International Peace Negotiations

Catalog description

This intensive course taught by senior peace mediator Ameya Kilara will give students a unique window into the world of high-stakes international peace negotiations. It will help students look beyond the headlines on conflicts like Ukraine,Afghanistan and Kashmir and analyze them from a negotiation perspective. The course aims to provide students with a map of the terrain of international conflict resolution, build drafting and negotiation skills, and allow them to experience practice problem solving amidst the real-world challenges of this field. Week 1 of the course will equip students with core negotiation skills, frameworks, and tools used by negotiators and mediators, and challenge students to engage with the messy interplay between law and politics in complex conflict situations.In addition to developing students' technical skills and knowledge of peace processes, the course will encourage reflection on how identity plays out in peace processes. In particular, it will critically examine the subjective positions of those intervening in conflict situations from the perspective of race, gender and Global North/South dynamics, with a view to cultivating interventions that center the voices and needs of those directly impacted by conflicts. Week 2 of the course will be a deep dive into the Kashmir conflict, one of the world's oldest and most difficult negotiations involving three nuclear states: India, Pakistan and China. This will be an opportunity for students to apply concepts introduced in the first week, put themselves in the shoes of conflict parties and mediators, and practice problem- solving in the midst of uncertainty and complexity. Through a series of in-class exercises, students will draft and present a range of materials relevant to peace negotiations, including stakeholder maps, advisory briefs, policy memos and note verbales. As students engage in…