by Ibrahim Safiriyu Growing up in Nigeria, I was raised to imbibe the principle of Omoluabi – an all-encompassing philosophy that teaches respect for the rights of others and defines individual attitude and behaviour [...]

by Luis Pedro Fernández Smith One hundred and twelve years ago in Chicago, a lawyer named Paul Harris decided with three of his friends, Gustavus Loehr, Silvester Schiele and Hiram Shorey, to create a club to forge community [...]

by Dianne Williams I was honored to not only have had an opportunity to introduce Dr. Neu, but I also had an opportunity to have dinner with her and a few other participants/facilitators. Dr. [...]

by Luis Pedro Fernández Through the mystical streets and arcades of Bologna, I had the opportunity to share a Student-Speaker dinner with Dr. Terrence Hoppman while enjoying a great antipasti and Aperol Spritz. One of [...]

by Micaela Segal de la Garza As I returned to my birthplace of Reggio Emilia, I found myself trying to soak up as much of the societal culture and history as possible. On our first [...]

by Elissa Al Roumi, Lebanon  “What is forgiveness? Can you reconcile without forgiving?” this was the opening question of our last session after a four weeks Symposium. Robi Damelin stood there listening to our “scientific” [...]

by Rachel Naguib, Egypt How can we forget violent conflicts that left us psychologically devastated and our feelings full of apprehension, relief, anger and lethargy? Memory is not only a product of the past, but [...]

by Rose Julia Wanjiru, Kenya    The speaker of the day was Hon. Gareth Evans, an expert in state diplomacy from his experience as an Australian Foreign Minister and President and CEO of the International [...]

by Pierre Ahoure,  Côte d’Ivoire/Australia On Wednesday 15, and Thursday 16, July 2015, trainers Michael Shipler and Rajendra Mulmi coached the Peacemakers at the 2015 Bologna Symposium, to search for common ground during conflict prevention, [...]

by Alice Dean, Canada Dr. Joyce Neu, the Founder and Senior Associate of Facilitating Peace and a former Team Leader of United Nations’ Standby Team of Mediation experts, continued her lecture with us on Tuesday, [...]

by Alejandra Pineda, Colombia  We had the privilege of starting the third week of the IPSI 2015 Bologna Symposium with a two-day training session on conflict resolution and women´s inclusion in peace processes with Dr. [...]

by Leenat Jilani, Canada Yesterday our class had the great privilege of hearing from Joyce Neu, a conflict resolution specialist and the first team leader of United Nations’ Standby Team of Mediation Experts. However, it was [...]

by Giovanna Maselli, Guatemala "Most of what we commonly call women’s history is actually the history of women’s roles in the development of nonviolent action.” –Pam Mcallister   Dr. Mary E. King opened today’s session [...]

by Carol Grojean, United States  In 1982 the danger of nuclear annihilation  seemed to have been eased but there were many other challenges going on in the world: Geopolitical corruption Religious Ideology Spheres of influence [...]

by Maria Winters DiMarco, United States This week we have had the privilege of being trained in negotiation tactics by Wilbur Perlot, director of the Clingendael Academy. As a communications professional, I am fascinated with [...]

by Assya Bouali, Morocco  Today’s session of the IPSI Bologna Symposium held and directed by Mr. Wilbur Perlot, the Deputy Director of the Clingendael Institute of International Relations, was much more oriented towards hands-on activities [...]

by Janine Bressmer, Germany/Canada  In today’s session of the IPSI Bologna Symposium we had the pleasure of meeting and learning from Wilbur Perlot, the Deputy Director of the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch Institute of International [...]

by Carol Grojean, United States Crossing the chasm of paradigm shifts can be tough for leaders. In conflict management, how can we help leaders move away from the model of aggression-to-violence-to-win or lose at the [...]

Leo Lou, China/United States    How does one quantify peace? What credible databases concerning conflicts, safety, military, or crime statistics should one throw into the mix to construct the “formula for peace”? How do countries get compared [...]

by Shagufta Hayat, Pakistan Participants coming from diverse backgrounds, origins and cultures widen the message of coming together for a cause, to understand and respect each other’s norms, values and traditions. In a larger perspective [...]

by Ben Collard, Australia Today we heard from the Bologna Symposium's keynote speaker, Lieutenant-General (retd.) Roméo Dallaire. The General is a former Artillery officer, a position that encompasses a variety of roles, the primary one [...]

by George A. Stairs, Canada With that, The Honourable Lt-Gen. (Rtd.) Roméo Dallaire launched into his description of the “New World Disorder,” the state of affairs existing in the post-Cold War world where the previous [...]

by Raghda Abu-Shala, Palestine    When we first arrived at the 2014 IPSI Bologna Symposium each participant was asked to choose one training day to write a blog post reflecting our thoughts on what we [...]

by Mojdeh Abtahi, Iran We concluded the second week of the 2014 Bologna Symposium with Clingendael Institute Deputy Director Wilbur Perlot as well as Alvaro de Soto, a career diplomat who has held senior positions [...]

by Punya Bagga, India/Canada As we moved into our third week of the symposium, we were introduced to a form of conflict resolution, or more appropriately, a different way of waging conflict: nonviolent action. Hailing [...]

by Amy Guest, USA When I started graduate school nearly a year ago, I was positive that I wanted to get involved in international relations and diplomacy. My end goal was to work for the [...]

by Claire Connellan, Austrailia    On Thursday, as our third week at the Bologna Symposium neared its end, we began the first of two days of presentations by Jack Duvall, Dr. Maciej Bartkowski and Dr. [...]

by Marta d'Agosto, Italy   When Dept. Secretary General Jan Eliasson gave the keynote speech at the 2014 Bologna IPSI Symposium, the students asked him, “What shall we take into account when working in the humanitarian [...]

by Nastasha Tara Hibbard, South Africa How can reconciliation be achieved when the memory of a conflict and the need for justice weighs heavy on one's soul? This is a question that many people, including myself, have [...]

by Elinah Nciizah, Zimbabwe  We are in our last week at the IPSI 2014 Bologna Symposium yet every day is a first-hand discovery of shared thoughts, ideas, knowledge and practice. Certainly, learning at the 2014 [...]

by Thea Price, United States  This week at the 2014 IPSI Bologna Symposium we were so fortunate to have the opportunity to hear from an incredible mediator and peace builder with over twenty years’ experience, [...]

by Oscar Sánchez Piñeiro As we have seen from the 2014 IPSI Bologna Symposium speakers who have presented their work in the last few weeks, there exists a proliferation of NGOs and private entities involved [...]

by Stephen Wilson, Australia The year was 1992. Senior Political Advisor, Álvaro de Soto was accompanying recently-appointed United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on a long-haul flight. With the recently achieved El Salvadorean Chapultepec Peace Accords [...]

by Shirin Khosropour, USA/Iran The rain came down fast and we welcomed this change in the weather. On this Monday of our third week, some braved the rain to walk the 20-minutes to the John’s [...]

by Mara Goldberg, United States I first interacted with Dr. Joyce Neu in March. I had recently completed my undergraduate degree and was searching for organizations that could provide me with career advice in conflict [...]

by Trust Mamombe, Zimbabwe Enter Wilbur Perlot, the Deputy Director of the Clingendael Academy and a ‘Specialist in Difficult Negotiations’ (SDN, my creative acronym).  Here is a man with a non-negotiably long CV. That being [...]

by Melissa Gregg, United Kingdom As we come to the end of this week, it’s hard to believe that the 2014 Bologna Symposium is at its halfway point.  As a graduate of the 2013 Hague [...]

by Zachary Laranang, United States  2014 IPSI Bologna participants Zach Laranang and Marta D'Agosto on panel during negotiations The second week in Bologna was even better than the first! It was all about [...]

by Robert Heyn, Germany Last Wednesday was a very special day for me.  I was very much looking forward to Wilbur Perlot's class on international negotiation.  Whenever negotiation was on the schedule during my undergraduate [...]

by Stephen Di Lorenzo, Australia Over the last few years my adventures in the world of peacebuilding and conflict management have been rather limited, yet my enthusiasm for the field has grown. My foray into [...]

By Rishita Apsani, India/Canada   Conflict is an inevitable and healthy part of the human condition and our role as peace builders is not to stomp out conflict as such, but to move it away [...]

by Tom Hasani, United States As a human being in search of a higher power, it has been a difficult life trying to understand the perpetuation of violent conflict in the name of different Gods. [...]

by Trust Mamombe, Zimbabwe After docking in at the IPSI Symposium in tuneful Bologna for just over a week, and with a barrage of refined knowledge and well thought out simulation calisthenics on peace and [...]

By Douglas Munemo, Zimbabwe  It was an eventful and action packed day here in Bologna spent sharpening our conflict prevention and resolution skills as Michael Shipler and Rajendra Mulmi from Search for Common Ground (SFCG) [...]

by Amanda Chittleborough, Australia We concluded the first week of the Symposium with husband and wife team John Marks and Susan Collin Marks. They are the founders, President, and Senior Vice President, respectively, of the [...]

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 [...]

by Andrés Martinez-Garcia, Colombia Dear Colleagues, Think about bread. The fluffy kind… To make bread a baker puts together a variety of ingredients. But one is key: Yeast. This is how it works: You grab a [...]

by Billene Seyoum, Ethiopia  It is an honor to stand here amongst a cohort of enthusiastic and determined agents of change, whose vision and commitment to seeking ways of making our world a better place is inspiring. At [...]

by Stephanie Billingham, Canada Yesterday saw the end of Day Two of our three day simulation, and what a day it was. An investigation into the explosion at the Georgian/Abkhaz Power Plant revealed an Abkhaz diaspora as [...]

by Alex Hong, United States of America  In the fourth and final week of the IPSI Symposium in Bologna, we get to try everything our we have learned so far. Tuesday was the second day [...]

by Imy Jacobs, Australia  And so we saw the beginning of the end of the IPSI 2012 Bologna Symposium. We kicked off our final week of classes with a three day simulation, with the objective [...]

by Lauren Squires, United States of America Our first Friday of July began as Dr. Jack Duvall discussed how civil resistance can replace violence and terror. This enlightening and provocative lecture touched on many themes of [...]

by Jenn Buxton, Canada I can’t believe we are starting our last week; the saying “time flies when you’re having fun” really stands true at IPSI. I have appreciated all the speakers and trainers, as well as, [...]

by Chloe Baveas, Australia   The dramatic description of the nonviolence discourse by Jack Duvall set the tone for the rest of the day. Keeping up with IPSI calibre of speakers, Mr Duvall passionately delved into the [...]

by Auriel Niemack, South Africa On Thursday we were graced with three speakers from the International Cente on Non-Violent Conflict, Jack Duvall, Maciej Bartkowski and Mary King, who all spoke to various aspects of non-violence and civil [...]

by Emma Hodder, New Zealand  Today had to be one of my favourite days of the symposium thus far. In the morning we were treated to the beautiful and engaging Dr Valérie Rosoux talking about reconciliation. After [...]

by Hamdi Aden, Somalia  Yesterday, Heidi Ober, from Care International gave an informative workshop on Theories Of Change  (TOCs) in the Design, Monitoring and Evaluation (DME) of projects in fragile states. Using examples from Nepal, [...]

by Chris de Wit, The Netherlands In a few years I reckon I’ll look back on today, thinking it was one of these days that has had a significant impact on my ‘road taken’. John and [...]

by Billene Woldeyes, Ethiopia I remember following with intensity the domino effect of the Arab Spring as it hit the North African states in early December 2010. I wondered if a transition in Libya with minimal [...]

by Larissa Alles, Germany Generally speaking, this symposium generates significantly more questions than answers. But what it also does is to shift one's own perspective from left to right, back and forth. Today's session on the Responsibility [...]

by Reem Alsalem, Palestine  In the latter half of last week, we were immersed into a mini crash course on negotiating successfully in an international context by professor Wilbur Perlot of the Clingendael Institute in the [...]

by Hamdi Aden, Somalia  Although, women are recognized as a fundamental force in the quest to eradicate poverty and maintain the stability of families and societies, human rights violations against women remain at a level where [...]

by Larissa Alles, Germany Coming mostly from Western countries, few of us have ever thought to differentiate between peace and justice or vice versa. Why should we, since we often have both? Yet, when listening [...]

by Jenn Buxton, Canada We are now almost done our second week, but what an awesome week it has been! I am in shock by how quickly the time is passing by. Soon I will [...]

by Hamdi Aden, Somalia There is a surreal experience when you sit listening to a talk by someone whose work you have often quoted (in the hurried pages of the many essays you have written) over [...]

 by Emma Hodder, New Zealand  After a full day simulation on Tuesday it was nice to have a day of academics today. We spent the morning brainstorming the key aspects for a successful negotiation with Wilburt Perlot [...]

by Alex Hong, United States of America We are in the second week of the IPSI Symposium in Bologna and have been given the opportunity to learn from Dr. Joyce Neu. With over twenty years [...]

by Hamdi Aden, Somalia Week two is promising to be an exciting challenge and learning opportunity for participants as Dr. Joyce Neu took to the lectern yesterday morning. Participants listened enthusiastically as Dr. Neu discussed [...]

by Alex Hong, United States of America We've been in Bologna less than one week for the IPSI Symposium but it feels like we've been here two or three. We had the honor of hearing Roshan [...]

by Vic Crawford, New Zealand It is an honour and a privilege to share my graduation address as the final entry for the 2011 IPSI Bologna blog. Friend Do you remember that wild stretch of [...]

by Amy Thomson, New Zealand Three days of trying to end the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict (in our universes this equated to about 20days) and I’m shattered. Acting on behalf of a small nation without international recognition [...]

by Shalva Dzidziguri, Republic of Georgia. While talking about the simulation “Unsettled Channels” over the conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia during the introduction of the IPSI program on the first day of the symposium, Cameron [...]

by Charly Jaffe, United States of America Last night when I called home, my mother asked what I had done today. “Just started a three day attempt at solving the Abkhazian-Georgian conflict,” I replied, “No [...]