During the academic year 2014-15 six lectures and seminars were held in the framework of the Swiss Center colloquium. These lectures cover a variety of topics, relevant to conflict, peace, and inter-group relations from psychological, political, media related and sociological perspectives.
In cooperation with the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations we hosted a special series of lectures related to international relations and conflict resolution during the spring semester. Three scholars presented their works on the subtleties of the breakthroughs and failures in past Israeli peacemaking; interethnic conciliation in severely divided societies; and the relations between demography and national security. The series of lectures attracted both current and former students and teachers in the conflict research program, as well as research students from other programs at the Hebrew University.
All seminars are Organized and coordinated by Dr. Yiftach Ron.
24.11.14
Lecture title: Studying Women's Role in Peacemaking: Insecurity, Hope and Silence in Israel
Lecturer: Dr. Sarai Aharoni
Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Opening Comments: Prof. Ifat Maoz
Date: Monday, November 24, 2014
Media Room no. 32, Central Library, Mount Scopus Campus
15.12.14
Lecture title: Leaders, Society, Context and Change in Intractable Conflicts: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis
Lecturer: Dr. Nimrod Rosler
Lady Davis Postdoctoral fellow, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Lecturer, Conflict Management Program, Bar-Ilan University
Opening Comments: Dr. Yiftach Ron
Date: Monday, December 15, 2014
Media Room no. 32, Central Library, Mount Scopus Campus
26.1.15
Lecture title: Democratic Peace: A Political Biography
Lecturer: Prof' Piki Ish - Shalom
Department of International Relations, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Opening Comments: Prof. Ifat Maoz
Date: Monday, January 26, 2015
Media Room no. 32, Central Library, Mount Scopus Campus
16.3.15
In collaboration with Dr. Danny Miodownik from the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relation.
Lecture title: Intractable conflict: Factors for breakthroughs and (mainly) failures in past Israeli peacemaking
Lecturer: Prof. Galia Golan
Professor Emeritus of the Hebrew University and Professor of government at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Abstract: Factors behind transformation of intractable conflict have been suggested by Coleman of Columbia and Kriesberg of Syracuse. My recent book examines the factors that made for the breakthroughs or failures in Israeli peacemaking efforts since 1967. Drawing from the lessons learned, the talk will also deal with possible "corrections" for future negotiations.
Opening Comments: Dr. Danny Miodownik
Date: Monday, March 16, 2015
Media Room no. 32, Central Library, Mount Scopus Campus
20.4.15
Lecture title: Approaches to Interethnic Conciliation in Severely Divided Societies
Lecturer: Prof. Donald Horowitz
Professor of Law and Political Science Emeritus at Duke University
Abstract: There are two main approaches to interethnic conciliation in severely divided societies. One of these, the consociational, relies on a set of agreed guarantees for all ethnic groups. The other, the centripetal approach, rests on incentives for political leaders of ethnic groups to behave moderately toward the interests of groups other than their own. Both approaches aim at interethnic compromise and accommodation, but through different methods. Touching just briefly on the relative efficacy of the two methods, this lecture will deal principally with the matter of their problematic adoptability and durability.
Opening Comments: Dr. Danny Miodownik
Date: Monday, April 20, 2015
Media Room no. 32, Central Library, Mount Scopus Campus
15.5.15
Lecture title: Demography and national security
Lecturer: Prof. Monica Toft
Professor of Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
Abstract: On January 17, 1979 the sixth all-Union census was conducted across what was once the Soviet Union, which revealed that the character of the population of the Union had undergone and would likely continue to undergo enormous change. One of the most alarming of the trends revealed by this census was the low birth-rate among the European peoples relative to their Central Asian compatriots. The results were so worrisome to Soviet officials that publication of the census was delayed for five years The timing of this census was critical as 1979 proved a watershed in terms of conflict along the Union’s southern periphery, including war and revolution in Afghanistan and Iran. This period represented a sobering turn of events in a state with vast coercive and material resources, which had sustained three generations of heroic efforts to create homo sovieticus . But the census underlined that to its leaders and many beyond the Urals and to the South that these efforts were failing. The disintegration of any state—whether slow or fast, whether at war or at peace—is necessarily a complex matter, and each case is at root unique. However, the demographic dynamics that unpin any state are critical for understanding whether and how the demise of a state might come about.
Opening Comments: Dr. Danny Miodownik
Date: Monday, June 15, 2015
Room 405, Maiersdorf Faculty Club