Event Date: March 21, 2023 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Location: FSS 4004

Presented by CIPS and Ottawa Dialogue

Join us for an event with Dr. Lior Lehrs who will be discussing his book Unofficial Peace Diplomacy: Private Peace Entrepreneurs in Conflict Resolution Processes (Manchester University Press, “Key Studies in Diplomacy” series, 2022).

This book analyses the international phenomenon of private peace entrepreneurs. These are private citizens with no official authority who initiate channels of communication with official representatives from the other side of a conflict in order to promote a conflict resolution process. It combines theoretical discussion with historical analysis, examining four cases from different conflicts: Norman Cousins and Suzanne Massie in the Cold War, Brendan Duddy in the Northern Ireland conflict and Uri Avnery in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The book defines the phenomenon, examines the resources and activities of private peace entrepreneurs and their impact on the official diplomacy, and examines the conditions under which they can play an effective role in peace-making processes.

This event will take place in English.

Speaker:

Dr. Lior Lehrs is a Research Fellow at The Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also a Policy Fellow and Director of the Program on Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking at Mitvim Institute. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University, and a visiting scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. His research topics include theory and history of conflicts, peace, diplomacy and foreign policy, and he works on various conflict areas, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Northern Ireland, Cyprus and the Balkans. He has published articles in journals such as International Affairs, International Studies Quarterly, Cooperation and Conflict, and Middle East Journal. His book Unofficial Peace Diplomacy, was published in 2022 by Manchester University Press.

Moderator:

Dr. Peter Jones, Full Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and Executive Director of Ottawa Dialogue.