South West Asia Group

Dr. Christopher Mitchell is the Emeritus Professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University’s Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter School for Peace & Conflict Resolution. He has been involved as a consultant and facilitator in conflicts in Cyprus, Spain, Northern Ireland, the former Soviet Union [Moldova-Trans-Dniestria and Armenia-Azerbaijan], Africa [Liberia and the Horn of Africa] and Latin America. For the last decade he has been part of the Zones of Peace Working Group at the Carter School, and has spent over a decade researching local peace initiatives in countries such as Colombia and the Philippines. 

Dr. Tatsushi Arai is Associate Professor of Peace & Conflict Studies at Kent State University’s School of Peace & Conflict Studies. He previously worked as a U.N. Senior Mediation Adviser, a consultant to UNESCO and to the International Organization for Migration, and as a lecturer at the National University of Rwanda. His most recent contributions to peacebuilding in S.W.Asia include training Syrian and Lebanese government and civil society actors in conflict resolution, and supporting Turkish-led efforts to train diplomats  from member states of the Organisation for Islamic Co-operation in mediation skills. As a dialogue facilitator, mediator, trainer and peace researcher he has worked extensively in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Esra Dilek holds a Ph.D in Political Science from Bilkent University in Turkey. She is currently a post-doctoral Fulbright Fellow at the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. Dr. Dilek’s research focuses on “Track Two” processes as a means of conflict resolution, peace negotiations between states and armed groupsand on international and local norms of peacemaking. 

Dr. Tamra d'Estree is the Director of the Conflict Engagement and Resolution Initiative at the Joseph Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Her work focuses on identity dimensions of social conflict, inter-group relations, peace-building, processes of collaboration and conciliation, and evaluation frameworks. She facilitates conflict resolution training and capacity building in both US and international contexts, as well as intergroup problem-solving workshops.

Dr Phil Gamaghelyan is Assistant Professor at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego, where he teaches courses in conflict analysis & resolution, mediation, media, nationalism & conflict and program design, monitoring & evaluation. He is also a scholar-practitioner, the director of programs at the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation and managing editor of the Caucasus Edition; Journal of Conflict Transformation. Gamaghelyan works primarily in the post-Soviet states, engaging policy-makers, journalists, educators and other discourse creating professionals.

Dr. Gul Mescioglu Gur is a professorial lecturer at American University’s School of International Service, where she teaches courses on identity, inter-group conflict, international peace and security, peacebuilding and intercultural communication. Her research focuses on identity conflicts, history and memory politics and minorities. She is also working on a major study of negotiation processes in the SW Asia region.

Dr. Anna Ohanyan is the Richard B.Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Political Science  at Stonehill College and a Senior Scholar on the Russia and Eurasia Program at  the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  She has twice been a Fulbright Scholar. Dr. Ohanyan has written extensively on Eurasia and the Middle East, focusing her work on regional dimensions of armed conflicts, as well as on regional approaches to security and conflict management.

Mr.Yerevan Saeed has a masters’ degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and is a political analyst who writes on political, security and energy issues. He is a Research Associate at the Middle East Research Institute, and has worked and written for the BBC, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Boston Globe. He is also currently a doctoral candidate at the Carter School at GMU, working on problems of negotiation and conflict resolution.

Dr. Susan Allen is the Director of the Center for Peacemaking Practice, the Jimmy & Rosalynn L. Carter School for Peace & Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. She has most recently been involved in peacebuilding efforts in the South Caucasus. 

Dr. Mark Farr is the Director of the Sustained Dialogue Institute in Washington DC, carrying on the pioneering work of Dr. Hal H. Saunders, including being centrally involved in the Dartmouth Conference and numerous other international dialogues.

Dr. Hrach Gregorian is Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer and Administrative Director, Graduate Programs in Ethics, Human Rights, International Communication, Peace and Conflict Resolution at the School of International Service, American University. He heads the Institute of World Affairs, and is a member of the graduate faculty at Royal Roads University in Victoria, Canada. He has decades of experience in peacebuilding, having worked in some thirty conflict zones. He served as one of the founding program directors of the United States Institute for Peace and is a co-founder of the Alliance for Peacebuilding.

Dr. Joyce Neu is Founder and Senior Associate of the NGO, Facilitating Peace. She was the first team leader of the U.N.’s Standby Team of Mediation Experts deployed to assist the Secretary General’s Special Envoys in conflicts afflicting many countries in Africa and elsewhere. Before that, she was the first Director of the Program on Peace and Justice at the Joan Kroc School of the University of San Diego, and Senior Associate Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at The Carter Center in Atlanta, advising former President Jimmy Carter on conflicts in Albania, the CAR, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Mali, Uganda and Sudan. 

Dr Alpaslan Özerdem is the Dean of the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter School for Peace & Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. Prior to this, he was Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at Coventry University in the United Kingdom and co-director and founder of Coventry’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations. He has researched, written and published extensively on topics such as conflict resolution, peacebuilding  and post-conflict reconstruction in many countries, including Afghanistan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Tajikistan and Turkey. 

Dr. Daniel Rothbart, is professor of conflict analysis & resolution at the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter School for Peace & Conflict Resolution and is the Co-Director of the Program for the Prevention of Mass Violence there. He received his Ph.D in philosophy from Washington University, St. Louis and has held visiting research positions at Linacre College, Oxford, the University of Cambridge and Dartmouth College. He specializes in the prevention of mass violence, ethnic conflicts, and the ethics of conflict resolution.

Dr. Kerim Yildiz is an expert on peacebuilding, human rights law and minority rights. He was the co-founder of the Kurdish Human Rights project and is now the CEO of the Democratic Progress Institute in London. He has published extensively on human rights issues and been awarded numerous prizes for his work on human rights, including the 2011 Gruber Prize for Justice.

Friday, April 21, 2017
Venue: Resolve Center, Washington, D.C.

For more than four decades Turkey has been grappling with the destructive effects of the Kurdish conflict which has resulted in over 40,000 deaths during that time. Three previous peace initiatives have failed due to, among other factors, challenges around miscommunication and the lack of a responsive process design. In the aftermath of the April 16th referendum over a transition to a Presidential system – a process that has further polarized the Turkish society –our panel of experts explored the long term prospects for peace-building in Turkey.

Saturday, September 16, 2017
Venue: School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, GMU.

Intersecting conflicts across the Middle East pose significant risks to Turkey’s peace and security. ISIS in particular has spawned unprecedented terrorism, chaos and a refugee crisis from the Syrian civil war.  These significant events changed the dynamics of the Kurdish issue at both the regional and national level. Please join us to explore Turkey’s approach to domestic and regional conflicts in the Middle East.  Is Turkey helping to foster peaceful outcomes in the community conflicts inflamed by religious, ethnic and ideological divisions in the neighboring countries or Turkey entrapped in these conflicts? Does Turkey use effective strategies to undermine the lure of extremism or struggle with its own security concerns?

Date; 8^th December 2017
Venue: George Washington University, Washington D.C.

The deterioration of relations between the Iraqi Government in Baghdad and the KRG, symbolised by the Iraqi military’s re-possession of Kirkut seem to have opened in whole new chapter, not merely in the relations between Arabs and Kurds in Iraq itself but also throughout the region, and not least for the situation in Turkey. The panel will discuss the implications of the latest events and will take questions about possible future scenarios.

February 22, 2018
Venue: School for Conflict Analysis & Resolution, GMU.

Two experienced practitioners of “Track Two” processes look back on the series of informal, problem solving meetings in the late 1990s involving unofficial representatives of the Turkish and Kurdish communities from within the Turkish Republic. Could such an initiatives help in the present environment?

Friday, September  24, 2021
Venue: Center for Peacemaking Practice, GMU

Recently, new forms of peacemaking, very different from the “Liberal Peace” model, have emerged in the S.W. Asia region and elsewhere [“authoritarian”, “imposed” and victors’ peace]. SWAG members present examples of such alternative models and discuss whether these “illiberal” processes are successful in creating durable solutions to intractable conflicts, and what prospects they have for achieving long term reconciliation. Contributors:  Dr. Anna Ohanyan, Dr, Tatsui Arai, Dr. Esra Dilek, Dr. Phil Gamaghelyan & Dr. Chris Mitchell.

• This Panel was part of the Carter School’s Fall 2021 Peace Week.

Principal researchers: Dr. Chris Mitchell and Dr. Gul Mescioglu

This research project focuses on the various strategies and tactics open to adversaries at different stages of a negotiation process in situations of major “power imbalance”, as when governments negotiate with insurgents or majorities with minority communities. A major theme is how to overcome the inevitable mismatch between the very different agendas that both sides bring to the initial stages of a peace process.

Many SWAG members are involved in a program of dialogues and discussions between adversary parties in a number of on-going conflicts in the region. The model that is usually employed involves the “sustained dialogue” [SD] approach developed by Dr. Hal Saunders from  - among others - the Dartmouth Conference and his own Tajikistan Dialogue, which involves a core group of participants from all sides of a conflict over a time period which can last a number of years.[A recent example was a series of meetings between 2012 and 2014 focused on the continuing conflict in Cyprus  and conducted by facilitators from George Mason, American and Portland State Universities.] The current set of initiatives in the SD Program are at various stages of development and are usually conducted confidentially.

Principal Researchers: Dr. Phil Gamaghelyan, Dr. Anna Ohanyan, Dr. Esra Dilek, and Dr. Tats Arai.

Of late, examples of “authoritarian” or even “victors” peace have proliferated through conflict                afflicted regions These cases – Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Rwanda - have offered alternative models to the “liberal peace” [elections plus market economy] models that have tended to dominate at least western thinking and practice about how to bring peace and stability to strife torn countries. This project seeks to understand the thinking that underpins this revival of what clearly involves a coercive peace process, to compare examples of “illiberal” peace, and to assess the durability of imposed solutions for managing intractable conflicts. 

The team is currently working on a thematic issue of the quarterly journal, International Negotiation, which will explore the various forms “illiberal” peace has taken in the S.W. Asia region, and how national and grassroots peacebuilders might need to adapt their practices to play useful peace promoting roles in the future. The issue will be edited by Dr. Susan Allen, and contain case studies of Cyprus, Turkey-Armenia and Georgia-South Ossetia