Peaceful Transformation of Complex Conflicts: The Transcend Approach

Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2002 13:45:24 -0400
From: Dietrich Fischer <102464.1110@compuserve.com>
Subject: Nov. 23-24 workshop with Johan Galtung and Hamid Mowlana

Announcement:
PEACEFUL TRANSFORMATION OF COMPLEX CONFLICTS:
The TRANSCEND Approach

A Workshop with Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies and Director, TRANSCEND: A Peace and Development Network, and Hamid Mowlana, Professor of International Relations at the School of International Service, The American University
DATES:  Saturday, November 23, 2002, 10:30 am - 10:00 pm
        Sunday, November 24, 12:15 - 4:00 pm

PLACE:  Manassas, Virginia (half an hour West of Washington, DC;
        directions will be sent to those who have registered)
This workshop is recommended for anyone interested in helping parties in a conflict transform them nonviolently, at the personal, group and international level. It should be of interest to practitioners, diplomats, professionals working with NGOs and international organizations, journalists, psychologists, family therapists, social workers, as well as teachers and students from a wide range of disciplines.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW:

This workshop will provide participants with an introduction to the TRANSCEND method of conflict transformation by peaceful means, based on 40 years of research and practice. Conflicts can rarely be "resolved" in the sense that they completely disappear, but they can be transformed from being fought with violent means to being conducted by peaceful means. In that sense, conflicts can have a constructive function in helping bring about desirable change.

The workshop format will be highly interactive, with a combination of lectures, facilitated discussions and exercises in small groups. Participants are invited to contribute case studies from their own experience.

OBJECTIVES OF THE WORKSHOP:

Participants will learn to analyze conflicts and design methods of intervention that help reduce violence.

Methods of mapping conflict formations are to be discussed.

Introduction to diagnosis (sources of a conflict), prognosis (likely trends without intervention) and therapy (proposed interventions to reduce violence).

Principles of dialogue and negotiation as methods of conflict transformation; the psychology of the dialogue process.

Distinction between direct, structural and cultural violence.

Sensitivity to cultural differences in conflict transformation.

Development of empathy with the parties involved, and creativity to discover mutually acceptable outcomes.

Conflict work as a profession; a code of ethics.

Ending the vicious cycle of terrorism and state terrorism. The US seeks free trade and military protection. The Islamic fundamentalists' long-term goal seems to be respect for religious sensitivities. Could trade with basic needs priority, including religious sensitivities, achieve both simultaneously?

TRANSCEND is a peace and development network of 200 invited scholars-practitioners in 60 countries doing action/training/ research/dissemination within 20 programs, based on 40 years of experience. Reports on programs and some manuals can be freely downloaded from www.transcend.org.

JOHAN GALTUNG, founder and director of TRANSCEND, a distinguished professor of Peace Studies, is widely known as the founder of the academic discipline of peace research. Galtung has served as Professor of peace studies at the Universities of Hawaii, George Mason, Witten/Herdecke (Germany), Tromsoe (Norway), American, Granada (Spain), Ritsumeikan (Japan), Sichuan (China) and the European Peace University (Austria). He established the world's first Peace Research Institute in Oslo in 1959 and the Journal of Peace Research in 1964. He has published over 1500 articles and 106 books, including Gandhi's Political Ethics (1955), nine volumes of Essays in Peace Research and Methodology (Ejlers, Copenhagen, 1974-88), The True Worlds (1980), There Are Alternatives: Four Roads to Peace and Security (1984), Human Rights in Another Key (1994), Peace By Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization (Sage, 1996) and Searching for Peace: the Road to TRANSCEND (Pluto Press, London, 2002). He is a consultant to several UN agencies and a constantly traveling lecturer. He holds numerous honorary degrees and awards, among them the Right Livelihood Award (the "Alternative Nobel Prize"). He has played an active role in helping mediate in over 50 major conflicts around the world over the past four decades.

HAMID MOWLANA is Professor of International Relations and the founding director of the International Communication Program at American University, Washington, D.C. He has served as visiting professor in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America and is the recipient of numerous awards. He has worked for UNESCO and written extensively on international communication, cultural and psychological aspects of international relations, and socio- economic development. He is the author of numerous works, among them Global Information and World Communication: New Frontiers in International Relations; Global Communication in Transition: The End of Diversity?; Mass Media in the Middle East: A Comprehensive Handbook; he has also contributed to numerous books and anthologies, including International Encyclopedia of Communication and The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World.

REGISTRATION FEE: $200 ($80 for students)
This includes:

admission to workshops on Saturday and Sunday
Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means (the TRANSCEND Method), A Manual Prepared for the United Nations Disaster Management Training Program (192 pages) by Johan Galtung
certificate for completing the program
coffee, refreshments and meals on Saturday

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Prof. Dietrich Fischer, Pace University <fischer@transcend.org>, Tel 609-799-8319 (MONDAY, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY BETWEEN 8 AM AND 4 PM ONLY, PLEASE!)

TO REGISTER, please send the following information by email, in the body of a message, not as attachment, to fischer@transcend.org, by November 17, 2002:

Name:

Occupation:

Organization:

Address:

Tel:

Fax (optional):

Email:

Why you wish to take part in this workshop and how you expect the training program will benefit your work (about 100-200 words).

Those who register will receive detailed directions. Please bring the registration fee to the door, in cash, or a check made out to TRANSCEND. We regret that we can't process credit cards. Thank you!

JOHAN GALTUNG'S 9 VOLUMES OF COLLECTED ESSAYS IN PEACE RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY (almost 4000 pages) will be on sale for $200 per set. If you cannot attend but wish to order them by mail, please send a $200 check to Dietrich Fischer, 114 Conover Road, Princeton Junction, NJ 08550, USA. This includes postage by surface mail.

The second edition of "Searching for Peace: the Road to TRANSCEND" by Johan Galtung, Carl G. Jacobsen and Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen (Pluto Press, May 2002), which includes an analysis of 45 conflicts from around the world, can be ordered on-line at www.transcend.org

On-line courses offered by the TRANSCEND Peace University start in January 2003 and will soon be announced at www.transcend.org