ICAR-OAS Summer Workshops Conflict Processes in Latin America and the Caribbean

Inequality,resource distribution, political disarray, class, poverty, protracted social conflict, structural violence—this is not a list of subjects for a lecture. It is the reality of the conflicts in Latin America and the Caribbean. The specifics of the resolution of those conflicts have become the projects that 14 Latin American and Caribbean academics and practitioners brought to the Institute in June 2008.For the sixth time, the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR), in partnership with the Organization of American States (OAS), held its summer workshop with scholars and professionals from all over Latin America and the Caribbean.

The strategic partnership between ICAR and the OAS has given the Institute a constant presence and made an impact in the region. Since 2000, ICAR students, alumni, and associates have worked with professors Christopher Mitchell and Wallace Warfield in organizing two-week events during the summer, in which 12 to 15 participants come to the Institute to share and learn about conflict resolution in their home countries. The participants are brought by the OAS who, for the sixth time, awarded ICAR with the project through its Professional Development Scholarship program.ICAR's team works on a volunteer basis with the certainty of an amazing learning experience that can only come from a room full of people who care about their field and have first-hand knowledge of their region.

Participants have now formed a network with over 400 members, keeping alive the spirit of the workshops and maintaining a website that enables the sharing of information about events, job offers, and the state of conflict analysis and resolution in Latin America and the Caribbean.We have explored different subjects each year such as deeply divided societies, media coverage of violent conflict, the environment, and the need to link theory and practice. With this wide variety interests, the workshop has become a window of opportunity for the participants to have new insights about conflict analysis and resolution. ICAR students have been offered a chance to present their work and create connections that have proved enriching and have further advanced the field of conflict resolution in this important region of the world.

The ICAR-OAS summer workshop has demonstrated that by working together as a community with shared knowledge and goals, we can make a difference while learning and giving students the opportunity to grow in their own practice as facilitators and conflict experts.