Marc Gopin

Marc Gopin
James H. Laue Professor of World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution & Director, Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution
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Ph.D., 1992, Brandeis University
Dept. of near Eastern and Judaic Studies Dissertation Topic: The Religious Ethics of Samuel David Luzzatto
M.A., 1988, Brandeis University
Dept. of near Eastern and Judaic Studies
B.A., 1979, Columbia College
Major: European Intellectual History

Biography

Marc Gopin is the James H. Laue Professor of Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, and the Director of the Center on Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.

Gopin has lectured on conflict resolution in Switzerland, Ireland, India, Italy, and Israel, as well as at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and numerous other academic institutions. Gopin has trained thousands of people worldwide in peacemaking strategies for complex conflicts in which religion and culture play a role. He conducts research on values dilemmas as they apply to international problems of globalization, clash of cultures, development, social justice and conflict.

Gopin has engaged in back channel diplomacy with religious, political and military figures on both sides of conflicts, especially in the Arab/Israeli conflict. He has appeared on numerous media outlets, including CNN, CNN International, Court TV, The Jim Lehrer News Hour, Israel Radio, National Public Radio, The Connection, Voice of America, and the national public radios of Sweden, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. He has been published in the International Herald Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and his work has been featured in news stories of the Times of London, the Times of India, Associated Press, and Newhouse News Service, regarding issues of conflict resolution, religion and violence.

Gopin’s research is found in numerous book chapters and journal articles,



C.V. / Resume: Download
Awards and Honors
Andrew Thomas Peacebuilder Award
Recipient of the 2008 Andrew Thomas Peace builder Award, New York State Dispute resolution Association (NYSDRA).
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Examines how world religions play a role in conflict and conflict resolution. Investigates how values, world view, and hermeneutics influence...
Explores major historical and contemporary positions on the intellectual, moral, and religious foundations for...
Introductory skill-building course integrating conflict theory and practice using reflective practitioner model. Students learn necessary skills...
Topics vary; they are announced each academic year.
In-depth field study of ongoing conflict situations, and design and delivery of intervention processes to manage or...
Analyzes ways world religions play role in conflicts, war, diplomacy, peace making, and conflict resolution. ...
Taken in last semester of master’s student course work. Assists in developing students’ own theories of conflict and conflict...
Examines selected topics relating to analysis or resolution of conflict. Topics vary but may include historical...
Covers conflict at macro level, introducing theories of international and global violence and conflict, drawing from...
Covers conflict at mezzo level, introducing theories of social harmony and conflict, drawing on sociology, social...
This course focuses on advanced consideration of CONF 101 topics, provides an introduction of the core notion of reflective practice, conflict...
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Title Published Date
September 29, 2016
Conflict can be a difficult concept to understand. You cannot just consider the logical reasons behind the confrontation. You must also understand the feelings and identity issues of the parties. Some people thrive on the toxic environment conflict creates, or...
Category: Book
2012
Peace between Arabs and Jews seems forever out of reach, both sides caught in a never-ending cycle of violence and revenge. But while treaties and other top-down solutions have had little lasting effect, peacemakers on the ground are creating real change-within...
Category: Book
May 08, 2012
Marc Gopin analyzes the transformation of personal discourses of people involved in peacemaking and peacebuilding activities. Through analysis of interviews it shows the ways that discourses of peace replace discourses of hatred and revenge through the formation...
Category: Book Chapter
December 10, 2011
Self-reflection is a major mechanism of learning from experience and an indispensable ingredient of self-development. In this chapter, it is shown how spiritual peacemakers, capitalizing on prosocial elements of their identity and tradition and...
Category: Book Chapter
2009
To Make the Earth Whole studies the art of citizen diplomacy process that can address clashes of religion and culture across regional lines even when traditional negotiations between governments can fail. Using a five year experiment in Syria as the central case...
Category: Book
May 19, 2009
Over the past 25 years I’ve developed relationships across the Middle East; in Syria, specifically, over the past five years. While I traveled as a peacemaker, to be cautious I would emphasize my role as a professor and only reveal my role as a rabbi when...
Category: Journal Article
September 23, 2004
Rabbi and international mediator Marc Gopin presents an 8-step process-based on great religious traditions, philosophy, and psychology-for healing even the most destructive, and seemingly intractable, conflicts.For more than 20 years Marc Gopin has sought to...
Category: Book
October 01, 2002
This volume follows closely on the heels of Gopin's first Oxford University Press book, Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence, and Peacemaking (2000), revisiting some of the themes covered there, but now focused on the three...
Category: Journal Article
April 11, 2002
The Intifada of 2000-2001 has demonstrated the end of an era of diplomacy in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The style of peacemaking of the Olso Accords has been called into question by the facts on the ground. Elite forms of peacemaking that do not embrace the basic...
Category: Book
October 01, 2001
There are a growing number of scholars and institution that recognize organized religion as a major factor in contemporary international conflicts. But recognition has yielded little regarding in-dept analysis of the nature religion role's in conflict, and it has...
Category: Journal Article
May 01, 2001
Forgiveness as a way of healing human relationships and solving human conflicts isa an age-old practice that appears in numerous religious traditions. There are problems, however, with defining what exactly this activity is or has been in these traditions, what...
Category: Book Chapter
July 2000
Recent years have seen a meteoric rise in the power and importance of organized religion in many parts of the world. At the same time, there has been a significant increase in violence perpetrated in the name of religion. While much has been written on the...
Category: Book
July 2000
An unprecedented level of paradoxical religious movement characterizes the contemporary era. On the one hand, there is a greater number of people than ever before who are expressing either a secular perspective on life or a view of their own religion that is...
Category: Book Chapter
January 06, 2000
One of the most difficult challenges of intervening in and attempting to resolve a conflict is facing the question: Is this intervention making society better or worse? Am I preventing the perpetuation of a struggle that should persist, because one side of this...
Category: Papers & Reports
January 01, 2000
Presents a curriculum for high school and beyond, and deals with the application of Jewish values to the international and domestic political agenda. It is the story of Jewish commitment to the well-being of fellow Jews and to social justice for all humanity.
Category: Book
January 01, 2000
Chapter IAlternative Global Futures In The Balance© Marc GopinAn unprecedented level of paradoxical religious movement characterizes the contemporary era. On the one hand, there is a greater number of people than ever before who are expressing either a...
Category: Book Chapter
January 01, 2000
Chapter IIBetween Religion And Conflict Resolution: Mapping A New Field Of Study© Marc GopinEvery major religion of the world has expressed at some point, through its leaders and thinkers, a commitment to the value of peace, both in classical texts and modern...
Category: Book Chapter
May 01, 1998
An Orthodox Embrace of Gentiles? Interfaith Tolerance in the Thought of S. D. Luzzatto and E. Benamozegh - Modern Judaism 18:2 Modern Judaism 18.2 (1998) 173-195 An Orthodox Embrace of Gentiles? Interfaith Tolerance in the Thought of S. D. Luzzatto and E....
Category: Journal Article
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Topics of Interest
Featured Content
Title Published Date
June 29, 2015
In recent years I have worked deeply on quiet conflict management interventions from Afghanistan to Iran, but mostly in
Category: Newspaper Article

February 2015
Marc Gopin is the Director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC), the James H.
Category: Television Appearances

March 13, 2015
Article excerpt featuring Dr. Gopin:"Audience members were encouraged to think about human nature in talks from
Category: Newspaper Article

December 23, 2014
There is no society that can survive without the rule of law, and the danger to the rule of law comes just as much
Category: Newspaper Article

November 11, 2014
We need an advanced league of nations to help the earth survive, and we need it now. We are only surviving on this
Category: Newspaper Article

November 11, 2014
THE PORTION OF HAYYEI SARAH: GENESIS 23-25:18This portion of Genesis is an end of life saga, but at the same time it is
Category: Newspaper Article

October 17, 2014
From Iraq and Syria to the Gulf, from Turkey to Yemen, the bewildering role of religious factions, parties and
Category: Newspaper Article

October 13, 2014
There’s more to peacebuilding than negotiating treaties and shaking hands, some George Mason University students
Category: Newspaper Article

October 07, 2014
History is indicating that freedom of religion is becoming one of the most important markers of progress for humanity
Category: Newspaper Article

September 17, 2014
JNS.org - “Visits of condolence is all we get from them. They squat at the Holocaust Memorial, they put on grave
Category: Newspaper Article

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Title Event Datesort icon
Dr. Gopin will discuss recent experiences that he and his Center have engaged in to forge alliances for peace among over 100 Afghan imams and twenty international Islamic scholars, a graduate class to Egypt that engaged hopeful Muslims and Christians in their struggle for peace and justice, as
May 15, 2012
Contemporary Muslim-Christian relations, globally as well as in the Middle East and in Egypt – the case study for this research – are influenced by a multitude of dynamic political, social, cultural and economic factors. Utilizing the Protracted Social Conflict theory as an overarching
April 19, 2012
Every person and every place are unique in their culture, and this uniqueness is one of the driving forces behind the global increase in tourism. In 2012, 1 billion tourists are expected to travel the world; that number has been consistently growing over the years and is forecasted continue
April 06, 2012
This dissertation is a contextual and discourse analysis of the processes that occur within interfaith dialogue, using a historical case study, with the goal of yielding insight into the dynamics of religious discourse in conflict settings and the processes of change within religious organizations
April 02, 2012
Come to an Open House with CRDC to hear about our summer courses that we will offer abroad this year!  You will get a chance to hear from students have gone on our trips and professors who will teach the courses.  We will also provide refreshments that will give you a taste of the regions
March 01, 2012
Under the supervision of the American Consulate General in Jerusalem, and with Ta’awan, A Palestinian Nonprofit OrganizationThe Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution “CRDC” at George Mason University is sponsoring a discussion on the Palestinian statehood
October 25, 2011
JOIN US FOR:“AN EVENING WITH CRDC” Come learn about our Center and the Overseas Classes that we offer from the faculty that lead the trips!  We will be hearing from Dr. Marc Gopin and Dr. Leslie Dwyer about the trips that they lead overseas!  We will also hear from students
September 22, 2011
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube may not be the reason for the wave of democratic revolution sweeping across Northern Africa and the Middle East, but it is certainly the platform for giving voice to a previously unheard public outcry. As part of International Week, the George
April 11, 2011
ICAR PhD student Cindy Mazur will defend her doctoral dissertation entitled:"Seven Days in the Crescent City: Kartina's Handlers, Crisist Discourse, and Story Lines." Abstract:
March 30, 2011
Dr. Kreisberg will examine Barack Obama administration’s mediation efforts in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from a constructive conflict approach,
March 05, 2010
Title Event Datesort icon
Dr. Alma Abdul-Hadi Jadallah, president and managing director of Kommon Denominator, Inc., and Dr. Marc Gopin, Director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, are the first two “Frontiers in Peacebuilding” speakers. The lectures
May 09, 2016
Webinar: “Forging Alliances for Peace: Insights from a Conflict Resolution Scholar-Practitioner”For those interested in being physically present, the event will take place at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Truland Building, Room 555, 3330 Washington Blvd, Arlington, VA
May 06, 2013
We all know Marc as a noted scholar and spiritual peacemaker, but I bet most of you didn’t know about his other artistic sideline.Make sure you watch both videos!
October 16, 2009
Professor Marc Gopin gives a speech in the Assad Library in Damascus.Sponsored by The Syrian Canadian Women's Club In Cooperation with The Economical Orient Group Companies and the Syrian Public Relations Association. Marc Gopin is the James H. Laue Professor of Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict
January 06, 2005
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703-993-1308
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Campus Information
Location Name:Arlington
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3434 N. Washington Blvd., 5th Floor Arlington, VA 22201


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3351 N. Fairfax Drive MSN 4D3 Arlington, VA 22201


Fax Number: 703-993-1302
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Email: [email protected]
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