Education

Zones of Conflict

Participants at the Ahfad University for Women wait for the workshop on Voter Education and Universities' Role in Civic Engagement to begin. The Education program sponsored two workshops on public engagement in Sudan in September 2006. More.

The Education program recently began expanding its scope to include working with educational institutions in zones of conflict, where emerging generations face the daunting task of putting together societies destroyed by violence and hatred. In these situations, the interpretation of history and the role of educational institutions in transmitting that history often become a flashpoint for violence and pose the most challenging obstacles to reconciliation.

Objective

The objective of this initiative is to build local capacity to deal with regional conflicts and to foster the development of curricular resources that promote mutual respect and a shared vision of the future rather than destroy it. By strengthening these educational institutions, USIP hopes to promote the growth of those civil society structures that form the basis for a lasting peace. Just as importantly, USIP will use this opportunity to help in the process of reforming education in many of these countries making the transition from war to peace and from repressive political systems to democratic ones.

Workshops and Seminars

In this program, USIP works with local partner institutions to create workshops aimed at increasing conflict resolution capacity and establishing networks among faculty with similar interests. USIP has held these workshops in the Balkans and Southeast Europe, Cairo, Singapore, and Manila. The program also plans to develop future workshops in other regions around the globe.

• Read about the program's latest workshop designed to build citizenship and leadership skills for youth in Sudan.
• Read more about recent and past programs in zones of conflict.

Topics

Some of the topics for these seminars include: the nature and sources of international conflict in the post-Cold War world; new approaches to managing these conflicts; effective ways to teach about conflict and peacemaking; and research agendas on international conflict management that cut across disciplines and enhance teaching.