Current Conflicts: Conflict Resolution

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Current Conflicts Conflict Resolution Peace
Education

• Peace is the only battle worth waging.
•   -Albert Camus

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Outline

• Introduction video clip
• History of Conflict Resolution Peace Education
• Micro View of Conflict
• -Psychological Theories of Conflict
• Meso View of Conflict, Conflict Resolution
  Peace Education
• - Statistics Crimes and Youth
• - The School System Conflict Resolution Peace
  Education
• Guest Speakers
• Mrs. Linda Simpson, Constable Evan Hung, Mr.
  Peter Kemp
• BREAK
• Macro View of Conflict Resolution Peace
  Education
• -Video Clips Ghandi, Civil Rights Movement,
  Cooperation Ireland
• Conclusion What Can You Do?
• -Concluding Remarks Dr. Desmond Tutu

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History of Conflict Resolution Peace Resolution
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Major Dates and Treaties

• Earliest Treaty - Battle of Kadesh Approx. 1270
  BC
• 1400s-1600s Great Law of Peace
• 1648 Treaty of Westphalia
• 1713 Treaty of Utrecht
• 1815 Congress of Vienna (Napoleonic Wars)
• 1845 Mexican-American War
• 1919 Versailles Peace Conference (WWI War
  Nobody Wanted)
• 1945 Allied Victory WWII
• Mid-1940s to 1989 Cold War

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Development of Conflict Resolution

• Quakers and Gandhi
• Cold War 1950s early 60s
• Pioneers
• John Burton
• Leonard Doob
• Herbert Kelman

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Peace, Conflict and the Individual
Wars begin in the minds of men
Preamble to the
UNESCO Constitution
since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in
the minds of men that the defences of peace must
be constructed
To Build Peace in the Minds of Men
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Reasons for Conflict

• Instinct Theory War in our Genes
• Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology
  Evolution a Process
• Freudian and post-Freudian psychoanalysis
• Nurtured to War
• Innate Depravity and Human Nature
• Naturally Depraved

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Reasons for Conflict

• Instinct Theory War in our Genes
• Aggression Natural Biological Trait
• Konrad Lorenz
• Re-channel biological energy to socially
  non-destructive competition
• Counter arguments
• Pessimistic War is Inevitable
• We have control over our actions
• Animal nature is our nature
• Species that invented war are capable of
  inventing peace

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Reasons for Conflict

• Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology
• Evolution a Process
• Adaptive significance of behavior
• View of War (Men)
• Ecological competition
• Male-male competition
• Role of kinship patterns
• Genetic Relatedness (Fictive Kinship Patriotism)
• War in Early Human Evolution

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Reasons for Conflict

• Freudian and Post-Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory
  Nurtured to War
• Unconscious Behavior
• Thanatos (Death Instinct) and Eros (Life
  Instinct)
• Must repress primitive tendencies to live
  conflict free
• Parents Discipline
• Society Punish
• Supranational Authority World Government
• Narcissistic Injury
• Pessimistic
• Cause of War

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Reasons for Conflict

• Other Theories
• Frustration-Aggression Theory
• Social Learning
• Conditioning
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Alienation and Totalism

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Attraction/Inhibition to War

• Attraction
• Thrill of War
• Right of Passage
• Acceptance
• Inhibition
• Average individual naturally resistant to killing
  fellow man
• Training change after 1950s

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Roots of Empathy Mary Gordon

• Molding a society of peace starts with youth
• Importance of Health Family
• Universal Need for Love and Belonging
• Public Education as an Equalizer
• Power of the Arts
• Empathy grows into more cohesive accepting
  society

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Individual Action

• Individuals can make a difference
• Democracy Every Person Counts
• Powerlessness and empowerment both
  self-fulfilling prophecy
• At least three things needed to move peace
  process
• Primary block to the establishment of peace is
  not so much the actual difficulty of achieving
  it, but rather the feeling that it is impossible
  
• Notable Figures for Peace
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Dali Lama
• Pope John Paul
• Jesus Christ
• You

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Meso/Community View of Conflict, Conflict
Resolution Peace Building
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Our Communities, Our Nation The Issues

• Statistics on Conflict in Canada
• 56,271 REPORTED youth criminal acts in 2005/2006
  (over 15,000 crimes against the person) down
  from over 77,000 in 2001/2002
• Toronto School Study
• 1 out of every 5 reported committing at least one
  
• delinquent act in the past 12 months
• 2/5 students victimized
• High-risk Groups
• Aboriginal youth
• Gangs low SES, victims of abuse at home,
• ethnic minorities seek affirmation,
• friendship

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Schools a key institution in the mitigation of
violent behaviour and the creation of peace

• Why Schools?
• Can implement peace education into the curriculum
• Can train staff
• Can control politics of the environment
• Legitimacy of the school system
• Education is the most powerful weapon which you
  can use to change the world.
• -Nelson Mandela

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History of peer mediation in schools

• Research-based peer mediation programs began in
  the 1960s
• Teaching Students to Be Peacemakers Program
• Derived social interdependence theory
• Methods taught all students in a school the
  nature of conflict, how to use negotiation
  procedures, and how to mediate peer conflicts.
• All students then took turns being a class and
  school mediator.

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Types of Programs

• There are at least three ways to describe
  conflict resolution and peer mediation programs
  in schools.
• Cadre or total student body programs
• Curriculum-based programs or Peer mediation
  programs.
• (a) skills-oriented approaches (b) academically
  oriented Conflict Resolution Programs approaches
  and, (c) structural change approaches.