mediation

Formally trained as a mediator, John Paul has participated in and facilitated a wide range of mediation processes. Over time, he found the dominant terminology and associated imagery did not match his experience or many of the practices innovated in settings of violent, protracted conflict. Professional mediation tends to build around formalized processes of impartial and neutral facilitation. Long-term constructive social change in settings of violent conflict requires committed relationships and the nurturing of a social mediative capacity. Often captured in the term ‘accompaniment,’ this approach requires creativity in the evolution of a wider range of roles. The content in this section spans the evolution of John Paul's practice and understanding of mediation, particularly between the late 1980s to the early 2000s, shaped by his early experiences in international high-level mediation and transformative learnings from local mediative processes in Central America.

interview

The Mediators: Views from the Eye of the Storm Vol. 1

An interview with Robert D. Benjamin for the film "The Mediators: Views from the Eye of the Storm" in which John Paul discusses formative and professional experiences from Belgium, the United States, and Central America.

2010

document

Seeking Help: An Elicitive Exercise

An opening exercise for mediation training that seeks to illuminate cultural understandings around navigating conflict and mediation.

1994

document

Storyboarding in Model Creation

A tool to facilitate the discovery and creation of mediation models that may be implicit in a culture.

1994

document

Transformation from Within: Peacemaking in the East Coast of Nicaragua

An unpublished commissioned paper looking at the conflict in Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast from the viewpoint of indigenous peacemakers.

1989

document

“Yes, But Are They Talking?”: Some Thoughts on the Trainer as Student

Reflections emergent from cross-cultural conflict and mediation training in Latin America.

1987

document

YATAMA-Sandinista Mediation: Twelve Things I Have Learned

Twelve reflections gathered through the experience of mediating between YATAMA and the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

1988

document

Mediación

A compilation of notes gathered during a course on mediation offered in Gernika in February 1994.

1996

paper

Third Party Intervention in Nicaragua

A conference paper analyzing models forms of third party intervention undertaken in Nicaragua, advocating for an expansion of the third party concept then guiding peace research and peacemaking practice.

1989

paper

Más allá de la mesa, espacios estratégicos de diálogo en la construcción de la paz

A conference paper that explores dominant and alternative metaphors in peacebuilding.

2012

more reflections