Global Peacemakers Sharpen Skills at Workshop

Tatsushi Arai draws upon his experience working in conflict-affected countries such as Rwanda.

Tatsushi Arai, associate professor of conflict transformation at World Learning’s SIT Graduate Institute, led an advanced practitioner training  titled, Building Capacities for Cross-Cultural Communication, August 15-19 in Washington.

The Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction Studies in California sponsored the training, which brought together 35 practitioners, including senior representatives of the United Nations, government agencies, and non-government organizations from North and South Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. They explored imaginative, yet practical ways of introducing rituals, metaphors, symbolic gestures, and storytelling to inter-communal relations divided by deep-rooted social conflict.

Participants examined in-depth case studies that focused on refugee repatriation in the African Great Lakes region and the design of a program that brought Pakistani Islamic leaders to the United States for cross-cultural exchange. The case study of Pakistani-American relations was facilitated jointly by Arai and Azhar Hussain, senior vice president of preventive diplomacy at the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy and an SIT alumnus.

A leading expert in the enhancement of religious school curriculums in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Hussain shared his experience in promoting religious tolerance in some of the most divided regions of the world. The two practitioners of international peace-building—brought together through the growing World Learning network—plan to expand the scope of their activities to achieve greater impact on public policy. 

The workshop also featured a presentation and discussion led by Faiysal AliKhan, executive director of the FIDA aid organization operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas. AliKhan shared a wide range of personal experiences about how an in-depth understanding of traditional customs and protocols helps build effectiveness and trust in the context of time-sensitive, multi-stakeholder relief efforts.