Course Description

To successfully overcome the multiple challenges of our time, people must cooperate peacefully with one another. Otherwise, we as humanity will not be able to cope with climate change, ensure equal access to resources and shape a future in which peace, self-determination, freedom, and prosperity are possible.

In this course we discuss what it takes and how it is possible for people to cooperate with each other, solve problems collaboratively and resolve conflicts peacefully. The course examines the different conditions and models for cooperation. To this end, the latest results from cognitive and behavioral research, psychology, sociology, game and systems theory as well as complexity theory are presented and their relevance for creating conditions for cooperation is examined. Building on the scientific foundations, theories and methods for the peaceful resolution of differences and conflicts are then introduced. The focus here is on mediative skills and international peace mediation. However, cooperation and conflict resolution are not just knowledge, but can and must be learned and trained. In the course, students are given the opportunity to transform the knowledge they have learned into concrete skills through role plays and exercises. The experiences gained in the exercises are reflected on together. In this way, knowledge does not remain external, but is linked to concrete experiences. This creates the basis for implementing what has been learned.

The concrete practical relevance is further strengthened by two visits to Berlin NGOs that are active in international peace work. We will also invite guest speakers from the practice of international peace policy and discuss with them. Subject to availability, international guest speakers may also be invited to join the course via video conference.

Berlin has a very special significance for international peace work due to its history. Especially here, students can experience how a society dealt with its own through the Holocaust, war crimes, collapse, liberation, and new beginnings. These experiences will be embedded by visiting memorial sites in Berlin and students will thus be able to use concrete history to shape the future.

Download Syllabus (printable PDF incl. day-to-day schedule)

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