Our
Biographies
Paula Garb
Paula Garb is Co-Director and co-founder of UC Irvine’s Center for Citizen Peacebuilding. She is the Associate Director of International Studies, Associate Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, and lecturer in anthropology and political science at the University of California, Irvine. She is a facilitator and researcher of citizen Peacebuilding projects.
Garb spent 17 years living and working in Moscow, where she received her M.A. in anthropology from Moscow State University and later completed her doctorate in anthropology from the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Anthropology. She ultimately secured a job as a field producer for CBS News in Moscow, where she worked until she came to UCI in 1991.
After returning to live and work in the U.S. she has studied the mobilization of activists around environmental problems associated with the nuclear weapons complex in Russia and the role of citizen initiatives in the ethnic conflicts of the Caucasus. Since 1995, with funding from the University of California, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the US Institute of Peace, USAID, and the Winston Foundation for World Peace, she has been promoting citizen peacebuilding activities and research. Her primary project has focused on facilitating and studying peacebuilding efforts between Abkhaz and Georgian academics, journalists, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and politicians. In 1999 she initiated a coordination network of peacebuilding projects and organizations working in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, and continues to foster the network. Garb has been using her long-term and in-depth experience and research data from the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict to examine and compare how citizens are helping to resolve disputes in other conflict zones, such as Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Middle East, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland. She draws on these experiences for courses in conflict resolution that she teaches to Los Angeles gang intervention workers and UCI students. Her work has also led to a number of publications in academic and other journals.
John Graham
John L. Graham is a Co-Director and Board Member of the Center
for Citizen Peacebuilding. He is Professor of International
Business and Marketing, and Associate Dean (1994-95) at
the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of
California, Irvine. He has been a visiting scholar and
professor at various institutions including, Georgetown
University School of Business, Madrid Business School in
Spain, and the University of Southern California.
Before beginning his doctoral studies at U.C. Berkeley,
John worked for Solar Turbines International (a division
of Caterpillar Tractor Co.), and served as an officer in
the U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Teams.
He is author (with James Hodgson and Yoshihiro
Sano) of Doing Business with the New Japan (Rowman & Littlefield,
3rd edition, 2000) and (with Philip Cateora) of International
Marketing (Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 11th edition, 2002), as well
as editor (with Taylor Meloan) of Global and International
Marketing (Irwin, 2nd edition, 1997). He has also written
more than 50 articles and chapters for publications such
as the Harvard Business Review, the Sloan Management Review,
the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of International
Business Studies, the Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing
Science,
the Journal of Higher Education, the Los Angeles Times,
and the New York Times. Excerpts of his work have been
read into
the Congressional Record, and his 1994 paper in Management
Science received a citation of excellence from the Lauder
Institute at the Wharton School of Business.
His interests in international marketing and international
business negotiations give him relevant expertise in intercultural
communications and conflict resolution. Among his many publications
is his research of business negotiation styles in 20 cultures,
which was the subject of an article in the January 1988 issue
of Smithsonian. He works with colleagues at the University
of Ulster on building cooperation between businesses in the
US, UK and Northern Ireland as a form of peacebuilding.
http://www.gsm.uci.edu/FacultyAndCenters/FacultyDirectory/FacultyProfiles.aspx?FacultyID=22
Marlett Phillips
Marlett Phillips is a Board Member
and co-founder for the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding
at
the University of California, Irvine. Previously Marlett
spent over a decade involved in U.S. – Japan trade
and economic dispute resolution working first for the Embassy
of Japan in Washington, DC serving under the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry and then for the Foundation
for International Dispute Resolution.
She received her B.A. in International
Relations/Political Science and separately in Asian Studies
while studying
abroad in Japan. She holds a M.A. from the Institute for
Conflict
Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University where
her research and practicum focused on interethnic community
and international conflicts with emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and related issues in the region. Marlett’s
site visits and interviews with local governmental, NGO,
community and religious leaders in the Middle East over a
four-year period culminated in her thesis project: "Sustainable
Social Peace: An Investigation of the Bridge between Political
Agreement and Implementation on the Local Level," which
examines local citizen peace initiatives in relation to
how the mechanisms of a developing civil society may inform
a
new peacebuilding theory.
Her advocacy for collaborative processes was born of her
experience in developing a roundtable series bringing together
community representatives in Washington, DC to build a network
and integrate strategies among different organizations and
individuals working on issues of youth and violence. She
is currently applying her prior research and experience to
comparative analysis of best practices in citizen peacebuilding,
and sharing that knowledge through support of collaborative
citizen peacebuilding initiatives locally and globally.
Theresa Ridgeway
Theresa Ridgeway has over twenty years experience working
nationally and abroad in the field of life sciences. Her
work includes research in human medicine and biotechnology,
methods and instrument development, and software development.
Terry has experience in project management involving diverse
constituencies, successfully interfacing academia, industry,
state and federal agencies, and the public.
Her activities with the University of New Hampshire resulted
in the establishment of the following research centers. The
Center to Advance Molecular Interaction Science, working
to characterize biological molecules important to medical
and materials researchers. The Biomolecular Interaction Technologies
Center, a National Science Foundation Industry/University
Cooperative Research Center involved in the development of
methods and instruments for the analysis of biomolecular
interactions useful to pharmaceutical research. And the Non-lethal
Technology Innovation Center whose mission is to effect the
next generation of non-lethal capabilities by identifying
and promoting the development of innovative concepts, materials
and technologies.
Terry formerly served as CEO and was a co-founder of FirstMile,
Inc. a New Hampshire-based company involved in project management
and research collaborations with academia, government agencies
and industry, including work in the areas of social impact
and policy decisions of policing concepts and technologies,
technology transfer and commercialization, software development,
technical writing and grant consulting. During her time at
FirstMile, Terry worked with the Human Effects Directorate
and the Air Force Research Laboratory in the area of Crowd
Behavior research. In particular, Terry performed research
contributing to an understanding of the sociology of conflict
across cultures with emphasis on indicators for the escalation
of violence during encounters involving two or more persons.
Terry serves as a member of the Human factors
and implications of non-lethal options: European Working
Group on Non-Lethal
Weapons (EWG-NLW). The EWG-NLW is comprised of members
from Austria, Germany, Russia, UK, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands,
and Czechoslovakia; its activities are coordinated through
the Fraunhofer Institut für Chemische Technologie.
Terry is also a Research Associate with Justiceworks, a
research
and development group in justice studies at the University
of New Hampshire.
Terry worked previously with the behavioral
biologist at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia during
the establishment
of a formal animal enrichment and behavioral research program.
She was a summer research student fellow at the San Diego
Zoo’s Center for Conservation and Research for Endangered
Species (CRES) where she assisted in the study of the cortisol
levels of Yellow-bellied Marmots during stress response.
And currently, she is performing independent research on
the social behavior and alliance formation of pygmy chimpanzees
(Bonobos) prior to, during, and post conflict.
Lina Kim
Lina Kim is currently a senior (undergraduate) at UC Irvine and has worked at the Center as a program assistant since 2006. She is an International Studies major with a regional focus on Asia/Pacific Rim. Lina has studied abroad at Cambridge University (U.K) and Meiji Gakuin University (Japan) and hopes to study in either Spain or China before she graduates. She recently completed an internship at the Office of U.S Congresswoman Linda Sanchez in Washington, D.C in the spring of 2008. Lina enjoys traveling, participating in her church youth group and studying different languages. She speaks English, Korean and Japanese and hopes to master Arabic, Chinese and Spanish. After she graduates, Lina plans on attending law school.
Evonne Liew
Evonne has been a program assistant at the Center since 2008. She is currently a third year undergraduate at UC Irvine majoring in Political Science with an emphasis on Comparative Politics. Her interest in the Middle East has led to her involvement in the Olive Tree Initiative, pursuit of the Middle East Studies Certificate, as well as her study of Arabic. She is a member of several organizations at UCI, including Model United Nations; she most recently attended MUNtr in Ankara, Turkey. Prior to graduation, Evonne hopes to study abroad in China and Egypt in order to further her proficiency in Chinese and Arabic. Her post graduate plans include pursuing careers in Journalism and Diplomacy.
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COMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD Current Members
John Greenman
Larry and Dulcie Kugelman
Larry Kugelman received his BA from St. John’s University,
New York and his MBA from Vanderbilt University. For more
than 25 years he held executive and CEO positions in the
Health Care industry. As a former Peace Corps volunteer in
Iran and a seminarian he has a life long interest in social
service. He has served on the Board of Share Our Selves in
Costa Mesa for many years and was instrumental in the establishment
of a medical clinic to serve the poor of the area.
Dulcie Kugelman graduated magnum cum laude from Chapman
University with a B.A. in Peace Studies and was a recipient
of the Paul Delp Peace Award. While at Chapman her studies
emphasized conflict resolution and mediation. She is a certified
mediator and has volunteered time to mediate with the Victim
and Offenders Restoration Program.
Larry and Dulcie lived
in Northern Ireland in 1998/99 while studying for their
Master’s
Degrees in Peace and Conflict at the University of Ulster
in Derry/Co. Londonderry. Together
they learned first hand about the conflict there and the
difficulties of its resolution. Having developed a strong
affection for the people of Northern Ireland and made personal
ties, they have endeavored to find ways to support citizens
there who are actively working to build peace.
They welcome the opportunity to be part of the Center for
Citizen Peacebuilding at UCI and to make a contribution by
applying their personal and academic knowledge to the building
of peace in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.
Lynda Lawrence
Lynda Lawrence is Chief Idea Officer of Lawrence & Ponder
Ideaworks, a firm that specializes in social marketing, advertising,
broadcast production, branding and innovation workshops.
The award-winning firm works with companies in food service,
technology, health care, consumer, business to business,
and public contracts for social marketing.
Lynda has been active in efforts to eliminate hunger, improve
access to health care, reduce health risks, fight AIDS, encourage
reading, improve pre-natal and infant nutrition, and provide
support to adolescents.
Her work has won almost 400 awards, and has been cited as
one of the top two public service campaigns in the U.S. by
the Advertising Council. Her firm was selected as a Points
of Light company for outstanding corporate citizenship.
She has been involved in
peace efforts for a number of years and her firm contributes
to UCI’s
Center for Citizen Peacebuilding with public relations,
interactive, communication,
and design services.
She is a graduate of the University of Colorado in Journalism
and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University,
Executive Program in Innovation and Organizational Change.
Patrick Morgan
Patrick Morgan holds the Thomas and Elizabeth Tierney Chair
in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California,
Irvine. He is a specialist in national and international
security matters including deterrence, the subject of his
forthcoming book being published by Cambridge University
Press. He is currently teaching in China on a Fulbright
Distinguished Lectureship.
http://www.faculty.uci.edu/scripts/UCIFacultyProfiles/DetailDept.CFM?ID=2456
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David Rosten
David Rosten is the Chief Executive Officer of Rosten Ventures
Inc., a real estate investment firm established in 1988.
He is also the President of Rosten Capital, Inc., a commodity
trading advisory firm.
He holds memberships in
several associations including the Managed Funds Association
and
the California Association
of Realtors. He has also been a member of the National Futures
Association and the Board of Directors and Executive Loan
Committee member of Wilshire Savings & Loan Association.
David is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine
with a major in Political Science and the University of San
Diego School of Law, Institute on International and Comparative
Law of Oxford, England.
Caesar Sereseres
Caesar Sereseres is the Associate Dean of the School of Social
Sciences. Professor Sereseres has as his major field of interest
U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-Latin American relations. He has
a specific policy and research interest in foreign policy strategy
and formulation in Mexico and Central America, revolutionary
guerilla insurgency, and civil-military relations in Latin
America. His experience includes a research consultantship
in national security studies at the RAND Corporation and service
as a staff officer at the Department of State in the Office
of Policy Planning, Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, 1985-1987.
Courses taught by Professor Sereseres include U.S. foreign
policy, national security bureaucracy and decision making theory,
coercive diplomacy and compellence theory, U.S. Mexico relations,
U.S.-Central America relations, revolution and collective political
violence, and Mexican-American ethnicity and foreign policy.
Ali Shakeri
Ali Shakeri was born in and lived in Iran until completing high school. He came to the United States in the early 1970’s to complete his higher education. As an undergraduate, Mr. Shakeri studied business and in 1979 he graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. degree in Business Administration. Shortly after, Mr. Shakeri returned back to Iran.
Mr. Shakeri came back to the United States in the 1980’s and established Global Estate Funding Inc. in Irvine, California.
Ali believes that community grassroot efforts provide the vital cement between research, theory, and practice; and is an Iranian-American activist who advocates Democracy in Iran and peace in the world. It is through these dialogues and non-violent efforts that he sees a future that will expand and promote the values of collaboration, cooperation, and reconciliation in conflicted communities locally and internationally.
FREE ALI SHAKERI CAMPAIGN
Sylvie Tertzakian
Sylvie (Sirvart) Tertzakian is Professor of Peace and Conflict
in the Middle East at the Peace Studies Department of Chapman
University. Previously, Sylvie taught the History of the
Modern Middle East at East Chapman College, Orange, CA, and
the History of Modern Europe at the University of Toledo,
Ohio. She has attended and organized seminars and conferences
on Post-Soviet Republics and the Middle East, and is a frequent
lecturer to educational centers and other organizations. Sylvie received her B.A. in Mass Communications (Department
of English) and completed coursework for a M.A. degree in
the Middle East Area Program from American University of
Beirut, Lebanon. She received her M.A. in the History of
Modern Europe from the University of Toledo, OH.
Over the past 10 years Sylvie has been active in fundraising
and lobbying efforts for various local Armenian community
organizations including the Armenian National Committee of
Orange County (Public Advocacy Organization) and Western
Region, LA, the Armenian Council, Multicultural Society of
Orange County. From 1978 to 1983 she was the principal for
the Armenian Relief Society Saturday-School, Santa Ana, CA.
She has also been keenly involved in local area medical
and education associations including Chapman/Orange Foundation
(Chapman Medical Center) of Orange, Prelacy Education of
Los Angeles, CA, and Minassian School Education Committee
of Santa Ana, CA. She has been a reporter on education for
the Horizon television program in LA and an editor for Tonic
Topic, Orange County Medical Association Auxiliary of Orange,
CA.
Sylvie is a board member
of the Armenian Professional Society of Orange County,
CA, a member
of the Executive Committee
of the World Affairs Council of Orange County, the Association
for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), and the Orange County
Sheriff’s Community Coalition, and she is the National
Co-Chair for the UCLA Parent Fund.
Monique
Theriault
Monique Theriault graduated
Cum Laude from the University of California,
Irvine with a B.A. in Social Ecology.. She was a university employee
for
both UCI and the CSU Chancellor's Office. She also worked in Canada,
Puerto
Rico and did volunteer work for two months for the city of St.Dizier in
France. In her role as mother and grandmother, Monique has chosen to be
a
peace activist both for the children in her life and the children of
our
world. As such, she is involved with several peace groups: Visualize
World
Peace, Huntington Beach, Micah 6:8, a small justice/faith community,
the
Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico as well
as in
her church where she has served on the Pastoral Council. Monique is
currently owner/moderator of several websites that promote peace,
recycling
and community building.
Jim and Gwen Johnson
Gwen and Jim Johnson have served as volunteers in mission
for the past twelve years. They have engaged in people-to-people
programs in Russia, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Palestine and
Guatemala. They have responded to victims of flood, hurricanes,
military destruction and oppression, poverty and have worked
on clinics, churches, schools and housing. Projects in
the United States range from Alaska and Hawaii, from Kansas
to South Dakota, from Kentucky to South Carolina.
They have been active in Habitat for Humanity, Share Our
Selves, the United Methodist Church, and are members of the
World Affairs Council.
Gwen was a founding board member of the Orange Coast Interfaith
Shelter and Friends of OCIS, is a member of Women of Vision
and organized a 2002 Peace Vigil on the National Day of Prayer.
She has a BA in Education and taught in Minnesota and Arizona.
Gwen was a stewardess for American Airlines.
Jim serves on the board of the Walking Shield American Indian
Society. He was president of an international engineering
firm for 17 years and was involved in projects on all seven
continents. He served as a consultant to the National Science
Foundation on environmental matters in Antarctica. Jim has
a BS in Mining Engineering. He also served in the U.S. Marine
Corps.
Mark Lam
N. Mark Lam was born in and lived in Asia, and completed
high school, college, and professional schools in the United
States. During college, he also studied Japanese business/economic
development in Japan. Upon obtaining his J.D. from the University
of California (Hastings), he went on to earn his M.B.A. from
UCLA (Anderson).
Mark began his career with
G.M./Hughes Aircraft Company, where he did strategic planning
and regulatory
and business
analyses as a senior consultant. He then became a senior
investment manager at Dynafund, an international high-tech
venture capital firm based in Torrance, California. Subsequently
at Geneva Company, a leading middle market business valuation
and M&A firm headquartered in Irvine, California, he
advised middle market high-tech and real estate companies.
After gaining significant business experience, Mark began
his legal practice in Seattle, Washington and later settled
in California. His practice specializes in forming global
alliances and solving business and legal problems arising
from business transactions, many of which are international,
involving high-tech companies. Representative clients include
middle market and global companies in the United States and
Asia such as Philips Electronics, Hon Hai Precision Industry
Co., Ltd. (a Business Week INFOTECH 100 company), and Wealth
Magazine (Taiwan).
Mark has been invited to
publish articles in prominent magazines and newspapers
in Asia
including Hong Kong Economic Journal,
Wealth Magazine (Taiwan’s most influential financial
monthly), and Economic Daily Journal (Taiwan’s leading
business newspaper). He has been invited to speak at UCLA,
UC Irvine, USC, California State Bar Education Institute,
and other professional organizations. He is a member of the
California Bar Association, UCLA Alumni Association, and
a number of civic and corporate boards. Mark served as a
Presidential Elector in the 2000 U.S. Election and appeared
on CNN, Good Morning Asia, and BBC.
Since1998 he has lectured
to MBA and EMBA classes in global management and alliances
at
UC Irvine’s Graduate School
of Management and recently has been invited by a number of
major Chinese universities to serve as Visiting Professor.
Currently, he is completing a book with Professor John L.
Graham on business negotiations with the New China and beginning
another book with Professor Liu Chuntien, a leading Chinese
scholar in intellectual property laws, on Chinese intellectual
property law and practice. In August 2002 he was invited
to join a delegation of U.S. professors to lecture at five
leading universities and T.V. stations in China.
Todd Thaxton
Todd Thaxton has been involved in advising philanthropists
an non-profit foundation members on fundraising strategies.
Most recently, he raised funds for biotech research from
high net worth individuals, members of the venture community
and pharmaceutical sectors. During his tenure at UCI,
he organized visits of several dignitaries including
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Taiwan's Premier Tang Fei,
and President Mikhail Gorbachev among others. He has
worked on
Capitol Hill developing and organizing congressional lobbying
efforts and advising members of congress on political
fundraising activities. Todd was the Regional Deputy
Finance Director for the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in Washington, DC,
where he coordinatedfundraising
events featuring Congressional leadership. Todd also interned
in the Office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy
in Washington, DC and in the Office of Senator Barbara Boxer
in Los Angeles, CA. Todd received his BA in Cinema Critical
Studies in 2001 from the University of Southern California,
School of Cinematic Arts. During
college, he founded USC Food Share, a program which distributes
food
from campus to local homeless shelters, competed in varsity
crew and
worked as a production assistant at Paramount Studios’ Lakeshore
Entertainment.
Lori Warmington
Lori Warmington is a co-founder of the Center for Citizen
Peacebuilding. She is a community volunteer in Orange County,
and a current member of the facilitators' group for the Orange
County Peacebuilders' Network, a collaborating project based
on the principles of citizen peacebuilding as expressed in
UCI's Center for Citizen Peacebuilding. She is a graduate
of the University of Southern California with a dual major
in History and English. She later received her teaching degree
and worked as a middle school teacher.
Lori has had twenty years of experience in community projects
focusing on rebuilding a unified community by addressing
the underlying social needs that could create areas of conflict
within that community. For ten years this direction centered
on prevention of drug and alcohol abuse in youth on a local,
state and national level.
During the late 1980's, her interest in citizen peace processes
led to a collaboration between faculty at University of California
and local community groups expanding the growing initiatives
between Soviet and American citizens. These projects connecting
local and international issue areas culminated in the endowment
of a Peace Chair at UCI in the area of Global Peace and International
Cooperation. The emphasis of the Chair is the environment,
and is in the name of the family's children as reflective
of all future global children.
Lori has been a part of the growth and development of the
Center of Citizen Peacebuilding at UCI expanding the opportunity
for the growth of a local and international network of both
individuals and organizations working on peacebuilding in
their own communities. This community grass roots link provides
the vital cement between research, theory and practice. It
further expands and promotes the values of collaboration,
cooperation, and reconciliation in conflicted communities
locally and internationally. The growth of understanding
of the interconnectiveness of all aspects of communities
toward sustainable peace and life is the direction and interest
of this work.
CENTER STUDENTS
Bruce Hemmer
Bruce Hemmer is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political
Science and graduate research fellow for UCI’s Center
for Citizen Peacebuilding, where he specializes in the
comparative study of the roles of civil society and political
culture in democratization and peacebuilding. He holds
a M.A. in International Relations and a Certificate of
Achievement in Conflict Resolution from Syracuse University,
where he wrote his master's paper, “Reinventing Peace
Operations,” on citizen peacebuilding. He has two
years of practical experience in peacebuilding and democratization
in Bosnia and Hercegovina, with the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, and several peacebuilding NGOs.
With Peaceworkers, he was involved in citizen peacebuilding
efforts in Kosovo before the NATO-led invasion. Bruce collected
our dataset in Bosnia and Hercegovina.
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CASE
STATEMENT
Introduction
Almost
daily we are assaulted by the news of outbreaks of new
wars and atrocities not only abroad, but in our local schools
and communities. At any given time in the world 40 armed
conflicts are underway. The need is critical for successful
strategies to deal with wars and armed disputes caused
by racial and ethnic strife, violence and economic disparities.
The tools utilized by governments and political leaders
fail too often. The result of their failure is that every
year, because of these conflicts, thousands of innocent
people die and even more lose their homes, livelihoods
and emotional well-being. In addition to the tragic human
toll, the economic costs of these conflicts are enormous.
Commerce is disrupted and even those not directly involved
in the violence suffer long-term consequences of economic
decline in their neighborhoods and regions.
Experts
agree that one of the most promising approaches to diffusing
conflictual relationships and for building sustainable
foundations for peace is the involvement of citizens trained
in peacebuilding skills.
Since
1997, the Citizen Peacebuilding Program, part of the University
of California, Irvine's Center for Global Peace and Conflict
Studies, has focused on these issues locally, nationally,
and internationally. As a distinctive international clearinghouse
for research, education, and action on public peace processes,
the Program focuses on how citizens participate in peace
processes to prevent violent conflict and, if violence
occurs, to promote reconciliation and sustainable peace.
Research, education, and action inform and reinforce one
another. All three are important for the creation and promotion
of knowledge about positive models for change and constructive
public debate.
URGENCY
OF THE PROBLEM
At
any given time in the world 40 armed conflicts are underway.
While wars and conflicts have been around since the beginning
of time, experts agree that the nature of and participants
in many of today's wars have changed significantly. These
conflicts tend to be located within countries and fought
in urban settings, often neighbor against neighbor. Whole
populations become engaged in combat, battling over autonomy
or self-government for certain regions or ethnic groups.
Adding to the turmoil is the increased propensity of many
guerilla groups to use easily obtained arms to pursue their
social and/or political goals. The result is deep wounds
piercing the fabric of society, thus seriously hindering
the conventional peace efforts of political leaders. These
conflicts cause enormous human suffering and inflict severe
economic consequences that disrupt both local and regional
commerce.
While
it is easy for those who live in the United States to dismiss
these conflicts as something happening "over there," ethnic
strife, violence and conflict are part of our daily life
as well. The demographic changes throughout the nation
have set the stage for an increase in ethnic tensions.
Orange County is no exception. Since the 1960s, and particularly
in the last decade, Orange County has changed from a mainly
white community to one of the most diverse places in the
United States. Twenty-nine percent of Orange County residents
were born outside the United States. Latinos comprise 42%
of the county's population, making it the largest ethnic
community and one of the fastest growing groups. The recent
growth in the Asian-American community has also been dramatic.
Associated with the burgeoning ethnic diversity in the
County, some local cities have seen increases in hate crimes
and white supremacist propaganda against the new neighbors.
Bringing
the problem even closer to home is an alarming increase
in school violence throughout the nation. The most recent
incidents of gun violence were in San Diego County, a neighboring
community. Educators complain of spending more time on
managing tensions and conflict among students than on teaching.
More and more citizens around the world are concerned about
how to bring peace to their community, to create a safe
environment in which to live and to raise their children.
If
concerned citizens look to their governments for answers,
the reality is that conflict has escalated and its nature
has changed so significantly that governments alone can
no longer deal with these problems. In war-torn and violence-ridden
communities, at home and abroad, top-down, government negotiated
agreements too often do not lead to sustainable peace and
reconciliation. Better strategies to prevent, mitigate
and resolve such conflicts need to be developed. Grassroots
peace efforts within communities are needed before people
can begin to venture across the bloodstained divides. We
must seek the most effective techniques to promote meaningful
interaction between citizens of diverse racial, religious
and cultural backgrounds and address the underlying socioeconomic
causes of ongoing violent conflicts.
Over
the past 15 years, peace experts and international organizations
have increasingly noted the important role that public
peace processes, in partnership with governments, perform
in dealing with conflictual relationships and promoting
sustainable peace. Public peace processes, also known as
citizen peacebuilding, involve ordinary people outside
government coming together in dialogues to design the steps
needed to change a conflictual relationship and lay the
groundwork for peace. Citizen peacebuilding is a bottom-up
approach that facilitates dialogues between people at the
grassroots level and complements efforts by governments.
OUR
RESPONSE
The
Citizen Peacebuilding Program at the University of California,
Irvine (UCI) is a distinctive international clearinghouse
for research, education, and action on public peace processes.
The Program focuses on how citizens participate in these
activities to prevent violent conflict and, if violence
occurs, to promote reconciliation and sustainable peace.
The purpose is to significantly contribute to the theory
and practice of conflict resolution.
The Citizen Peacebuilding Program was born out of the Center for Global Peace
and Conflict Studies (The Center). The Center is one of the success stories
of the University of California, Irvine (UCI). It began informally in 1983
with a handful of faculty and a modest appropriation from the University's
San Diego-based Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC). Since
then the Center has grown into a working association of more than 50 professors
dedicated to research, teaching and public service in the study of domestic
as well as international conflict and conflict resolution. A significant achievement
of the Center is that, through the generosity of Orange County philanthropists,
it has raised $1 million to establish three endowed chairs in peace and conflict
related disciplines.
The
Citizen Peacebuilding Program and the Center are two examples
of UCI's response, on an academic level, to a growing national
and international problem with very serious consequences.
Unlike other peace and conflict institutions that tend
to focus on either international or domestic issues, the
Citizen Peacebuilding Program has an integrated approach
to studying the best peacebuilding methods in both domestic
and international conflicts. Current efforts include peacebuilding
in neighborhoods in Orange County and Los Angeles as well
as in communities in Northern Ireland, the Middle East,
Cyprus and the former Soviet Union.
The
Citizen Peacebuilding Program has three primary goals.
The first goal is to study citizen peacebuilding initiatives
at home and around the world to determine the best practices
currently in place and to share these findings with all
interested organizations and individuals. The second goal
is to offer training in successful conflict resolution
skills. The third goal is to initiate and participate in
citizen peacebuilding initiatives worldwide as well as
advocate for a safer world. Research, education and action
inform each other. All three are important to promote knowledge
about positive models for change and constructive public
debate.
The
Peacebuilding Program is accomplishing its goals by sponsoring
projects in three major areas:
Research
on Citizen Peacebuilding
Abkhaz-Georgian
Peacebuilding and Cooperation Among Multiple Initiatives:
Since 1995, our faculty have been conducting a successful
research project, an in-depth case study on the efficacy
of citizen peacebuilding in a war zone of the former Soviet
Union, Georgia/Abkhazia. This long-term work has resulted
in twelve dialogue conferences, both in the region and
at UC Irvine, and six publications. The conferences and
publications inform the official peace negotiators about
public opinion, increase the constituency for peace in
the region, and contribute to theory on conflict resolution.
Annual
Best Practices Conference: In June 2000, the Citizen Peacebuilding
Program hosted an international research conference on "The
Role of Citizen Peacebuilding in Conflict Transformation." The
participants were 30 researchers and peacebuilding practitioners
who live and work in Kosovo/Yugoslavia, Israel/Palestine,
Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia/Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh,
and Moldova/Transdniestria. There were also representatives
of various ethnic communities in Los Angeles and Orange
Counties. The participants examined and compared their
experiences in public peace processes. The conference proceedings
are being edited for publication for a broad audience and
to inform the research, practitioner, and policy communities.
We will make this an annual conference of researchers and
practitioners from various conflict zones around the world.
Research
on the Effectiveness of Peacebuilding Efforts Worldwide:
We are participating as a collaborating agency in two other
international research projects whose goal is to compare
experiences in citizen peacebuilding efforts: (1) Reflecting
on Peace Practices, a research project of The Collaborative
for Development Action, Inc. (Cambridge, USA) and Life
and Peace Institute (Uppsala, Sweden); and (2) Lessons
Learned in Conflict Intervention, a research project of
the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation
(Utrecht, the Netherlands).
Citizen
Peacebuilding Across the Taiwan Strait: The relationship
between the United States and China is manifestly important.
The most recent focus has been on military and political
challenges associated with Taiwan. However, from a citizen
peacebuilding perspective three other aspects of the relationship
deserve consideration as well. They are the (1) commercial,
(2) cultural, and (3) familial/interpersonal relationships
that perhaps better characterize the fundamental connections
between the Mainland China, Taiwan, and the United States.
The goal of the research here will be to better understand
and describe these relationships between citizens and to
suggest how they might relieve both military and political
tensions.
Database
and Website on Methods and Results of Peacebuilding Efforts:
Based on the above research projects to evaluate citizen
peacebuilding at home and abroad, the Peacebuilding Program
will develop a database on these initiatives worldwide
and an inventory of research studies and findings. The
database will be composed of three parts:
(1)
Countries (including states, counties, and cities in the
U.S.) will be ranked in a death-by-violence index. Mortality
rates caused by bullets, bombs, and other purposeful violence
will be determined for each geographical unit in the database.
The "Peace Monitor" will be recalculated and
published on an annual basis to focus attention on the
most serious problem areas, and improvements and/or degradations
in the areas of coverage. The Peace Monitor is also a potential
dependent variable in studies of the antecedents of violence
and the effectiveness of peacebuilding initiatives. An
analogue for the Peace Monitor is Transparency International's "Corruption
Perception Index" which attempts to quantify corruption
around the world. A visit to www.transparency.org will
provide readers an idea of the structure and function we
envision for the Peace Monitor.
(2) Citizen peacebuilding efforts around the world will be catalogued and described
by country and region. The database and website will serve as a clearinghouse
for information on these efforts.
(3) A bibliography and faculty working papers related to citizen peacebuilding
efforts will be published. In particular, patterns of success and best practices
will be sought, identified, reported, and analyzed.
We
expect the database and website will be a first stop for
researchers and practitioners working the peacebuilding
area.
Graduate
Student Fellows and Graduate Research Assistants: Graduate
students who want to do their dissertation research on
citizen peacebuilding will receive support for fieldwork
and assistance to the Peacebuilding Program's projects.
We anticipate sponsoring several partial and full-year
graduate fellowships and assistanceships each academic
year.
Citizen
Peacebuilding Journal: A quarterly journal will be published
at UCI addressing a broad audience of policymakers, practitioners,
and researchers. Articles will focus on the theory and
practice of public peace processes and on issues related
to peace processes locally, nationally and internationally.
Training
and Education in Conflict Resolution
War
Zone University Students at UCI: Beginning in the Winter
Quarter of 2003, the Program in Citizen Peacebuilding will
host university students from different war zones for 10-week
sessions throughout the academic year, for example, Cyprus,
Israel/Palestine, Kosovo/Serbia, Abkhazia/Georgia, Northern
Ireland. During their stay they will live part of the time
in the dormitories with UCI students associated with the
Program in Citizen Peacebuilding and part of the time in
the homes of our local community partners. The students
will study English, take courses in conflict resolution,
interact with the campus and surrounding communities, and
engage in dialogue among themselves about solutions to
their conflicts. This will prepare them for more effective
peacebuilding in their own countries, and enrich the knowledge
of our communities about how conflicts arise and the ways
in which citizens facing these problems engage in violence
prevention and intervention. The Program anticipates serving
six students per session, 18 per academic year. This project
will provide important data for the Program's Database
on Methods and Results of Peacebuilding Efforts.
Practitioner
Training Program: Our faculty teaches courses for UCI's
Minor in Conflict Resolution which is open to all undergraduate
students and members of the community. Local peacebuilders
are invited to take courses within the Minor and receive
certificates for completion of a series of courses and
workshops.
Public
Lecture Series: The Program in Citizen Peacebuilding regularly
hosts leading peace researchers and practitioners to present
public lectures at UCI. Some of the presenters have been
Christopher Mitchell (The Institute for Conflict Analysis
and Resolution), Harold Saunders (The Kettering Foundation),
Joyce Neu (The Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program),
and Jay Rothman (The Action Evaluation Research Institute).
Cyprus
Conflict Resolution Training: Since 1997, the Peacebuilding
Program faculty have been providing conflict resolution
training to domestic violence volunteers, nurses, teachers,
lawyers, judges, and other citizens of both communities
in Cyprus. To meet the special needs of the police force
of the Republic of Cyprus, a series of police training
workshops in Nicosia, Cyprus was recently organized in
association with the Republic's Ministry of Justice and
Public Order. The program was so successful that a desire
has been expressed for additional training next year.
Distinguished
Fellows Program: A leading scholar in areas related to
citizen peacebuilding will be invited to lecture and write
at UCI for up to one year. Examples of potential fellows
are: Christopher Mitchell (The Institute for Conflict Analysis
and Resolution) and John Paul Lederach (Eastern Mennonite
University.)
Peacebuilding
Toolkit: The Program is developing a peacebuilding curriculum
of conflict resolution methods and techniques to be modified
and used in different venues, i.e., communities, religious
groups, schools, and the workplace. The initial design
will include 25 hours of instruction, discussion, and practice.
Peacebuilding
Initiatives
Northern
Ireland and East LA/Orange County Dialogues: In July 2001,
the Program hosted a visit to Orange County and Los Angeles
by community peacebuilders from the Catholic and Protestant
communities of Northern Ireland. Participants shared their
experiences, insights, and strategies of peacebuilding
with interested students, community members and government
officials. This was the second visit of this project. In
December 2000 the Program arranged for gang intervention
workers from Orange County and East Los Angeles to visit
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as guests
of community peacebuilders. The exchange visits are providing
important data for the Program's Database on Methods and
Results of Peacebuilding Efforts.
Middle
East Conflict: The Peacebuilding Program participates in
the Open Tent Middle East Coalition, a diverse cross-cultural
group of Arabs/Muslims, Jews and others. This group has
organized an international conference, "The Israeli/Palestinian
Crisis: New Conversations for a Pluralist Future," which
took place at UCLA on May 2001. Conference proceedings
and policy recommendations are planned outcomes.
Orange
County Community Building and Conflict Prevention: The
Program in Citizen Peacebuilding is exploring ways to provide
training in mediation and conflict prevention skills to
community-based organizations, churches, schools, and agencies
of city government (including law enforcement) in nearby
cities such as Irvine and Costa Mesa. Acquisition of these
skills and techniques will improve the work of these organizations
and the various city agencies and increase the potential
for more peaceful communities as well as improved relations
between the government and the public. This work will provide
important data for the Program's Database on Methods and
Results of Peacebuilding Efforts.
High School Peace Camp: Beginning in the summer of 2003,
the Peacebuilding Program will sponsor an annual high
school Peace Camp at UCI for Orange County
high school students. The purpose of this camp will be to help train future
leaders in citizen peacebuilding skills. The Program will partner with the
National Council for Community and Justice, Orange County. Currently, this
group sponsors a program for high school students entitled "Knowledge
and Social Responsibility." Together with its partners, the Peacebuilding
Program will expand the existing curriculum to include conflict resolution
and leadership training skills for high school students in community peacebuilding.
Each summer 20-30 students will participate.
CONCLUSION
Despite
its short history, the Program in Citizen Peacebuilding
has educated hundreds of interested individuals through
its training sessions, conferences and publications. Through
the work of several of its key faculty members, significant
progress has been made in resolving thorny issues in the
Georgia/Abkhaz conflict, located in the former Soviet Union.
Progress towards peace has also been achieved in other
violent conflicts throughout the world by utilizing the
citizen peacebuilding skills taught in the Peacebuilding
Program.
Since
1997, the Peacebuilding Program has received more than
$500,000 in financial support from important institutions,
including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the
United States Institute of Peace, the Winston Foundation
for World Peace and the University of California's Institute
on Global Conflict and Cooperation.
Because
of the Peacebuilding Program's successes, its excellent
reputation in the peace arena, and the need for the skills
it teaches, the number of faculty, students and community
people who want to participate in its efforts has increased
considerably. It is necessary to expand the projects and
take the Program in Citizen Peacebuilding to the next level.
To accomplish this proposed expansion, a steady rise in
funding is required over the next three years to ensure
an annual budget of $560,000.
With
all of the expanded programs in place, we will have a unique
internationally recognized database on citizen peacebuilding
research and action and a conflict resolution training
program for hundreds of individuals. Our publications will
reach thousands. This work will positively impact violent
conflicts throughout the world by contributing significantly
to the theory and practice of conflict resolution.
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Turning
Research Into Action For A Safer World 
