John Paul Lederach on Solutions to Overcome Political Polarization

Tammy Thueringer: Joining us now from Colorado is John Paul Lederach to discuss overcoming political polarization. John Paul, welcome to the program.

John Paul Lederach: Thank you. Great to be with you this morning.

TT: John Paul, you are a Professor Emeritus of International Peacebuilding. Explain your background.

JPL: Sure. All of my professional career, I’ve worked primarily in the areas that are more widely known as conflict resolution. You know, dealing with people that are having differences from interpersonal to international. The vast majority of my work the last four and a half decades has been in settings outside our country that are experiencing long-term, protracted, and often openly violent conflicts. We might refer to them as wars or civil wars. That’s not always the language people use locally. A lot of that work has been with local communities most impacted by the violence. But I’ve also had extensive direct work with national negotiations.