The unique, 5-day course takes place from 8-12 April 2019 and provides participants with the opportunity to learn about multidisciplinary approaches to building trust in practical negotiating scenarios.

Our keynote speaker this year is Dr Gabrielle Rifkind, a group analyst, psychotherapist and specialist in conflict resolution. She is founder of the Middle East Policy Initiative Forum and Director of the Oxford Process, an independent preventive diplomacy initiative pioneered through her dialogue work with Oxford Research Group. She has facilitated a number of Track II roundtables in the Middle East on the Israel-Palestine conflict, as well as on the Iran conflict.

The course is aimed at students, researchers and practitioners interested in acquiring new skills and knowledge in the fields of trust-building, global cooperation, and conflict transformation. Delegates will gain practical insights into diplomacy, negotiation, and mediation at the international level.

A key feature of the programme is a two-day training course on ‘Practical Skills for Transformative Mediation’ led by Dr Joan McGregor, whose early experiences in apartheid South Africa in the 1950s shaped her career as a peace and conflict transformation practitioner. In 2016 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Birmingham in recognition of her fifty years of working in the field.

The week will culminate with a full-day Harvard Role Play on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, in which delegates will assume the identities of groups and individuals locked into a cycle of violent conflict to try and resolve ‘The Future of Hebron’.

The course fee is £400 (£300 for University of Birmingham students and alumni). For further information, and registration details, please visit the website: www.birmingham.ac.uk/iccs/training or email Indi Shambi at: iccstraining@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Note: The Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security (ICCS) was established at the University of Birmingham in 2012 to promote a multidisciplinary approach to address the security challenges that arise from global interconnectedness.