This two-day workshop, hosted at The Carter Center, provided a closed-door forum for a small grou... more This two-day workshop, hosted at The Carter Center, provided a closed-door forum for a small group of experts to think critically about the challenges posed to the international community by the sectarian dimensions of Syrian civil war, its ensuing humanitarian crisis, and the role of new media therein. The workshop interfaced practitioners from the NGO, policy, media, and academic sectors and envisioned the program as a capacity building opportunity for the participants and their respective institutions. Participants were asked to identify best practices, cases studies, and underutilized resources that can be leveraged for the long-term efforts of reconciliation and redevelopment. While the Syrian crisis raises a number of immediate political problems that deserve attention, the workshop attempted to identify solutions to medium and long-term problems such as ongoing sectarian strife, political reconciliation, refugee management, and nation-(re)building. In the words of one participant, “multiple vectors of transition” must be pursued simultaneously in order to generate the conditions and opportunities for sustainable peace. The workshop’s output should be considered in these terms: understanding the unfolding crisis in terms of opportunities for engagement and change. The following summary provides consensus and concluding points arrived upon by participants as well as follow-up projects that can implement such findings.
This two-day workshop, hosted at The Carter Center, provided a closed-door forum for a small grou... more This two-day workshop, hosted at The Carter Center, provided a closed-door forum for a small group of experts to think critically about the challenges posed to the international community by the sectarian dimensions of Syrian civil war, its ensuing humanitarian crisis, and the role of new media therein. The workshop interfaced practitioners from the NGO, policy, media, and academic sectors and envisioned the program as a capacity building opportunity for the participants and their respective institutions. Participants were asked to identify best practices, cases studies, and underutilized resources that can be leveraged for the long-term efforts of reconciliation and redevelopment. While the Syrian crisis raises a number of immediate political problems that deserve attention, the workshop attempted to identify solutions to medium and long-term problems such as ongoing sectarian strife, political reconciliation, refugee management, and nation-(re)building. In the words of one participant, “multiple vectors of transition” must be pursued simultaneously in order to generate the conditions and opportunities for sustainable peace. The workshop’s output should be considered in these terms: understanding the unfolding crisis in terms of opportunities for engagement and change. The following summary provides consensus and concluding points arrived upon by participants as well as follow-up projects that can implement such findings.
Uploads
Papers by Abbas Barzegar