Rothbart said. “Conversely, I was also surprised by other people who lived in Nigeria, in Niger, and in Sierra Leone who witnessed horrific acts of violence, and yet had absolute compassion for the militants.”

Rothbart said most participants were consistent in their responses during the two years, but one changed her view.

“The first time [one participant] answered my questions, she did express compassion, but then the next year, she was far less compassionate,” Rothbart said. “That was surprising, especially because this program promotes this sense of bonding among students.”

This could be because students had to struggle emotionally with living with people who were from the enemy camp, Rothbart said.

As a whole, Rothbart said the program seemed largely successful. At its conclusion, the students returned to their conflict-ridden homelands, “hopefully empowered to promote pro-social relations and to advance the cause of peace,” he said.

Rothbart also hopes the study inspires a sense of moral imagination for all people, where they can conceive of viewing their “enemies” in a new light.

“One factor that’s so important is a sincere sense of sympathetic understanding and openness to listening to the lives of other people,” Rothbart said. “That happens over time.”

Another aspect is getting people to live with each other and see them in different facets of their life, he said.

“If they can see the other as complex human beings with vulnerabilities and weaknesses, and in some cases suffering similar to their own, that is absolutely one way to foster transformation.”

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Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Conflict Resolution

Research

Empowering Sudanese civilians to be a voice for change

Mariam Aburdeineh — Mon, 17 May 2021 18:01:49 +0000

Empowering Sudanese civilians to be a voice for change Mariam Aburdeineh Mon, 05/17/2021 - 14:01

In This Story

Karina Korostelina

Daniel Rothbart

An interviewer engaged with a Sudanese civilian about their experiences in wars. Photo provided.

Following decades of war and genocide in Sudan, in April 2019 a mass movement from civilians overthrew the dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir. As the country transitions to democratic rule, ��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution is working to empower civilians to use their voice to impact the future.

The Mason team, working with partners in Sudan, has been interviewing and video recording oral histories of 100 Sudanese civilians who have lived through both war and peace. Their answers, which expand upon their experiences, also include their vision for a just Sudanese society.

“A lot of times the leadership of a country, even if they’re driven by high moral values, forget or ignore what civilians want,” said Carter School Professor Daniel Rothbart, who is co-leading the project with Professor Karina Korostelina. “This is an attempt to give them power and agency in determining the nation’s future.”

Daniel Rothbart

After the narratives are compiled, the team will present the findings to the leaders of Sudan’s transitional government in summer 2021, Rothbart said, with the hope that they take civilian requests into account.

“One of the ways to address dilemmas of justice and reconciliation is dealing with collective memory,” Korostelina said. “That’s why this project’s scope is bigger than just a collection of memories—it’s finding ways, methodologically and theoretically, of how to address the growing need for justice, and at the same time create more tolerance and reconciliation in society.”

Carter School PhD student Beltina Gjeloshi has been on the project since 2019, helping refine ideas, develop partnerships, manage communications abroad and assist with data analysis.

“This project is meaningful to me for many reasons,” she said. “I get to put into action conflict resolution research principles and practice in a real-world scenario; I’m developing relationships with experts in the field—an essential part of any conflict resolution work—and last, but not least, I am one small part of greater efforts to make a positive difference for the people of Sudan.”

Those positive effects may extend beyond politics, Rothbart said, as legitimizing Sudanese experiences could be beneficial psychologically. It may also inspire members of other countries who are facing the aftermath of large-scale conflict to be a voice for change.

Karina Korostelina

The interviews, conducted by natives of Sudan who understand the culture and experiences of the people, are slated to be publicly available through Mason’s Special Collections Research Center in Spring 2022. They will be a valuable resource for teachers and students nationwide.

Moving forward, the team plans to apply for grants to develop accompanying teaching modules, and create similar oral histories in other countries, such as Ukraine, that have experienced war.

“We believe our results will help inform programming with multiple international organizations, local NGOs, in addition to government work,” Korostelina said.

The stories will be difficult, but important, to hear.

“One of the great contributions to the world is the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s oral history of Holocaust survivors,” Rothbart said. “This is comparable with respect that these people being interviewed, many of them survived horrific violence and their testimony needs to be accessible to the world.”

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Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Mason team brings to life untold narratives of anti-lynching heroes

Mariam Aburdeineh — Wed, 12 May 2021 17:05:54 +0000

Mason team brings to life untold narratives of anti-lynching heroes Mariam Aburdeineh Wed, 05/12/2021 - 13:05

In This Story

Charles Chavis

Charles Chavis. Photo by: Ron Aira

Students and researchers at ��AV’s John Mitchell, Jr. Program (JMJP) are working hard to create a digital museum that sheds light on civil rights pioneers with largely untold stories.

Thanks to an $8,000 grant from Virginia Humanities, the team is building a digital exhibit on the life of anti-lynching advocate John Mitchell, Jr., and his colleagues Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells. The grant is part of $181,500 in funding awarded to 25 nonprofits.

“As a conflict resolution school, we believe there’s so much power in history and understanding leaders like Mitchell, as we look to deal with and engage with the modern-day issues we’re facing around race,” said Carter School professor Charles Chavis.

Mitchell, among other leaders, laid the foundation for the transformational work in the 1950s and ‘60s around civil rights, Chavis said. The Mitchell Program’s namesake was a prominent anti-lynching advocate, journalist, newspaper owner, and teacher.

Laura Brannan. Photo provided.

“Our main charge with the Mitchell Program is to complicate historical narrative,” Chavis said. “As leaders are oftentimes overlooked—or their words are only understood as speaking to historical issues—this exhibit sheds light on how we can learn so much, not only from the rhetoric, but from the lives of these individuals who risked their lives to fight for human rights.”

The exhibit also highlights international impact, said Carter School PhD student Ajanet Rountree, as these leaders extended their anti-lynching advocacy abroad.

The grant will allow the team, which also includes Mason PhD student Laura Brannan, who is studying history, and American University master’s student Jack Del Nunzio, to consult with leading historians on the exhibit, and gather oral narratives from living descendants of Mitchell. The exhibit will go live on the JMJP website in Fall 2021, and they have partnered with TheirStory to produce 50 oral histories.

“These are strategically silenced narratives, so the source materials we’re relying on are seeking to dismantle some of the silences,” Del Nunzio said, adding that in addition to oral histories, they’re sourcing political cartoons, Black newspapers, written correspondences, and more.

“I’m incredibly humbled to help support this initiative,” said Kimberly Wilson, the great-great niece of Mitchell and chief human resource officer for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Ajanet Rountree. Photo provided.

“I hope people take away that [Mitchell] was a man who gave everything to people, and really wanted to make a difference for everyone,” she said. “I’m hoping it will inspire conversation about his work and how it applies today, and that [JMJP] will help students learn how to use their voice to be advocates and allies, but also to set policies.”

Brannan, who is helping upload and contextualize exhibit materials, said connecting history to the present is of critical importance for inspiring change. The exhibit will also serve as a powerful tool for educators across the country.

“This work honors those who were doing peacebuilding because they were trying to survive and because they believed in the American Dream in spite of it,” Chavis said. “Their sacrifice has to be honored and studied.”

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John Mitchell Jr Program for History Justice and Race

Carter School Peace Week brings anti-racism to the forefront

Mariam Aburdeineh — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 18:52:47 +0000

Carter School Peace Week brings anti-racism to the forefront Mariam Aburdeineh Thu, 03/18/2021 - 14:52

In This Story

Sheherazade Jafari

Charles Chavis

Mercedes Allsop

��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution will host its Spring 2021 Peace Week virtually March 22-26. Photo by Getty Images

��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution will host its Spring 2021 Peace Week virtually March 22-26, focusing on how to foster anti-racism approaches in the field of conflict resolution in the United States and around the world.

“We’re prioritizing cultivating an anti-racist approach within the school, and looking at what does that mean for us to be committed to anti-racism,” said Sheherazade Jafari, director of the Carter School’s Point of View International Retreat and Research Center and the school’s co-diversity advisor. “Peace Week is a contribution to these broader efforts within the field to be more inclusive, to center race in our analysis in ways that we haven’t before.”

Sheherazade Jafari. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services/��AV

Peace Week, which began in Fall 2020 and is held each semester, is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Jafari said there’s something for everyone.

“We have everything from panel discussions with [conflict resolution experts] joining in from all over the world, to book talks, alumni panels on ways to integrate anti-racism approaches at work…to a film screening and an evening of celebrating the arts and performance,” she said.

See the full Peace Week schedule and register here.

Award-winning political commentator, strategist and author Heather McGhee and Gail C. Christopher, a renowned social change agent and senior scholar with Mason’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, will be the program’s keynote speakers, discussing how racism serves as a common denominator for humanity’s most vexing public problems.

This semester’s Peace Week theme is a critical one, Jafari said.

Following summer 2020 and worldwide protests against systemic racism, the Carter School created an anti-racism statement with faculty, staff, students, alumni and community partners.

“One of the things that came out of those conversations is a recognition that a statement is just one step,” said Jafari, who is on the Peace Week planning committee along with Professor Charles Chavis, Administrative Assistant to the Dean’s Office Mercedes Allsop, Associate Director of the John Mitchell Jr. Program Audrey Williams, and PhD student Emily Linnemeier. “Ultimately, it’s meaningless unless it’s accompanied by real efforts for learning, engagement and action.”

That includes making conscious efforts to break the cycles of racism individually, institutionally and societally, she said.

“I do hope and believe that there’s a lot that will come out of this week that can help contribute to those conversations and efforts.”

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Carter School takes its expertise overseas, bringing hope to war-torn Ukraine

Mariam Aburdeineh — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 18:00:30 +0000

Carter School takes its expertise overseas, bringing hope to war-torn Ukraine Mariam Aburdeineh Mon, 03/08/2021 - 13:00

In This Story

Karina Korostelina

Juliette Rouge (Shedd)

Carter School faculty and participants in a "Dialogue and Difference Project" Seminar in Kharkiv, Ukraine prior to the pandemic. Photo provided.

The eastern region of Ukraine has been an intense battleground since 2014, when Russia controversially annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and invaded the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. Though a ceasefire was called, it has been violated daily. More than 10,000 people have died and roughly 1.6 million are registered as internally displaced people (IDP).

But a step toward hope and peace may be on the horizon, thanks to ��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and their new project funded by a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

“While we were working on [another U.S. Department of State-funded project introducing conflict resolution curricula in Ukraine], we were envisioning what else can be done,” said Carter School professor Karina Korostelina, who is spearheading the project with Associate Dean Julie Shedd and associate professor Mara Schoeny. “While conflict resolution can be used in schools, the major issue is conflict within the society.”

Karina Korostelina

One important issue in Ukrainian society is the inclusion and rights of IDPs.

“People who work in local administration have a lot of knowledge, but don’t know how to deal with IDPs, how to negotiate conflicts, how to use a problem-solving approach to conflict resolution,” Korostelina said.

That’s where Mason’s project comes in.

Faculty from the Carter School will be educating professors in Ukraine on conflict resolution best practices, so they can create a course to teach their own students in Ukraine. The project will also establish an internship program for undergraduate students at three Ukrainian universities, which were selected because their locations host the highest numbers of IDPs.

“We educate and teach students how to become agents of change in their communities,” Korostelina said.

About 15 students per university will intern with local administrations and NGOs that work with IDPs or community development projects. The goal is that these students will bring their newly learned skills to their internship.

The experiential learning equips students with skills to be leaders in society, and could potentially lead to jobs at these organizations after graduation, Korostelina said. It also reinforces values of tolerance, diversity, and inclusion.

“I strongly believe in education as one of the keys for conflict resolution,” Korostelina said. “The more people are aware of how conflict functions and what factors contribute to it, the less they actually become the subject of manipulation in conflict dynamics.”

It’s an ambitious project, she said, but it originates from Mason’s previous successful projects in the region.

“The Carter School, in its 40-year history, has always been an active actor in peacebuilding internationally, and this project is just the latest example of our substantial footprint for peace and justice across the world,” said Carter School Dean Alpaslan Özerdem. “Such a groundbreaking collaborative initiative between universities and NGOs through university students’ engagement is an excellent way of training future peacebuilders across the world.”

The project could also enable Ukrainian faculty to contribute more research in the conflict resolution field, and help communities address conflict more effectively, Korostelina said, adding that she hopes the model could be replicated around the world.

“People have to understand and acknowledge the importance of conflict resolution education,” she said. “What is great about our project is we bring knowledge to regions, which were not exposed to this knowledge before.”

Last semester, Carter School faculty conducted the first of four online workshop series on incorporating conflict resolution in internship curricula. Photo provided.

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Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution