Gabrielle Kluck: Ombudsing in UN Peacekeeping in the Sudan Region

Dear Subscribers,

The last time I was in South Sudan, I was with Gabrielle Kluck flying to a remote part of the country in a very old Russian army helicoptor.  We were traveling over a large swamp (the "Sud" in Sudan means swamp) in a pretty tumultuous storm.  Gabrielle is one of those intrepid people who laughs in the face of danger. She both flies and jumps out of planes, rides motorcycles and provides ombudsing services in places like Darfur -- but she always does it in style.  I remember looking down at the swamp, and then at Gabrielle's fashionable shoes and saying to her "honey, if we come down in this storm, those shoes aren't going to do you a whole lot of good." She laughed.

Gabrielle Kluck is now the Ombudsman for the UN’s World Food Programme in Rome.  For this episode, I caught up with her as she was winding down her tenure Ombudsing in the Sudan Region of Africa.  In the podcast, Gabrielle gives a first-hand account of working in the pressure-cooker of war-torn peacekeeping operations in S. Sudan, Darfur and earlier in Kosovo. She provides a vivid account of the context of hardship duty stations and then tells a story of working a conflict between an international and national staff  to engage parallel issues at the group and systemic level. She also shares  generally the ways her work builds collaboration internally in order to more effectively build an external peace in the region.

Listen to this podcast stream or download it here, or listen in iTunes if you prefer.

Hope you enjoy and please tune in again for some great upcoming episodes with Harrison Owen, the Creator of Open Space Technology and Aldo Civico, a master mediator and peace builder.

Cheers for now,
Susan

Mel Duncan: “Third Side” Interventions into the Heart of Deadly Conflict

Dear Subscribers,

I'm sure you are not all holding your breath waiting for my blog posts, but I try to send them weekly on Thursdays.  This week, I couldn't because the wonderful person who manages my website, Nakul Sachdeva, was affected by extreme violence in his home province in India. He lost internet, 50% of the city was burned and he says they are now set back many years.  Anyway, Nakul has surfaced and is OK, but it was an immediate reminder to me of what so many people in the world have to live with on a regular basis and motivating to keep this podcast moving forward.

The work reported on in this episode is so amazing. I  interview Mel Duncan, the Founding Director and Director of Advocacy and Outreach of Nonviolent Peace Force (NP) which provides unarmed civilian protection in the world’s most deadliest of conflicts. In this moving account of the power of “the third side”, Mel talks about those who put themselves in harms way, both nationals and internationals, in conflicts in S. Sudan, Colombia, the Philippines and elsewhere. Mel also talks about how 90% of current victims of current warfare are women and children.  Rape, for instance, has become a central strategy of most violent conflict today and NP has tremendous success in stopping further atrocities as Mel describes.  He reflects on the origins of NP, as well as his own life path to begin this work when first challenged by a Sufi teacher to “enter the heart of his enemy and work from a place of unity”. He was then further inspired to continue by his stay with Thich Nat Hahn at Plum Village in Southern France.

Mel's hope for this interview is to spark people's moral imagination that there are abundant alternatives to just meeting threats against civilians with more violence. My favorite quote goes to the heart of the need for all of us to take up our leadership: "I am a regular human being who has had an opportunity to work with a lot of other regular human beings and together we have been able to do extraordinary things and people listening to this podcast also have the ability to do extraordinary things with the gifts that they have."  Thank you Mel. 

Please listen to this podcast. I was moved to tears while doing the interview and I'm sure you will be too when you listen. Listen to this podcast stream or download it here, or listen in iTunes if you prefer.

Hope you enjoy and please tune in again this Thursday when Gabrielle Kluck and I talk about her tales of Ombudsing in UN Peacekeeping Missions in the Sudan region of Africa.

If you haven't already done so, I would be so grateful to you for reviewing the podcast on iTunes.

Cheers for now,
Susan

John Horgan: The End of War

Dear Subscribers,

Do you believe that war is an inevitability that has been going on since the dawn of humankind? If yes, please make sure you listen to this episode -- and, ok, please listen anyway! In this podcast, I interview longtime Scientific American writer John Horgan who, drawing from the scientific evidence, counters the conventional wisdom that war is a foregone conclusion. John summarizes many of the points in his book and makes the case that, biologically speaking, we are just as likely to be peaceful as violent. War is not preordained, and furthermore, it should be thought of as a solvable, scientific problem.  John summarizes what we know about human history – that the evidence of violent conflict between humans is just not there for 99% of our existence on this planet.  He makes a strong case for why we should be optimistic that ending war is attainable and what we might focus on to make that happen. This is a message that I think is so important to hear and is supported by two other of my favorite books - Bill Ury's Getting to Peace and Rianne Eisler's the Chalice and the Blade.  

You can now listen to this episode in iTunes or, if you prefer, you can stream or download it here.

Hope you enjoy and please tune in again next week when Gabrielle Kluck and I talk about her tales of Ombudsing in UN Peacekeeping Missions in the Sudan region of Africa.

If you haven't already done so, I would be so grateful to you for reviewing the podcast on iTunes.

Cheers for now,
Susan

The Peacebuilding Podcast now available in iTunes

Dear Subscribers,

This is just a quick note to let you know that The Peacebuilding Podcast is now available in iTunes. For automatic downloads, please subscribe here (or in the iTunes store) and, if so inspired, write a review. Your support very much appreciated. Thank you!

Susan

Loretta Raider: Process Interventions to Quell Election-Related Violence in Sierra Leone

Dear Subscribers,

I hope this post finds everyone well with projects well underway for 2016.  A central purpose of this podcast -- other than learning -- is to bring the best of coaching/organization development processes into the world of international affairs/diplomacy. In that vein, I just participated in a super interesting certification training on systemic team coaching with Professor Peter Hawkins based in the UK.  For those wanting to bring collective leadership and collaboration into conflict-affected systems and organizations and communities in general, I think this approach is powerful and scalable. I am stoked and will be in the process of learning more and, of course, using the methodology with my clients. Professor Hawkins has also agreed to be a future podcast guest to specifically discuss the approach as it applies to mediation and building peace. So stay tuned.

In this current episode, I interview Loretta Raider, a seasoned practitioner of organization development, conflict resolution and large group processes.  In response to severe election-related violence, Loretta gives a detailed account of a multi-faceted approach to working throughout Sierra Leone using parts of Future Search, Open Space, conflict resolution and other methodologies to pre-empt future violence. Subsequent elections were peaceful and, while it is hard to be sure of the reasons, it is easy to assume that Loretta and her partners’ work contributed to that outcome. Loretta also talks about more recent initiatives to build positive change and peace in communities throughout Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis and recovery period.

Stream or download the episode here.

The next episode of The Peacebuilding Podcast will feature Scientific American writer, John Horgan who wrote The End of War which gives the scientific evidence for why ending war is thoroughly within our grasp.

Please email me, like us or leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world.

Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again for next week's episode.  

Susan

Zachary Metz: Peace Writ Large, Peace Writ Small

Dear Subscribers,

In 2001, I landed on an innovation to apply Open Space Technology to two warring factions of Kurds (of course, as these things go, it was not a new idea as future podcast interviews will reveal, but at the time, I didn't know that.) Zach Metz was a graduate student then and supported me on the project.  He then, amazingly, rolled out theme and variation of the design all over the world -- in Iraq, East Timor and other places. Anyway, he's a crystal clear thinker, courageous and lovely guy and I'm sure you will enjoy spending some time with him on this podcast.

In this episode, Zach describes his extensive experience in different conflict-affected societies.  Our conversation focuses on the conventional wisdom in the field that interventions must be systemic – “peace writ large” – if they are to be effective, and contrasts that thinking with the question of whether smaller initiatives – “peace writ small” -- can make a profound difference, particularly in pervasive, intractable conflict.  Zach tells a specific and very moving anecdote about an event in 2005 Iraq in which a single intense interchange between participants embodied many of the identity group tensions in the war-torn country, while shifting the group to a different and much more cohesive place. 

Stream or download this episode here. Please leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world.

Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again for next week's episode.  

Susan

Gay Rosenblum-Kumar: An Insider's View of the Evolution of UN Peacebuilding Initiatives and Other Stories

Dear Subscribers,

In this episode, I interview Gay Rosenblum –Kumar, a seasoned United Nations veteran, about her early career as a U.N. peace observer in South Africa and her later initiatives to co-develop the U.N.’s system of Peace Development Advisors (PDA’s).  She provides examples of PDA initiatives in Ghana and Guyana, offers keen insight into the evolution of the peacebuilding field inside the U.N., and talks briefly about her most recent work with GAAMAC on genocide prevention.

Stream or download this episode here. Please leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world.

Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again for next week's episode.  

Susan

Ava Bynum: Sowing the Seeds of Peace in Public Schools

Dear Subscribers,

Happy 2016!  

The Peacebuilding Podcast is looking forward to an exciting year of great interviews.  Upcoming episodes feature:

• Gay Rosenblum-Kumar, a conflict transformation specialist with 30 years of experience in the United Nations and NGO's
• Zachary Metz, a partner at Consensus and the Director of its Peacebuilding practice and
• Loretta Raider, who heads a global consulting firm specializing in organization development and peacebuilding.

So, stay tuned for some super interesting conversations.

This week, please join me as I interview Ava Bynum, the 23 year old Executive Director of Hudson Valley Seed (and, with full transparency, my amazing daughter).  Ava talks about what kids learn when they build gardens and grow vegetables – skills like cooperation, patience and an understanding of the natural processes of life that nurture peace.  Bynum also talks about how school gardens can be a focal point for collaboration and building communities beyond the classroom.

Stream or download this episode here. Please leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world.

Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again for next week's episode.  

Susan

Krister Lowe: Peacebuilding Approaches, Training to Team Coaching

Dear Subscribers,

Please join me as I interview Krister Lowe, an organizational psychologist, leadership and team coach, and the creator of the Team Coaching Zone Podcast.  In this episode, Krister talks about his journey from early peacebuilding and global conflict resolution training interventions, to the decision to focus on team coaching as a methodology to create scalable collaborative systems change. 

Stream or download this episode here. Please leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world.

Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again.  Hope everyone enjoys a peaceful year end.

Susan

Naghmeh Sobhani: Peacebuilding Through Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dear Subscribers,

The U.S. holiday Thanksgiving got me a little behind with my commitment to airing shows each Thursday.  I am more or less on track with the number of shows, just a little behind in terms of when I am getting them posted.  A lot to learn in this world of podcasting! I'm finding that potential shows are coming at me right and left -- it's a little overwhelming (given that I also have a day job), but super exciting. I think I will have a lot of very interesting people to share with you, so please stay tuned.

I really appreciate those of you who have sent me feedback, both what you like, and your suggestions for improvement, and am doing my best to incorporate all of the latter that I can.

Over the holiday, I was out in the Southwest visiting my son on the U.S. side of the Mexican border.  Our intent was to be in a remote place -- and it was -- but nonetheless, plenty of opportunity for peacebuilding  between issues around water, grazing, extraction and immigration. I am searching out now someone who has been working those issues from the stance of a neutral who I can get on the show so stay tuned for that.

In Episode Four, I interview Naghmeh Sobhani who worked for 15 years in post-war Bosnia running an extraordinary and systemic peacebuilding initiative through the ministry of education that resulted in unprecedented levels of collaboration among factions of educators that parallelled the identity-group divides of the civil war. Naghmeh has been an intrepid peacebuilder.

Stream or download the episode here. As always, please leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world.

Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again next week, 

Susan

Lindsay Cornelio: Peacebuilding in Bushwick, Brooklyn USA

Dear Subscribers,

The events in Paris are just more data for how imperative it is that we learn and implement new methodologies of coming together as a a global community. Join me as I interview special guest, Lindsay Cornelio, a recent graduate of New York University's Master's degree program in Peacemaking and Peacebuilding.  In this episode, Lindsay gives a detailed account of the program, and her subsequent application of concepts to a peacebuilding project she designed singlehandedly in Bushwick, Brooklyn, USA.

Stream or download this episode here. Please leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world.

Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again next week, 

Susan

Pablo Restrepo Saénz: Stories from the Negotiation Trenches in Colombia

Dear Subscribers,

Welcome to all of you who have recently joined us. Thanks. We appreciate your support and interest.

In Episode Two, Susan interviews seasoned negotiation consultant, Pablo Restrepo Saénz, as he talks about what worked in the Free Trade Negotiations between the Andean countries and the US, training Colombian guerrilla groups in conflict resolution techniques, his own transformation from practical M.B.A. to incorporating the insights of the Colombian Kogi Indians, and reflections on the question of individual consciousness as a barrier to real treadiness for negotiation referring to the Harvard developmental psychologist, Robert Kegan and the spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle. 

Stream or download this episode here. Please leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world.

Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again next week, 

Susan

Announcing the launch of The Peacebuilding Podcast!

Dear Subscribers,

I wanted to let you know that The Peacebuilding Podcast is now officially launched.

In Episode No. 1, I give an overview of the podcast, my background and story, why I'm doing this podcast and what you can expect from upcoming shows. Stream or download this episode here.

Hope you like it. I look forward to your feedback and comments. Please leave them on the Sound Cloud track, on Facebook or Twitter.

And thanks for being my first subscribers!! 

Susan