Mediation Program
Established in 2018, the Kroc Institute's Mediation Program flourished this past year with a multitude of events, workshops, publications, and partnerships. All of its activities showcased the program’s expertise in mediation research, teaching, training, policy, and practice on local, national, and international levels.
The Mediation Program’s relationship with the Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO), in Norway, has become a full-fledged academic partnership. Laurie Nathan, director of the Mediation Program, spent the fall 2022 semester on leave at PRIO, where he focused on his new book on mediation mandates and collaborated on the development of a new research project on mediation of regionalized intra-state conflicts.
At the local level, the Mediation Program deepened its relationship with the City of South Bend Division of Community Initiatives in March 2023, when Nathan led a three-day mediation training for community activists. This was followed by a crisis intervention training for city personnel involved in violence prevention in May 2023.
The annual PRIO-Kroc Institute Ph.D. course, “International Mediation: Theory, Cases and Skills,” took place again in June 2023, in Oslo. Nathan taught this five-day residential course, which covered academic, policy, and practitioner perspectives and enrolled four Ph.D. students, among others. The course is recognized in the European university system of accreditation and is also recognized by the University of Notre Dame as a three-credit doctoral course.
Nathan and Ajay Sethi, senior ceasefire advisor in the Mediation Support Unit of the United Nations (UN), co-authored an article published in International Studies Review on "Reducing and Managing Risk: The Dimensions of Strong Ceasefires in Intra-State Conflict.” They presented the article at a seminar hosted by the UN in New York, with Nathan presenting it at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo.
Different locations in Europe tapped the expertise of the Mediation Program in 2022-23. Nathan was the lead designer and trainer for the prestigious UN High Level Mediation Course, which takes place annually in Montreux, Switzerland. The course is hosted by the UN Mediation Support Unit in partnership with the government of Switzerland, and caters to senior UN officials, including heads of mission and special representatives of the UN secretary-general.
He also served as a senior mediation coach to the European External Action Service and as a senior mediation adviser to the governments of Switzerland, Germany, and Kosovo. The Mediation Program houses the Afghanistan Program for Peace and Development, and also continues to house Accomplice, a student-led project whose mission is to support and sustain decolonial efforts at Notre Dame.