The Peace Frequency

In this episode, we talk with Sandra Melone, Executive Vice President of Search for Common Ground, about the importance of monitoring and evaluating peacebuilding programs. This includes discussion on transparency, self-deception, balancing evaluation needs of stakeholders and organizational ones, and working with external evaluators.

In this episode we speak with Grande Lum – Director of the Community Relations Service (CRS) at the United States Department of Justice. We speak about the origins and birth of CRS during the Civil Rights Movement, some of best mediator and conciliators he has worked with or observed, and how the professional and skill of mediation and negotiation has evolved over time.

This episode features Pamela Aall, senior advisor for conflict prevention and management at USIP, senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), and founding Provost of USIP’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. In this episode she addresses a wide variety of topics related to cross-cultural and multiparty negotiation, including negotiating techniques, regional cooperation in conflict management, cross-cultural communication, and women’s involvement in conflict resolution.

This episode features Jesse Pruett, a veteran of 20 years of military and government service. In this interview, Jesse Pruett shares his personal experiences with tactical negotiations, stalemates, and coordination with civilian/military bodies and interagency collaboration.

In this episode, we are joined by Colonel Steven Donaldson, Joint Provost Marshall for the Military District of Washington and Joint Forces Headquarters at Fort McNair. The interview explores Steven’s experiences with negotiation when confronted with strict hierarchies, stalemates, and counterparts without authority.

In this episode, we speak with Andrea Harrison who serves as deputy legal advisor of the Washington Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. She shares with us the role the ICRC plays in international conflict as while providing some legal frameworks and terminology to help us understand the world of international humanitarian law. Additionally, Andrea answers questions regarding negotiations including preparations, leverage and empathy towards your counterpart.

In this episode we talk with Dr. Anthony Wanis-St. John, Director of the MA International Peace and Conflict Resolution program at American University. Anthony discusses negotiation and its role as an integral component of conflict resolution. He shares many of the challenges, successes, and failures of his own personal experiences with negotiation, including the importance of culture and best practices for coaching mediators in negotiation.

In this episode we talk with DJ and producer of Jack Radio in Medellin, Colombia, Jeff Guerra. Exploring the idea that there are many ways to be a peacebuilder, we seek to answer questions such as: What do arts-based approaches to peacebuilding look like? How can music and culture provide alternatives to violence and help communities help reconstruct identities that have been shaped by violent conflict?

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, this special episode of the Peace Frequency is dedicated to the history, theory and practice of nonviolent action. What role is nonviolence playing in today’s conflict and what are some misperceptions? How have communities who are engaged in conflict, that are facing injustice, or are living under oppressive conditions, applying nonviolence in their struggles. What are specific ways to teach and train communities, particularly youth, to understand nonviolent struggle and wage it successfully?

In this episode, we explore the concept of restorative justice with Dominic Barter of Restorative Circles. How do systems and approaches to justice help or hinder the process of building peace? Is restorative justice an approach that can help heal the wounds that form as a result of conflict, be it personal, familial, regional or global?