Overseas Seminars
March 2013 CRDC class in Turkey, Studying the revolution in Syria (Istanbul, Ankara, Gaziantep, and Rehaniya)
In March of 2013, CRDC offered a course on the Syrian revolution to Bachelor, MS, and Phd students entitled “Approaches to Conflict Management and Resolution in Syrian Revolution.” Topics included the evaluation of the pre-war and mid-war Syria, the failure of the non-violent stage of the revolution, history of nonviolence and social movements, the role of outside actors and geopolitcs, as well as nonviolence theory, practice, and conflict analysis and resolution theory. Students engaged with Syrian activists, Turkish officials and policy makers and other actors in Turkey. Check back for updates about a similar class in spring 2014.
Citizen Diplomacy as Conflict Resolution GMU/CRDC Syria Class
In March of 2009 and 2011, CRDC Director Marc Gopin, led courses of graduate students on trips to Syria where they were joined by Syrian conflict resolution students from the Syrian International Academy. The course espoused the concept that an average citizen can engage diplomatically as a representative of a country or point of view. Alumnae have developed an intensive and extraordinary working social network of partnerships dedicated to small projects creation and mutual aid in the development of a social network for peace-building and other joint projects of positive social change.