From Conflict Resolution to Strategic Peacebuilding

I have the daunting task of trying to convey some perspective on concepts to a roomful of teachers and researchers and people who probably have already somewhat well-conceived notions of what you may or may not believe on these three concepts that we’re going to look at this morning. Usually when you come into discussions of concepts in an academic setting everybody gets their knickers in a twist, so if I see you squirming, I’ll know what’s happening.

I want to start by giving you the lens through which I’m going to approach these three concepts because the lens comes from more of my practitioner side than purely my academic side. And I consider myself a scholar-practitioner, but if I’m really honest I think I probably lean more toward the practitioner side than the scholarship side…So, what you’re going to get in part today is a view from the ground up from the practice of this and how that has informed my own personal transformation and how it is that I’ve come to understand these concepts and why I’m given to a certain way of working with them and presenting them…