Courses

Principles and Processes of Negotiation in Conflict Resolution (2 credits)

Lecturer: Yonatan Kowarsky, Academic Director for Israel Center for Negotiation and Mediation, mediator/lawyer, and Supervisor and Trainer for National Mediation Program​​​

Course Description: The course will offer to the students an in-depth understanding of the negotiation process. It will include:

• Grounds for preparation of the negotiation process, while applying a negotiation management model, based on interests and the appreciation of cognitive processes occurring while negotiating.
• An introduction to a number of tools and skills aimed to improve overall negotiation capabilities - while coping with the emotional aspects and enhancing each participant's awareness to his or hers own personal style.

An emphasis will be placed on the cultivation of long term, both business and workplace relationships. The principal premises, which will be outlined throughout the course, assume that skilled negotiators can bypass unnecessary conflicts and resolve disputes, while negotiating without the aid of third party intervention. Therefore, an outline of multi party-negotiation principles will be discussed as well.

History of the Middle East (3 credits)

Lecturer: Dr. Joel Parker Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University. 

Course Description: The course surveys the major historical processes evolving in the modern Middle East in the past two centuries. It analyzes the interaction between internal developments and Western political, economic and cultural influences.

It discusses the emergence of modern nationalism; the foundation of new states in the early Twentieth Century, their struggle for independence and their grappling with parliamentary systems under the Mandate system. It will examine the replacement of the old elites by new radical military elites, which became in turn more moderate in the course of years, as well as their confrontation with the rising tide of Islamic radicalism.

Socio-Psychological Approaches to Conflict and Conflict Management (2 credits)

Lecturer: Dr. Nadine Knab, Postdoctoral fellow, Universitat Koblenz Landua

Course Description: Social Psychology provides many critical insights into the understanding of social conflicts and their management. These include the interaction of personality and situation in the outbreak of conflicts and attempts at resolution, the critical importance of the subjective construal of conflict, and the roles of groups and group membership in conflicts. Among the topics to be covered in this introductory course are group identification and group perception, naïve realism, reactive devaluation, social dilemmas, personality and individual differences, emotions, culture and protected/sacred values.

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International Law and Dispute Resolution (2 credits)

Lecturer: Daniel Reisner, former head of the Israel Defence Force's International Law Department and former senior negotiator of peace treaties from 1994-2007

Course Description: The course provides students with a critical view of international law relevant to conflict and conflict resolution. Focusing primarily on the Arab-Israeli conflict as a case study, the course will address topics including the sources of international law, the law of sovereignty and statehood, the laws of war, acquisition and loss of territory, trust territories and rights of self-determination, the role and authority of international institutions such as the UN and International Court of Justice, the law of human rights, refugee law, international criminal law, international law concerning terrorism, and laws of occupied territories. 

Mediation Workshop (4 credits)

Lecturer: Bruce Oppenheimer, Tsofnat

Course Description: The Mediation Workshop examines the core concepts and principle of mediation as it applies to cases ranging from the interpersonal to international levels of engagement.  The course will also study a variety of approaches or "styles" of mediation including, but not limited to, facilitative, evaluative, transformative, narrative and eclectic.

Large portions of the class will be reserved for small group role plays and other experiential learning exercises that allow students the opportunity to explore and experiment with key mediation skills, techniques and tactics.

Graduates of this course receive a certificate of completion in International Mediation from Tel Aviv University.

Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation in the Middle East (3 credits)

Lecturer: Dr. Clive Lipchin, Director, Center for Transboundary Water Management, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies

Course Description: The objective of the course is to review and discuss types, sources and aspects of environmental conflicts at the city, regional, national and mostly international level. These conflicts will be analyzed and classified by structural and subjective approaches with respect to related issues such as environmental justice, environmental awareness and planning policy as well as with respect to strategies and instruments of their resolution.

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Leadership and Conflict (3 credits)

Lecturer: Dr. Nimrod Rosler, Tel Aviv University School of Social and Policy Studies 

Course Description: One of many influential figures in the life of an intractable conflict is the leader. She or he has the ability to harness and mobilize the public towards the creation and intensification of conflicts or lead the people to dialogue with the other side. The course will be comprised of two main parts: the first part will examine the phenomenon of leadership. We will discuss the sources of power, the influences of the leader and test models describing different types of leadership. In the second part of the course we will examine the role of the leader in various stages of the conflict - his or her motivation, basic strengths and the tools available for social influence. 

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Game Theory and Conflict Resolution (2 credits) 

Lecturer: Dr. Maya Diamant, Faculty of Management, Tel Aviv University

Course Description: A conflict is an interactive situation. The course of the conflict as well as its resolution depend on the decisions made by the various parties involved. Each party, when considering its decisions, should take into account the decisions made by all the other parties. Game theory studies decision making in such interactive environments.

We will present prototypes of various games and study basic concepts required for their analysis like domination and equilibrium. Emphasize will be put on the need to change the "rules" of the game when it results in undesirable outcome, and designing rules to obtain a desired result.

We will highlight the differences between decision making of a single agent and interactive decision making, namely, a game. One of the differences is that in the first case we are aiming at getting an optimal decision. In games optimality does not always apply, and the result of games can be dismal even when all parties behave rationally. Israel, which, as the website of this program claims, is the Silicon Valley of Conflict Resolution is also the Death Valley of Frustratingly Unresolved Conflict. The frustration may partly due to the lack of understanding of the fact that in interactive situations good will and rationality do not necessarily guarantee good results.

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Democracy in Ethnically Divided Societies (2 credits)

Lecturer: Dr. Steven J. Klein, Ben Gurion University and senior editor at Haaretz newspaper

Course Description:  The post-WWII era saw the creation of numerous new countries that did not fit the classic nation-state model, often comprising rival ethnic groups. These internal conflicts have presented challenges to the ruling elites when interested in establishing a democratic regime. Factors such as the perceived threat by or manageability of ethnic minorities have influenced the type of democracy pursued and the extent of democratic rights afforded to these minorities. Such experiments of forging the country’s ethnic character while maintaining a certain measure of democratic institutions have had mixed results, often contributing to grievances among minority groups and at times failing to prevent bloodshed.

Gender and Conflict (2 credits) 

Lecturer: Dr. Ina Kubbe, Post-Doctoral Fellow, the School of Political Science, Government and International Relations at Tel Aviv University

Course Description:  Gender equality - as a fundamental human right - and empowering women and girls are among the UN's sustainable goals and the basic foundation for sustainable development, peaceful societies, and a prosperous world. Still, we are far away from reaching these goals. Our course focuses on the role of gender in the public as well as private sector. It examines the challenges and opportunities of women and girls (as well as men) in all areas of life and levels with a specific focus on the complex interplay between gender, conflict, and peacebuilding. This multidisciplinary course explores how gender norms, identities, and inequalities intersect with armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, and peace processes.

New issues of Peace and Security in Europe (2 credits)

Lecturer: Professor Charles Tenenbaum, Sciences Po Lille

Course Description: With the war in Ukraine and unprecedented challenges caused multiple security threats on its immediate borders, European Union leaders have called for a more “stronger” Europe and the adoption new plan for strengthening the EU's security and defence policy. From the Balkans to the Crisis in Georgia and violent conflicts in Africa, the last two decades have seen an increased EU involvement not only in crisis management strategies but also in peacemaking efforts conducted through a series of new and dedicated institutions and mechanisms. Marked by success or by failure, European actors’ involvement in the Middle East Peace Process also provides a good example of the scope and constraints of European peace strategies. What is the “Strategic compass” of the EU? What are the most recent policy, institutional and operational developments of the EU ‘Global Strategy’ in terms of civilian and military interventions? How did the EU become a global actor in conflict mediation, prevention, and mitigation as well as a capable military actor? This course will answer these questions and provide students with the necessary tools and knowledge to understand the dynamics of contemporary crisis management and peacemaking by a diversity of European Actors. Students will get the opportunity to become familiar with the whole range of European defense and security polity as well as conflict resolution strategies and key players.