by SeoHyun Choi, South Korea Suppose there are two different groups of people on the street, protesting against the authoritarian government. One of them is armed and ready to take a violent action; the other is [...]
By Ruth Ratidazi Murambadoro, Zimbabwe Being one of the four people that have attended both symposiums offered by IPSI, l feel overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge l am acquiring from these courses. The two [...]
By Gianina Pellegrini, USA As much as I was looking forward to attending this symposium and knew that I needed to participate in this experience, I truly didn’t know what to expect. The first three [...]
By Daniel Katz, U.S.A. A growing number of young people today are seeking to effect positive change in their communities and in the world at large, aiming to become “social entrepreneurs.” A single definition does [...]
By Rebecca Viljoen, South Africa "The world's problems could not be solved by the institutions that created them because these systems were stuck in old ways of thinking. They knew how to make the system [...]
By Ishaku Danladi Pennap, Nigeria I must confess that I have had an amazing learning experience at the IPSI Bologna 2013 Symposium so far. I really found it difficult to put my finger on any [...]
By Joanne Cotton, Australia After two privileged days guided by Dr. Joyce Neu, we are now better informed as to what is involved in international mediation and the role of the mediator. As Founder and [...]
By Carlos Castillo, Colombia In this blog entry I would like to comment on two different but yet interacting topics. First, the manifestation of conflict during decision-making processes inside organizations (government bureaucracies, NGO staff, diplomatic [...]
By Abraham Kuol Nyuon, South Sudan Conflict management has become very popular in virtually all national contexts today because conflict is found in all aspects of international relations. The formation of various regional blocks within [...]
By Helena Grönberg, Finland “Women bring a different perspective to the table,” said Dr. Joyce Neu during her first day at the 2013 Bologna Symposium. Dr. Neu, a seasoned mediator who has been engaged in [...]
By Alexa Lipke, USA Being a mediator is difficult. Being a female mediator is even harder. As the second week of IPSI progressed it brought me the realization that being a woman in the male [...]
By Rohan Thwaites, Australia ‘Mobilize’, ‘instruct’, ‘direct’, ‘guide’ or ‘coordinate’? Negotiations about what might seem semantics to some were the topic of Wednesday’s simulation as member states from the US, UK, USSR, Indonesia, Peru, Tunisia [...]
By Fiona Kitavi, Kenya Prevention Conflict, such a simple word. Taken for granted by many whether consciously or unconsciously. Conflict prevention, conflict resolution and conflict reconciliation all have one thing in common, and for me [...]
By Kishor Silwal, Nepal Conflict is ubiquitous in social relations and among interdependent parties who have different interests, preferences or needs. Thus conflict prevention means different things to different people and there is no single [...]
By Emirza Adi Syailendra, Indonesia In a conflict, there will be two major challenges, namely historical factors or the ‘shadows of the past’ and the inability to look at the future prospects of togetherness or [...]
By William Bejan, USA Although I thought it impossible, the second week in Bologna has possibly surpassed the first! We learned tools of international negotiation from Wilbur Perlot who is a Senior Training and Research [...]
By Maaike van Adrichem, The Netherlands Facilitating dialogues to resolve conflict We all know them: the nay-sayers, the know-it-alls, the avoiders and the distractors. On the second day of the facilitation training we were challenged [...]
By Lauren Hershey, USA Any avowed art aficionado has, at some point, viewed the famous perceptual illusion of the “Young Girl-Old Woman” and has more naturally seen one image over the other. Personally, it doesn’t [...]
By Nathan Shea, Australia "I strongly urge you all to play your part in ending the potential for future violence and preventing a situation that could lead to mass atrocities. Let us be an example [...]
By Gaone Magogwe, Botswana I arrived in “Bologna la rossa, la grossa, e la dotta” Friday evening from wintery Botswana, smack into 30 degrees of humid heat… a great welcome for me; I am totally [...]
by Lira Duishebaeva, Kyrgyzstan Today we had an amazing experience gaining exposure to some classic distinctions of categorizing causes of conflict presented by P. Terrence Hopmann as part of the lecture on “Primary drivers, Diagnosing [...]
Hello from the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Center in Bologna, Italy! The 2013 Bologna Symposium will offer an unprecedented line-up of the world's top academics, practitioners, and advocates, and we want to make sure those not present at the program [...]
