Here is a lecture I held at the World Peace Academy in Basel, Switzerland. I show here some pf my photos from my Iran trip, I outline why the present Western policies on Iran are counterproductive and, third, what must be done instead. It's only a hint - so much can be done to both prevent a looming war and to build trust.



I'd be happy to receive your comments and for your sharing it throughout your system.…

Gaza: A fundamentalist’s guide to Gravity

By: Firouzeh Afsharnia

A few years ago I was traveling through Africa and found my self in a rickety cab. As I bounced up and down in the lumpy back seat, shifting spots to avoid the broken springs and whatever was festering in the exposed paddings, another passenger got in and sat in the front seat.  He was in a jovial mood and had just passed some sort of certification exam.  “I passed! I passed!” He declared.

First…

It’s June, the month of Fathers Day, and once again we’re featuring peacebuilding men we love.

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Ambassador John McDonald is a lawyer, diplomat, former international civil servant, development expert, peacebuilder, and professor of law and peace. He spent 20 years of his diplomatic career in Western Europe and the Middle East and worked for 16…

It's June, the month of Fathers Day, and once again we're featuring peacebuilding men we love.

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Sami Awad is Executive Director of Holy Land Trust, the nonprofit he founded in Bethlehem in 1998. He also directs the…

http://www.conflicttalk.com/2012/04/existential-threats-and-trayvon-martin-the-bumper-sticker-politics-of-fear/

Existential Threats and Trayvon Martin: The bumper sticker politics of fear.

One hundred years of African intellectual activism

Naledi Pandor

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81295

Address by the South African Minister of Science and Technology at the Archie Mafeye memorial lecture.

It is no accident that the founding leaders of post-colonial African countries - men like Nkrumah, Nyerere, Mandela – were able to articulate ideologies and…

Peace X Peace Forums: Women and the Arab Spring

Welcome to the first Peace X Peace Forum! These forums, which we hope to host regularly, will take on pressing issues in the world of peacebuilding and gender. This time, we have gathered women from around the Middle East – from Egypt to Tunisia and beyond – to discuss how women have influenced the Arab Spring, and the impact it has had on them. We hope you enjoy this discussion and…

Peace X Peace Forums: Women and the Arab Spring

Welcome to the first Peace X Peace Forum! These forums, which we hope to host regularly, will take on pressing issues in the world of peacebuilding and gender. This time, we have gathered women from around the Middle East – from Egypt to Tunisia and beyond – to discuss how women have influenced the Arab Spring, and the impact it has had on them. We hope you enjoy this discussion and add your own thoughts in the…

Peace X Peace Forums: Women and the Arab Spring

Welcome to the first Peace X Peace Forum! These forums, which we hope to host regularly, will take on pressing issues in the world of peacebuilding and gender. This time, we have gathered women from around the Middle East – from Egypt to Tunisia and beyond – to discuss how women have influenced the Arab Spring, and the impact it has had on them. We hope you enjoy this discussion and add your own thoughts in the…

• At least 35 soldiers and some 14 suspected militants were reportedly killed in twin suicide bombings and…

• At least 28 people were reportedly killed in clashes on Saturday between government troops and opposition forces in Syria as the Red Cross continued efforts to evacuate civilians from the city of Homs; while at least 89 people were reportedly killed nationwide. On Sunday, the ICRC said that…

As a professional mediator, I am always encouraged by the use of mediation to resolve international conflicts. However, in the case of Syria, I have little confidence that mediation will bring peace to the conflict. Very few of the essential elements for successful mediation are present in this conflict.

The first consideration in convening any mediation is deciding who the parties at the table will be. In this case, the current Syrian government will certainly be a party. However,…

• China announced on Friday that it had yet to receive a formal invitation to a meeting of international powers in Tunis next week to discuss the crisis in Syria; the government reportedly blocked a premiere live stream website, Bambuser, that has been used by dissidents to…

Some Reflections on the Israel-Iran Confrontation

Dear All,

TransConflict is pleased to announce the launch of the Global Coalition for Conflict Transformaton (GCCT), which is comprised of over forty organizations from a variety of countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Uganda, Burundi, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Northern Ireland.

To explore the Global Coalition's…

• A new report in the Atlantic this week suggests that a barely perceptible shift occurred in recent months that make the possibility of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear sites more possible, as the benefits outweigh the costs. NBC reported last week…

Patricia Smith

Peace X Peace Founder

"Where is common financial sense in terms of the dollars — not counting human loved ones — required to build peace as compared with the hundred-fold dollars spent on destruction through war?"

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In 2002 when I founded Peace X Peace, we were the first social…