The Sustained Dialogue Institute, founded by Harold H. Saunders and incorporated in 2002, is an independent tax-exempt 501 (c)(3) organization formed in collaboration with the Kettering Foundation. [1] The institute provides trainings, consulting, and technical support for the Sustained Dialogue process on campuses, workplaces, and communities around the globe. Sustained Dialogue is system for transforming conflictual or destructive relationships, and implementing long-term change, developed from Hal Saunders' experience facilitating peace processes in the Middle East as a United States diplomat. [2]
The Sustained Dialogue Institute houses the Sustained Dialogue System process and the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network.
The Sustained Dialogue Institute was led by Executive Director Amy Lazarus until 2012. Following the retirement of Hal Saunders, Reverend Mark Farr became president until 2022.
Sustained dialogue is a process for transforming deep-rooted human conflicts. [3] Former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Hal Saunders developed the process, which is rooted in his experience in facilitating peace processes, including the Camp David Accords and the Iran Hostage Crisis. During the Cold War, the Sustained Dialogue System served as the underlying philosophy of the Dartmouth Conferences, the longest-running citizen dialogue between U.S. and Russian (formerly Soviet) citizens. The Dartmouth Conference worked to open channels to transmit and clarify perspectives when communication among Russian (formerly Soviet) and United States officials broke down. [4]
The Sustained Dialogue Campus Network (SDCN), a project of the Sustained Dialogue Institute founded in 2003, is a training and consulting hub for the international network of campuses running Sustained Dialogues. SDCN began during Saunders' time on the board of trustees at Princeton University. Saunders and Princeton University undergraduates David Tukey and Teddy Nemeroff worked together to apply the Sustained Dialogue methodology to addressing race-based conflicts at Princeton, and their collaboration spread to the University of Virginia, and developed into the Campus Network. [5]
Housed by the Sustained Dialogue Institute, SDCN involves students from dozens of campuses in twelve countries who work to improve intergroup relations and campus climate. The focus of any Sustained Dialogue program is relationship building across lines of difference and facilitating honest dialogue between students, faculty, staff, and administrators. [6] [7] SDCN trains campus communities in facilitation and Sustained Dialogue moderation, as well as inclusive leadership skills and conflict resolution. [8] Active programs send students to annual dialogue conferences at local chapters or at SDCN headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Each year, the Sustained Dialogue Institute awards a person whose life has "been powerfully marked by the principles and values of Sustained Dialogue." In addition to the primary awardee, SDI selects at least two members of the Sustained Dialogue Campus network to receive the award. [10]
Year | Primary Awardee | SDCN Awardees |
---|---|---|
2016 | Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate Supreme Court Justice | Student Don Williams, Alum Breanna Swims |
2015 | Senator George J. Mitchell, Evolent Health | Brittany Chung (student), Lane McLelland (advisor), Taylor Sawyer (alumn) |
2014 | Rep. John Lewis, Georgia Congressman & Michele Norris, NPR radio journalist | Lital Firestone (student, Jazzy Johnson (student), Aaron Jenkins (community member) |
A study published by the Journal of Peace Research showed that Sustained Dialogue had a positive effect on decreasing mistrust and increasing the level of trust between people of different ethnic origins. However, participation in the dialogue program increased the sense of importance of ethnic identities as well as the perception of being ethnically discriminated and had no significant effect on game behavior. [11]
The University for Peace (UPEACE) is an international university and intergovernmental organization established as a treaty organisation by the United Nations General Assembly in 1980. The university offers postgraduate, doctoral, and executive programmes related to the study of peace and conflict, environment and development, and international law.
Walter Hubert Annenberg was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and diplomat. Annenberg owned and operated Triangle Publications, which included ownership of The Philadelphia Inquirer, TV Guide, the Daily Racing Form and Seventeen magazine. He was appointed by President Richard Nixon as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he served from 1969 to 1974.
Track II diplomacy is the practice of non-state actors using conflict resolution tactics to "[lower] the anger or tension or fear that exists" between conflicting groups.
Frederick "Rick" Barton is a United States diplomat, educator, and author. He served as the founding Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the U.S. Department of State until September 2014. Currently a lecturer at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs, he is also the co-director of the university's Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative (SINSI) with his wife, Kit Lunney.
Oxford Research Group (ORG) was a London-based charity and think tank in Cambridge Heath, London, UK working on peace, security and justice issues. Its research and dialogue activities were mainly focused on the Middle East, North and West Africa, as well as influencing UK and international security policy.
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The Inter-Tajik Dialogue was an effort of Track II diplomacy which brought together factions of the Tajik Civil War. The Inter-Tajik Dialogue developed out of former diplomat Hal Saunders' work with the Dartmouth Conference Regional Conflicts Task Force (RCTF). In 1992 the RCTF decided to apply the process of Sustained Dialogue they had learned in the Dartmouth Conference to aid the former-Soviet republic through citizen dialogues.
The Dartmouth Conference is the longest continuous bilateral dialogue between American and Soviet representatives. The first Dartmouth Conference took place at Dartmouth College in 1961. Subsequent conferences were held through 1990. They were revived in 2014 and continue today. Task forces begun under the auspices of the main conference continued to work after the main conference stopped. The Regional Conflicts Task Force extended the sustained dialogue model, based on the Dartmouth experience, to conflicts in Tajikistan and Nagorno-Karabakh. Dartmouth inspired a number of other dialogues in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere, many of them under the auspices of the Sustained Dialogue Institute and the Kettering Foundation.
Harold Henry Saunders served as the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research between 1975 and 1978 and United States Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs between 1978 and 1981. Saunders was a key participant in the Camp David Accords, helped negotiate the Iran Hostage Crisis, and developed the sustained dialogue model for resolving conflicts Saunders later launched the Sustained Dialogue Institute, which uses the sustained dialogue model to address racial and other issues in the United States and abroad.
swisspeace - the Swiss Peace Foundation is a practice and research institute located in Basel, Switzerland promoting effective peacebuilding. Partnerships with local and international actors form the basis of its work. Together with its partner organizations, swisspeace manages strategies and interventions to reduce violence and promote peace in conflict-affected contexts.
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The Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group is a non-violent conflict resolution group established in 1992 in San Mateo, California. Its first meeting was held in a local neighborhood residence. As of September 2019, the group remained active and continued to meet monthly in members' homes. The one-to-one, face-to-face method of conflict resolution, modeled by this dialogue group, was increasingly looked to globally by educators, researchers, journalists, activists, trainers, and strategists including the U.S. Department of State, which distributes the dialogue group's instructive films in Africa.
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