Latest news and events

‘Terrorism’ in Middle Eastern Journalism

How are the phenomena labeled in the West as ‘terrorism’ defined and debated in local media outlets in Afghanistan, Iran, Middle East and North Africa?

Speaker:
Nushin Arbabzadah

Nushin Arbabzadah is a lecturer in International Area Studies at the UCLA International Institute and a Research Scholar at the Center for the Study of Women, also at UCLA. A former BBC journalist, she is the author of several books including Afghan Rumour Bazaar (Hurst Publishers, 2013).

In it, she reveals the everyday absurdities of lives framed against the backdrop of a savage war. Among the individuals, fables and dilemmas are ‘Why are Imams Telling Us About Nail Polish?’, ‘Afghanistan’s Jewish Heritage’, ‘The Resurgence of Afghanistan's Spiritual Bazaar’, and Malalai of Maiwand, who turned her headscarf
into a banner and led a successful rebellion against the British.

Mackie Building Rm 107, Weds March 27, 12.30 - 2.00 pm

For more information: arts.cpacs@usyd.edu.au

For further details and to view the poster, please click here

Ten years to the day since the invasion of Iraq began......

What did the anti-war protests achieve?

Donna Mulhearn, Peace activist and Human Shield, just returned from latest visit to Iraq.
Associate Professor Jake Lynch, Director, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney.

Also featuring: World premiere of

Lion Hearts

A short film by Nuts and Balts Media, reflecting with Australian peace activists from 2003.

New Law Building LT 024, Weds March 20, 5.00 - 6.30 pm

For more information: arts.cpacs@usyd.edu.au

For further details and to view the poster, please click here

"The Forgotten Palestinians" with Professor Ilan Pappe

Professor Ilan Pappe,
Director of Middle East Studies, University of Exeter

Sunday September 16th @ 4:00pm,

Eastern Avenue Auditorium,
University of Sydney

Celebrated Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe whose landmark publication, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” documented the planned removal of 700,000 Palestinians from their lands in 1948, has also written of “The Forgotten Palestinians”, those who still live within Israel’s borders.

This is the first event of Professor Pappe’s 2012 Australian lecture tour.

It is hosted by the Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney with the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Leichhardt Friends of Hebron.

Professor Pappe is in Australia as the guest of AFOPA to deliver the annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture at the University of Adelaide.

New Media, New Journalism: Challenges and Opportunities

When:13 September 2012

Where:Senate Room, Quadrangle, University of Sydney

About the Speakers:
(in order of appearance)

Professor Robert A Hackett is Professor of Communication at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver; co-director of NewsWatch Canada, and co-founder of the (Canadian) Campaign for Democratic Media. His recent works include Remaking media: the struggle to democratise public communication. Prof Hackett serves on the editorial boards of Journalism Studies and four other
journals in the field.
Dr Penny O’Donnell is Senior Lecturer in International Media and Journalism at the University of Sydney. Her most recent publication, Journalism at the Speed of Bytes (2012), co-authored with David McKnight (UNSW) and Jonathan Este (Walkley Foundation), examines the future of Australian newspapers.
Dr Alana Mann is a Lecturer in the Media and Communications Department at the University of Sydney. Her PhD Framing Food Sovereignty: A Study of Social Movement Communication was completed in 2011. Her current research focuses on non-state actor engagement in international food policy networks.
Professor Gerard Goggin chairs the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. His books include New Technologies and the Media (2012), Mobile Technology and Place (2012), Global Mobile Media (2011), and Cell Phone Culture (2006).
Associate Professor Jake Lynch is Director of CPACS and Secretary General of IPRA. He is the most published and frequently cited author in Peace Journalism.
Professor Wendy Bacon is a journalist and media researcher with the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism at UTS; a Pacific Media Centre at the Auckland University of Technology board member and a contributing editor to New Matilda and Pacific Journalism Review.
Professor John Keane is Director of the newly created Institute for Democracy and Human Rights at the University of Sydney. He is the author of a full-scale history of democracy, The Life and Death of Democracy (2009) and (forthcoming) Democracy in the Age of Media Decadence.

Contact arts.cpacs@sydney.edu.au for more information

Click here to download the brochure.

How safe is your future? The urgent need to take 2,000 nuclear weapons off high alert

Colonel Valery Yarynich, (ret.)
30-year veteran, Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces

Colonel Valery helped to design and bring into operation the 'Perimitr' or 'Dead Hand' 'doomsday machine'.

Now he’s part of the worldwide campaign to lift a threat held over from the Cold War, which sees 2,000 nuclear weapons still on ‘high alert’, ready to launch within minutes.

This keeps us in peril of a nuclear conflagration being triggered by human or system error. Colonel Valery has demonstrated through computer modelling of 100 possible nuclear war scenarios that ‘de-alerted’ weapons are safer than those kept on high alert.

Seminar Room 030, New Law School Building,
Wednesday 8 August, 4.00 – 6.00 pm

More information: arts.cpacs@sydney.edu.au 9351 7686

Event marks the launch of CPACS’ new Human Survival Project

Over here: US Marines – and what else?

‘The quiet but extraordinary growth in Australia-US military and intelligence cooperation in the last decade’

An event in the ongoing collaboration between the Sydney Peace Foundation and Medical Association for the Prevention of War, equipping the Australian community to resist militarism.

Speakers

Professor Richard Tanter: Director of the Nautilus Institute and expert observer of the new ‘joint facilities’ – of which the ‘permanent rotation’ of US Marines, at Darwin’s Robertson Barracks, is just the most visible.

Associate Professor Jake Lynch: Director, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, and Executive Council member of the Sydney Peace Foundation

Mackie Building Room 114, Thurs July 26, 6.00 - 7.30 pm

Followed by refreshments in CPACS Gallery. For more information: peace.foundation@sydney.edu.au

Is Democratic Global Governance Possible?: A Symposium

CPACS, World Citizens Association (Australia) and Institute for Global Peace and Sustainable Governance invite you to the symposium "Is Democratic Global Governance Possible?” The symposium includes presentations by six speakers and panel discussions. Our feature speaker is Senator Bob Brown.

Date: June 15, 2012
Time: 8.45am -1.00pm
Venue: Old Geology lecture Theater, Edgeworth David Building, University of Sydney

For further details and to view the poster, please Click here
For the program, please Click here

Forming a Culture of Peace: A book launch

Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies will be hosting a book launch for the book Forming a Culture of Peace: Reframing Narratives of Intergroup Relations, Equity and Justice. The book features chapters by CPACS alumni Rachael Hart and Violet Rish.

Date: June 12, 2012
Time: 6.00 - 7.30 pm
Venue: Room 107, Mackie Building, University of Sydney

For a flyer Click here

UNRWA Commissioner General in a Public Talk at CPACS

CPACS and Sydney Peace Foundation will be hosting a public meeting with UNRWA Commissioner General Filippo Grandi. The meeting will address the role of UNRWA in relation to providing services to Palestine refugees, with time for questions.

Date: May 29, 2012
Time: 6.00 - 7.30 pm
Venue: Room 107, Mackie Building, Arundel St, University of Sydney

All welcome!

The United Nations Security Council: Its Veto Power and Its Reform

CPACS has recently published its first working paper for 2012 entitled “The United Nations Security Council: Its Veto Power and Its Reform” by Sahar Okhovat. The paper was jointly published by CPACS and Major Issues and Theology Foundation.

Please chick here for full text.

Kony 2012: Beyond the Hype

Thursday 22 March 2012
4 – 6 pm
Room 275, Carslaw Building, University of Sydney

“The media have become the social space where power is decided.”
- Manuel Castells

Speakers: Professor Robert Cumming (Public Health) & Dr Wendy Lambourne (CPACS), both recently returned from Northern Uganda

Panelists: Dr Richard Okello (UNSW), Atem Atem (ANU)
James Tonny Dhizaala (USYD), and others

Admission is free, all welcome, please spread the word!

For more information email arts.cpacs@sydney.edu.au or robert.cumming@sydney.edu.au
or call the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (02) 9351 7686

Daring to Trust: Making Friends against the Odds in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and the Palestinian - Jewish Dialogue Group invites you for the conversation on community based peace building. Join us to hear from our distinguished speakers Abe Quadan, Nayef Hajaj, Lyndall Katz and Donna Jacobs Sife.

Date: March 29, 2012
Time: 5.45 for 6 - 8 pm
Venue: Education Lecture Theatre Room 424, Education Building, Manning Road, University of Sydney

Admission is free, gold coin donations appreciated

For more information, contact Abe 0412460373, abeq13@yahoo.com.au or Donna 0417241418, donnajsife@gmail.com

For Event Flyer Click here

Negotiation as a means of Peace and Conflict Resolution The Moroccan Experience

CPACS is hosting a talk by the Ambassador to Australia of the Kingdom of Morocco, His Excellency Mohamed Mael-Ainin. This event is the latest in an occasional series of events the Centre has organised, in pursuit of our interest in the issues of Peace with Justice involved in the Western Sahara conflict, which the Ambassador plans to address as part of his remarks.

Date: Thursday March 15th, 2012
Time: 6:00 – 7:30pm
Place: Education Lecture Theatre 351, University of Sydney

For the invitation letter and the abstract sent by the embassy for the event click here

Statebuilding and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan: With Astri Suhrke

Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) is hosting writer Astri Suhrke in an event to discuss her book When More is Less: The International Project on Afghanistan, which critically analyses the statebuilding-peacebuilding project there.

Western-led efforts to establish a post-Taliban order in Afghanistan are in serious jeopardy. Beginning with the dynamics of Western intervention and its parallel peacebuilding mission, Astri Suhrke examines the forces that have shaped this grand international project and the apparent systemic bias toward deeper and broader inter¬national involvement.

Date: Tuesday March 13, 2012
Time: 12.30-2.00 pm
Place: Quad Senate Room, University of Sydney

For event flyer click here
For publishers flyer about the book click here

Academic and Civil Society Seminar on “Power and Dynamics of Civil Resistance”

Do you want to:

Learn more about people power?

Understand the interplay between strategies, tactics and mobilization for effective nonviolent struggle?

Interact with experts on the subject?

Then you should apply for the

Academic and Civil Society Seminar on “Power and Dynamics of Civil Resistance”

Organized by:

The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (Washington, DC) and
The Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney

February 20 -22, 2012, 9-5:40 p.m. / University of Sydney, rooms to be announced

Application process: Interested applicants should send their curriculum vitae and write a one-page motivation letter explaining: why they are interested in the seminar; how it will build on or enhance their current academic or work-related projects; and how they think the seminar content will be relevant to their previous and future professional pursuits. Applicants must also draft a statement affirming their intent to attend all three days of the seminar.

Please send applications by Wednesday, February 10 to Jake Fitzpatrick at ICNC:
jfitzpatrick@nonviolent-conflict.org

For questions about the seminar and application process, please contact: jfitzpatrick@nonviolent-conflict.org.

For local questions, such as the venue and timing, please contact: arts.cpacs@usyd.edu.au or call:
9351-7686.

For more details

NEW BOOK: Comprehending West Papua

This new book from the West Papua Project is an edited volume of the collection of papers presented at the February 2011 University of Sydney conference "Comprehending West Papua". It represents the views of the world's leading scholars and activists currently working on understanding the conflict in West Papua.

Click to download Comprehending West Papua.

Click to download the Appendix of Images.

Time for action on Sri Lanka war crimes

Where journalism led, will governments follow?

Shelves are groaning with reports by human rights monitors, amassing evidence of atrocities in Sri Lanka’s civil war. Audiences in Australia – and many other countries – have seen the documentary, made by the UK’s Channel Four TV, with its compelling visual material. And yet governments – and international bodies such as the UN and the Commonwealth – hold back from decisive action. What can Australia do? What can journalists do? What can YOU do?

Senator Lee Rhiannon, NSW Greens
Meena Krishnamurthy, eyewitness to massacre (spoke on ABC 7.30)
Professor Wendy Bacon, Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (UTS)
Brami Jegan, Sri Lanka Human Rights Project, CPACS
Chair: Associate Professor Jake Lynch, CPACS

New Law Seminar Room 030, University of Sydney,

Thursday 27 October, 6.00-7.30 pm

More information: arts.cpacs@sydney.edu.au 9351 7686

Book Launch

Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS)
Cordially invites you for the book launch of two books

Wednesday 28 September 2011
12.30-1.30 pm
Room 107, Mackie Building

Surviving Care: Achieving Justice and Healing for the Forgotten Australians, Bond University Press. Dr Richard Hil and Dr Elizabeth Branigan (editors)

Surviving Care seeks to make a significant contribution to a growing body of work that charts what has happened to former care residents referred to as the Forgotten Australians. It also examines what governments, churches and non-government organisations have done to address the challenges that face this now aging population. While many former residents have gone on to lead productive and fulfilled lives many others have had the opposite experience. Yet what all these people share in common is that they spent time in institutions away from their families, often in very difficult circumstances. Despite a growing number of research studies, reports and autobiographies, we still know remarkably little about the full spectrum of experiences of the Forgotten Australians and the challenges that now face them. The book demonstrates not only that this population was subjected to prolonged structural violence but that it has yet to fully achieve the goals of justice and healing.

Recipes for Survival: Stories of Hope and Healing by Survivors of the State ‘Care’ System in Australia, People’s Voice Publishing. Dr Dee Michell and Priscilla Taylor (editors)

There were an estimated 500,000 Australians during the 20th century who experienced out-of-home ‘care’. They were raised in orphanages, foster families and other types of institutional care. Known collectively as Forgotten Australians, many of their stories have now been told by individuals writing books and posting stories on the internet, by having their stories published in the CLAN newsletter, or by participating in the Forgotten Australians Oral History Project.

This volume tells stories through the lenses of survival and healing. Marjorie Malkog’s beautiful needlework, on the front cover, is a testament to her finding a way to create beauty no matter what the circumstances of her life. The collection continues with 14 other Forgotten Australians recounting their stories and reflecting on the pain of the past and the long journey to healing and happiness. Concluding the collection is the only contributor who is not a Forgotten Australia, but a social worker who has seen many a young person leave ‘care’ and reflects on the practical support they need, and on the learning from them that can be done if only those in authority take the time to listen.

Afghanistan ten years on: time to go? By peace campaigner and former MP, Malalai Joya

Ten years on, there’s no end in sight to the deployment of Australian troops to Afghanistan. For all their courage, commitment and hard work, are they, in overall terms, doing any good?

Malalai Joya is a peace, democracy, women’s rights and development activist, writer and a former MP from Afghanistan. She secretly conducted girl’s classes during the Taliban regime, then served in the National Assembly of Afghanistan from 2005 until early 2007, when she was dismissed for publicly denouncing the presence of warlords and war criminals in the Afghan parliament. She is an outspoken critic of the Karzai administration and the US-led NATO occupation. She has been called the bravest woman in Afghanistan.

Admission free; you will be invited to donate by becoming a Friend of the Sydney Peace Foundation.

Old Geology Lecture Theatre, University of Sydney, Wednesday 7 September, 12.30-2.00 pm

More information: arts.cpacs@sydney.edu.au 9351 7686

Link to the video of her speech

Libya, Syria, Yemen: The Right to Intervene; The Responsibility to Protect?

CPACS Director, Associate Professor Jake Lynch, debates the Responsibility to Protect with Alistair Gee, Executive Director of Act for Peace

Contributions to public media by Associate Professor Jake Lynch, Director of CPACS

2011

2010

2009

December Open Democracy, ‘Sri Lanka: what happens next?’
December, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Agency and intervention’
November, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Back to basics for Palestinian struggle’
November, New Matilda, ‘Our foreign minister can’t handle the truth’
October, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Updates and Progress’
October, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Arguments against the war in Afghanistan: and a pathway to peace’
October, Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Politicide or politic: Gillard and the Gaza muzzle’
October, Crikey, ‘Time to stand up for human rights in Sri Lanka – at last’
September, PeaceWrites 2/2009, ‘A new cultural diversity policy for Australia’
September, New Matilda, ‘Do you ever feel like the walls are closing in’
September, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Who’s being naïve in Afghanistan’
September, New Matilda, ‘Next time, check the facts, Philip’
August, Pressenza international press agency, ‘What goes around, comes around’
August, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Peace journalism for journalists’
August, Pressenza international press agency, ‘Australia’s ABC attempts to justify rise above inflation of military spending’
July, short (seven-minute) film on Peace Convergence for Talisman Sabre ‘war games’
June, Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend book section, ‘Dark dawn’, Review of Plutonium: a history of the world’s most dangerous element, by Jeremy Bernstein and In mortal hands: a cautionary history of the nuclear age, by Stephanie Cooke
June, ABC Unleashed, ‘Up close and spineless’
June Sydney Morning Herald, ‘How America is constantly at war’
June, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘More on the boycott’
May, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Outrage or opposition?’
May, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Civilian populations’
May, Ramallah Online, ‘Why I’m joining the academic boycott of Israel’
May, Online Opinion, ‘Papua’s Plight’
May, Online Opinion, ‘Sri Lanka: reliable accounts’
May, Online Opinion, ‘Humanitarian intervention’
April, PeaceWrites 1/2009, ‘The spread of peace journalism’
April, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘The many and the fugue’
April, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Women’s business?’
March, Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend book section, ‘Two views of the Middle East’, review of Innocent Abroad, by Martin Indyk and Arabian Plights, by Peter Rodgers
March, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘The end of neo-liberalism?’
March, TRANSCEND Media Service, Piercing the Carapace
February, Seikyo Shimbun, ‘Humanitarian competition – a guiding light for our times’
February, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Bringing it home’
February, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘A liberal democracy?’
February, Australian anti-bases campaign coalition, ‘How the special relationship works’
February TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Peace with Justice for Burma’
January, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Symptoms and causes’
January, TRANSCEND Media Service, ‘Operation cast lead: militarism against human rights and the rule of law’

2008

2007

CPACS’ outstanding research performance in 2010

HERDC (Higher Education Research Data Collection) report on research performance of the School of Social and Political Sciences reveals CPACS’ outstanding research performance for 2010.

The table below shows that CPACS contributed just under 30 points (14%) of the School total of 213. Which, given that CPACS is one of the smallest units within SSPS, with just three full-time academic staff, is a tribute to all concerned – including, notably, our learned and productive cast of Honorary Associates and Visiting Scholars.

These results testify to our continuing and successful engagement with scholarly communities both here in Australia and around the world. And they are an opportunity to remind ourselves of the rich and important work they represent.

Books published in 2010

Belinda Helmke, Under Attack: Challenges to the Rules Governing the International Use of Force (Ashgate Publications)
Erik Paul, Obstacles to Democratization in Southeast Asia: A Study of the Nation State, Regional and Global Order (Palgrave Macmillan)
Jake Lynch and Johan Galtung, Reporting Conflict: New Directions in Peace Journalism (University of Queensland Press)
Lynda Blanchard and Leah Chan (eds.), Ending War, Building Peace (Sydney University Press)
Michael Otterman and Richard Hil with Paul Wilson, Erasing Iraq (Pluto Press)
Otto Ondawame, ‘One People, One Soul:’ West Papuan Nationalism and the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (Crawford House Publishing).

HERDC Report of 2010 Publications (CPACS Contribution Only)

Surname	Forename	Number of Publications	Sum of Points*
Belinda	Helmke	1	5
Blanchard	Lynda-Ann	1	0.5
Hil	Richard	1	1.666667
Lambourne	Wendy	2	2
Lynch	Jake	7	6.938596
Ondawame	Otto	1	5
Otterman	Michael	1	1.666667
Paul	Erik	2	5
Phelps	Sandra	1	1
Ramesh	Sanjay	5	1
Total CPACS Contribution		22 (out of 318)	29.77193 (out of 212.772721)

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS): Speek by Jake Lynch

CPACS director Jake Lynch has given a speech on The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) camping at an event organized by Leichhardt Friends of Hebron on June 11, 2011.

To watch the speech, click here

ALL Guns Blazing? Detention, riots and government (mis) management

Date: Friday, 17 June 2011
Time: 12.30-2.00
Venue: Room 114, Mackie Building

admission by Gold Coin Donation to finance public advocacy by Australia’s only Peace Centre!

Speakers:
- Professor Linda Briskman, who was on Christmas Island during recent incidents there as part of her long-term research on the subject
- Lucy Fiske, a PhD candidate at CPACS completing her thesis on refugee resistance to detention, She has interviewed former detainees involved in earlier riots.

They will share eye-witness accounts of detention centre riots and the role played by the government and the media in this charged political environment.

view flyer

CAREER PATHS FOR PACS GRADUATES!

Date: Thursday 26 May 2011
Time: 4.30-6.00 pm
Venue: Mackie Seminar Room 114, followed by drinks and snacks in the Posters for Peace Gallery til 7 pm.
RSVP: by Wednesday 25 May to Wendy at wendy.lambourne@sydney.edu.au

What career options are available for graduates in Peace and Conflict Studies? How can I find a job if I don't have previous work experience? What opportunities are available for further training, internships and volunteering? Can I do a PhD? How easy is it to get a job with the UN? Can I get work as a peace journalist? How can I become a mediator, nonviolence practitioner or restorative justice convenor? What about community peacebuilding or human rights advocacy or working with refugees?

Come along and find out how other PACS graduates have done it, hear stories and share experiences, suggestions, tips and contacts with guest speakers and alumni intelligence gleaned from Facebook, PeaceWrites and Wendy's institutional memory of the past 10 years of CPACS graduates!

Please come along if you're an alumni wanting to share your experiences and learn from others, a student who is about to graduate or a new student deciding what subjects to take next semester.

What the **ck is going on?*

Are we in an era of war without end?
How can we get out of it?

Date: Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Time: 6.00-8.00 pm
Venue: Old Geology Lecture Theatre

Admission by Gold Coin Donation to finance public advocacy by Australia’s only Peace Centre!

The body of Osama bin Laden lies at the bottom of the sea. Bombers fly over Libya, while troops fire on demonstrators in Yemen and Bahrain, and Israel tries to starve the newly united Palestinians into submission. War intensifies in Afghanistan as Iran looms large in neoconservative cross-hairs and Iraq smoulders from the sociocide committed by the US, Australia and allies. But a new peace movement is emerging… Speakers:

- Michael Otterman, author, American Torture and Erasing Iraq: the Human Costs of Carnage;
- Antony Loewenstein, author, My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution;
- Associate Professor Jake Lynch, Director, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney.

View flyer

Latest issue of PeaceWrites

Issue 1/2011 of CPACS newsletter PeaceWrites features a articles covering a variety of issues on development, use of force for peace, media laws, and student experiences!

View current issue

Human Rights in Western Sahara with Aicha Dahane

Tuesday 17 May 2011, 1- 2.30pm
Education Seminar Room 432, Education Building

Aicha is a Saharawi woman and Human Rights Defender and the sister of prominent Saharawi human rights defender, Brahim Dahane, president of the ASVDH (Saharawi Association for Victims of Human Rights Violations by the Moroccan state). He was arrested and put in prison on 8 October 2009 as one of the “Casablanca 7” Human Rights Defenders arrested for travelling to the Saharawi refugee camps in south west Algeria.

Aicha is from the occupied areas. Because of her role as a Human Rights Defender for Western Sahara while a law student in Rabat and the involvement of her brother in political activism in El Aaiun (capital of occupied Western Sahara) the Moroccan regime exercised serious pressure on her, intimidation and harassment which led to Aicha seeking political asylum in the UK in 2002.

Aicha is in daily contact with her family living in occupied Western Sahara, a life she knows well and which she shared for 28 years. She is the international relations officer for the Forum Future for Saharawi Women.

Further information contact: Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney
Tel. 02 9351 7686 or email: arts_cpacs@sydney.edu.au

Japan in the World: Shidehara Kijūrō, Pacifism, and the Abolition of War

A Book Review
by Dr Erik Paul, Part-time lecturer and Vice-President of CPACS

Dr Erik Paul reviews the two volumes of Klaus Schlichtmann's Japan in the World: Shidehara Kijūrō, Pacifism, and the Abolition of War. The book review provides more than what is expected in a review. It provides a historical and cultural context, links the debate on pacifism to Japan's history and current role in international politics.

A shorter version of this review appears in issue 1/2011 of PeaceWrites. Here we make available the complete and informative review.

Mediation Theory and Practice 6- 10 June 2011

facilitated by Abe Quadan, Master of Dispute Resolution, Nationally Accredited Mediator and Trainer, Restorative Justice Practitioner and former Youth Justice Conference Convenor.

This course will focus on the theory and practical application of facilitation, communication and conflict resolution/mediation skills. You will learn about various models of mediation and will become skilled in the stages of mediation through role plays and simulation exercises.

Successful completion of the course will lead towards accreditation as a Nationally Accredited Mediator. We will provide you with details at the course about how to pursue national accreditation.

This 5-day course will provide you with:
 a structure for conducting mediations
 identify and utilise the skills of a mediator
 a framework on which to enhance and build further skills.

At the end of this course you should be able to plan and set up a mediation session and manage the various stages of the process competently. You will also be aware of the skills and strategies required for all stages of the process.

The course also provides participants with an excellent conceptual framework and general skills such as active listening, appropriate assertiveness, communication, impartiality, teamwork etc. which could be utilised at work and in their personal life.

COST: $ 1500.00 GST Inclusive

FURTHER INFORMATION AND REGISTRATIONS:

Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies
Mackie Building, KO1, University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Tel 9351 7686
Arts CPACS arts.cpacs@usyd.edu.au

Abe Quadan – 0412460373
abe@optionsmediation.com.au

New CPACS Prizes established

On 2nd December CPACS established 2 anuual prizes for outstanding students in the Master of Peace and Conflict Studies program. The prizes were named to honour the late Gordon Rodley and Cheryl Minks:

The Gordon Rodley Prize in Peace and Conflict Studies
Established in recognition of the contribution of Gordon Rodley to the creation of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies

To be awarded annually to the student showing the greatest proficiency in the Master of Peace and Conflict Studies

The Cheryl Minks Prize in Peace and Conflict Studies
Established in recognition of the contribution of Cherul Minks to the discipline of Peace and Conflict Studies

To be awarded annually to the student who submits the best Dissertation in the Master of Peace and Conflict Studies

CPACS is currently taking donations to support the financial component of the prizes. Contributions will be greatly appreciated and can be made by filling out the attached donation form and faxing or mailing it to the CPACS office. Donations are tax deductable.

Conference photos

Photos from the 1 day conference "What Works and What Doesn't? New Direction in Conflict Intervention" are now available on the events section of our website.
Photos from the 2 day conference "Iraq Never Again: Ending War, Building Peace" are now available on the events section of our website.

The University of Sydney - Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies