The six-page article, “Learning with the Citizens’ Accord Forum: Building a Shared Society in a Sustainable Democracy in Israel” by Phillip D. Lurie was published in Kettering Foundation‘s 2016 edition of their annual newsletter, Connections – Kettering’s Multinational Research. In the sixth article of the newsletter, Lurie shares the work of the Citizens’ Accord Forum in Israel which works on bridging divides between Jews and Arabs in order to address issues in daily life through dialogue and deliberation. Below is an excerpt from the article and Connections 2016 is available for […] (continue)

The 5-page review written by Nancy A. Vamvakas of Deliberation across Deeply Divided Societies: Transformative Moments (2017), by Jürg Steiner, Maria Clara Jaramillo, Rousiley C. M. Maia, and Simona Mameli, was published in the Journal of Public Deliberation: Vol. 13: Iss. 1. In the book, the authors analyze group discussions from three distinct conflicts in Colombia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, and Brazil; and discuss the various approaches to deliberation in each area. Read an excerpt of the review below and find the PDF available for download on the Journal of Public Deliberation site here. From the […] (continue)

The Conflict Resolution, Management and Negotiation Graduate Program (CRMN) [in Hebrew] at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) has recently opened its International Summer Certificate Program in Identity-Based Conflict Resolution, in English. This Summer Program offers students the opportunity to earn 11 academic graduate credits and a certificate in a period of four weeks during the month of July. Taught by leading scholars and practitioners, this is the only Israeli academic summer certificate program taught in English in the field of conflict resolution. It will examine international, national […] (continue)

This is a report about 2003 National Issues Forums where citizens deliberated about the issue of what to do about terrorism. The forums involved nearly 2,000 people in 40 states around the country. Analysis of what happened in those forums was conducted by Doble Research Associates, a public interest consulting firm, and is presented in this report. Find more details & order info on the NIF website. From the report… (continue)

This article examines the results of the Year of Civil Discourse, a program dedicated to engaging nearly 1,000 people in grassroots trainings in civility at four Bay Area synagogues over the course of 2011. From the article… “The purpose was not to have people check their opinions at the door,” Porth added. “We wanted people to bring their passionately held views into the room, and give them the skills to have meaningful conversations about Israel. There was no political litmus test. The institutions all said […] (continue)

This report, an analysis of results from the 2003-2004 National Issues Forums, presents an examination of people’s thinking as they deliberated together in public forums about Americans’ Role in the World. The analysis is based on forums held in 37 states, on moderator interviews representing forums in 22 locations, observations of six forums, videotape of four forums, and on the results of two online forums. The report is also based on the analysis of 1,486 post-forum questionnaires that were returned between April 2003 and April 2004. […] (continue)

What follows is an archive of a February 2006 conversation on the NCDD Discussion list. Lars Hasselblad Torres initiated the discussion, asking if anyone was running dialogues around the outrage over the cartoons that were published in Denmark in September 2005. (continue)

We live today in an increasingly globalized society where different cultures and faiths are brought into closer contact than ever before. This situation presents both extraordinary possibilities for cross-cultural understanding and profound challenges. While greater opportunities exist for the blending and sharing of cultures, longstanding tensions across cultures and faiths remain. In some cases these tensions may be more intense precisely because the boundaries between cultures and faiths are thinner and more porous than ever before. This Public Agenda Choicework guide explores the question: What […] (continue)

Through a critical examination of Arab and Jewish encounter programs in Israel, the book reviews conflict resolution and intergroup theories and processes which are utilized in dealing with ethnic conflicts and offers a detailed presentation of intervention models applied by various encounter programs to promote dialogue, education for peace, and democracy between Arabs and Jews in Israel. (continue)

Drawing on intensive firsthand experience gained during the most successful years of Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, Harold Saunders explains the complexities of the peace process: it was not just a series of negotiated agreements but negotiation embedded in a larger political process. In the first edition of The Other Walls, Saunders argued persuasively that until leaders change the political environment by lowering the human and political barriers to peace, negotiators stand little chance. (continue)