International Student Program"Unit Two: Non-Military Resolution of Conflict" Professor Dietrich Fischer, in a lighter moment, Pyramids of Giza, Egypt The International Student program completed its second unit of conflict studies, held from Singapore to Safaga, Egypt and facilitated by Transcend Co-director and Pace University Professor Dietrich Fischer. The unit combined workshops for the IS students on theory and examples of non-military means of resolving conflict with formal presentations to all Peace Boat participants by the six students on the conflicts in their home countries. The goal of the second unit was to follow the introduction to conflict-oriented first unit with expanded theory and application to examples such as the India / Pakistan conflict over Kashmir or the students own home conflicts in Northern Ireland, Palestine, Israel and in the former Yugoslavia. The theory-oriented workshops focused on one, understanding how a society uses specific structures such as legal or law enforcement to manage conflict and how such structures can break down leading to conflict, two, using a transcendent approach to solving conflict and three, looking at non-military means of influencing conflict, examples used being UN mediation and the usefulness of economic sanctions. For the International Students, this look at advanced theories of understanding conflict from a generic perspective provided a big challenge in that the students, who were used to seeing their own conflicts from a personal, inside perspective had to focus on conflict theory and examples of conflict secondary. In session with International Students and coordinators More specifically, we looked at how well a legal system, for example, was able to facilitate one, agreement on the goals of a society, two, the ability to recognize where there was a deviation from desired conditions, such as a crime or unhealthy social conditions, and three, ways to correct the deviation, such as the courts or other means of conflict resolution and reconciliation. This would be an example of a feed back system, and in cases where conflict goes unchecked, six points of break-down in the feed back system were identified. For example, there might be no agreement of goals, in which case a solution would be mediation or other conflict resolution. Two, deviations may not be detectable, such as how it may take many years to understand the depletion of the ozone layer or the spread of the HIV virus. Three, people may not know how to correct recognized problems even if they wish to, in which case increased education or resources would be a solution. After applying examples such as the conflict between India and Pakistan to these and other ideas, we then practiced finding win-win outcomes to conflicts, rather than settling for compromise, win-lose or lose-lose. Finally, the 'prisoners dilemma' problem, where maximizing self-interests rests on faith in cooperating with the other side of a conflict showed how in theory and reality, pursuit of self-interest often results in the less-than-ideal outcome in a conflict, one example being how in the Cold War, the US and USSR used excessive resources on an arms race when they could have both used the resources for the good of their own societies instead and still maintained a similar stalemate in relations. Jonny and Jenny, from Belfast, Northern Ireland While tackling theory in workshops the six students also formally presented their conflicts to Peace Boat participants. First were Jonny and Jenny, both from Belfast, Northern Ireland though coming from opposing communities in the conflict. In their presentation together they talked about the differences between Catholics and Protestants, the impact of the conflict on young people and what efforts at reconciliation between the two sides is being made. While many people might see the conflict as religious, Jonny and Jenny described it as a political conflict about the question of independence for Northern Ireland in which positions can be implied based on religion, but not because of it. For young people, the conflict is a powerful and often detrimental force in forming identity, as well as something which young people unfortunately tend to think of as normal something Jonny said he particularly noticed after having been outside of the conflict for a month. For the future though, both students said that there are groups working to bridge the divide between people and giving hope that the conflict can be peacefully resolved. Sandra and Sonja teaching the languages of the former Yugoslavia Sandra and Sonja, from Bosnia and Serbia respectively, talked about the war in the former Yugoslavia from different perspectives. Living in Sarajevo for three years while under siege by the Yugoslav army, Sandra, using video from the movie "Welcome to Sarajevo," talked about what it was like living on the front lines of a war. Every day, underneath the snipers and bombing people had to go to great lengths for even the most basic necessities. After three years, escape finally came through a 2km long, 150cm high tunnel under the Sarajevo airport at 4am. Sonja discussed being in Belgrade, going through the war-related economic collapse, during the NAT O bombing and working in the Peace Movement. From her perspective, the intervention was actually detrimental to the work being done to remove then-President Milosevic from power. People did not come to hate Milosevic more because of the bombing, but to only hate NATO as well while increasing the severity of Milosevic's oppression. Itay and Yazan Maybe the most important statement made by Yazan and Itai, members of the Peace Movement in Palestine and Israel respectively, was not in words but in the fact that they sat together as friends. After discussing how issues of security and the right of return for refugees have stalemated political settlement of the conflict for decades, the two shared the concern that in light of the recent escalation of conflict both societies are pulling further away from each other to more extreme, polar stances. It is to their respective societies that the two must return after this experience. The audience did not miss the statement made when the two sat and talked together, and expressed sincere hope that Yazan and Itay would be Ok once back home with people who may or may not think well about their shared experience on Peace Boat. Sonja working with IS Partners to prepare a presentation This second unit was an interesting change for the six students. While the workshops focusing on advanced theories of conflict studies were challenging, Professor Fischer used his knowledge of over 1000 political, economic and social jokes and anecdotes to lighten and illustrate the weighty material. The presentations gave the students a chance to become more familiar to, and interact more with participants. Upon leaving Port Said, Egypt, the students will begin the final unit of study, in which they will try to use more advanced ideas about conflict to understand the conflicts from which they come. Peace Boat's 37th Voyage