Report on 2020 ​Corridors Summer School - Strengthening Peace Education Capacities in the Caucasus

Conflicts are commonplace in the coexisting of individuals, groups, societies, and countries. The challenge we often face is to resolve these disputes peacefully and constructively, which requires several specific skills and competencies. The recent escalation of the protracted conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh dramatically demonstrates the need as well as the challenges for inter-communal dialogue and sustainable peacebuilding activities in the South Caucasus. That is why in October 2020, Corridors, together with the Chair of International Relations at the University of Jena, conducted the summer school “Strengthening Peace Education Capacities in the Caucasus.”

The Corridors Summer School in Blossin near Berlin provided the students and recent graduates with several trainings on the fundamentals of conflict analysis and peacebuilding. One vital goal of the Corridors programme is to strengthen youth capacities to manage conflicts within their societies. Taking the Abkhazian-Georgian conflict as an example, the participants learned about instruments of conflict analysis, such as questioning historical narratives and mapping the actors involved. Sound knowledge of such competencies enables us to analyze and address complex conflict structures and dynamics. Moreover, the training encouraged the participants to reflect on contradicting conflict narratives. Within the second part of the summer school, our experts trained the group in core competencies of dialogue, mediation, and self-awareness. By analyzing interviews with ex-combatants who fought in the 1992-93 war, participants had the chance to practice techniques that help uncover the multidimensional nature of eye-witness accounts. As part of dialogue formats, these can contribute to a mutual understanding between the conflicting parties – a crucial foundation for reconciliation and sustainable peace. The group also had the chance to go deeper into the theory and practice of intercommunal mediation. Through several interactive roleplays, participants could experience the challenges of transformative conflict mediation first-hand and apply techniques to overcome them. Since successful peacebuilding also rests on the mindset of the peacebuilders themselves, part of the group attended a training that focused on self-awareness. Participants learned to consciously perceive their emotions in conflict situations and develop strategies to deal with them constructively and facilitate inclusive group processes. We are pleased that we have been able to implement the summer school successfully, despite the current uncertainties. However, we also had to adjust our plans this year and could not invite all planned participants due to international travel restrictions. To address this limitation, we organized an additional three-day online mediation training for ten young people from Georgia/Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Germany.

After many months of self-isolation caused by the restrictions following the COVID 19 pandemic, we were all grateful to be able to get in direct contact with people again. During an excursion to Berlin, walks along the shore of the nearby lake, and many more activities, ideas were exchanged, intercultural experiences were made, and friendships were formed. These intense encounters gave us all much food for thought. We thank Marco Clemens, Paata Alaverdashvili, Anne Dirnstorfer, and Shota Shvelidze for their professional and exciting training sessions. Our gratitude also goes to the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) that funded the project within the valuable program East-West-Dialogue. Most of all, we thank our participants that took the challenge to travel to Blossin in these uncertain times and thereby demonstrated their extraordinary determination to become engaged in the field of conflict transformation. We enjoyed your exceptional contributions and learned a lot from you. To peace and understanding!