Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

On February 24, the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution hosted “One Year After: Ukraine War Analysis and Prospects,” an all-day virtual event to discuss the effects of the war and potential post-war contexts.

The event featured Romantsova Oleksandra, executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties, the first Ukrainian organization to win a Noble Peace Prize. The recognition, which the human rights organization received in 2022, was due in part to their work documenting war crimes against civilians in occupied areas of Ukraine.

It’s been a year since George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution touched base in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their goal? Accompany locals in creating their own sustainable peace—something the country has not experienced in more than 30 years.

Carter School Dean Alpaslan Özerdem, and Charles Davidson, PhD ’19, Carter School research faculty and alumnus, visited the Congo in October 2022 to check in on the “Peacemaking + Initiative,” funded by Milt Lauenstein, and assess the direction for its next phase.

George Mason University Carter School professor Richard Rubenstein attended a workshop conference at the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences at the Vatican on June 6-7 to discuss peacemaking in Ukraine and other global conflict sites. The conference was organized by the U.N. Development Solutions Network headed by Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs.

Bill Potapchuk is President and founder of the Community Building Institute (CBI), an organization created to strengthen the capacity of communities and organizations work collaboratively, inclusively, and equitably healthy, sustainable futures.

Peace and Conflict Resolution scholars and foreign affairs practitioners convened at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School’s Point of View research and retreat facility in Mason Neck, Virginia issued the following appeal to the conflicting parties in Ukraine.

Helsing has taught a broad range of subjects, including conflict resolution, analysis of war and peace, negotiations, human rights and conflict, and international relations theory. Prior to joining the Carter School, he spent 23 years at the United States Institute of Peace, including as head of USIP’s Education and Training Department.

As a junior and senior at Annandale High School in Virginia, Emily Sample spent her summers as a docent at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. She was a teenager who had just lost a friend to police violence, she said, and joining the museum’s Young Ambassadors Program resonated with her.

“I was fascinated and continue to be fascinated by this highly illogical idea of genocide,” said Sample, a PhD candidate at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

To support Afghan refugees needing to relaunch their careers in the United States, George Mason University is inviting scholars and researchers who have recently left Afghanistan to request an academic appointment as visiting scholars.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has not seen peace for more than three decades, but in November 2021, George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution helped the country take a leap in a hopeful direction.

In the province of South Kivu, the school gathered representatives from 21 armed groups, the Congolese government, military, police, intelligence services, religious leaders, civil society groups, and peace advocates. Not only did everyone discuss a path toward peacebuilding, but they also signed a peace accord to solidify it.