Corridors Summer School

The annual Corridor Summer School was hosted again in the picturesque Dilijan (Armenia) between 29 August and 4 September as the result of a joint effort by the Chair of International Relations at FSU and the Corridors - Dialogue Through CooperationExternal link initiative. The summer school – titled Strengthening Peace Education Capacities in the Caucasus – was centered around training in conflict analysis, peacebuilding, and dialogue in the Caucasian region and security related topics mostly derived from the ongoing war in Ukraine. The summer school brought together 25 students and young civil society practitioners from Georgia/Abkhazia, Armenia, Germany, Ukraine, and Peru.

One vital goal of the Corridors program is to strengthen youth capacities, enabling them to manage conflicts within their societies and contribute to peaceful change from the bottom up. Understanding the root causes of conflicts – such as extreme polarization – is the crucial first step to developing appropriate and effective peacebuilding instruments. The narrow understanding of regional conflict structures and the lack of young specialists dealing with these issues in a professional manner are key factors contributing to the protractedness of conflicts in the Caucasus.

A 'neutral' case study with only minor connections to the region – the ongoing Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh – helped the participants to focus on the very techniques of conflict analysis, such as questioning historical narratives and the mapping of the actors involved. Other sessions invited us to think about the gender aspects of peacebuilding and what we as individuals can do to contribute to peaceful change. Expanding on previous experience with more holistic approaches to peacebuilding, we also incorporated practices devoted to achieving inner peace, such as meditation and self-awareness building. Professional training sessions were complemented with other leisure and team building activities such as hiking, rafting and dining out together.

The summer school was made possible with the financial support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), which funded the project within the East-West Dialogue program. The preparation workshops in Georgia and Armenia and a joint online course were supported by the German Federal Foreign Office within the program Civil Society Cooperation. Our gratitude also goes to our intercultural team of trainers from Georgia, Armenia, Spain, and Germany, who made the summer school a practical example of dialogue through cooperation.