COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is about the “Resource Curse” and what can be done about it.  It analyses the different ways in which large deposits of raw resources, especially oil, can either accelerate or slow down the development of a country. This is especially important because a number of countries are about to become new oil exporting countries (such as Cambodia, Cameroun, Ghana, Uganda, Sierra Leone). What can they learn from the countries that have already several decades of experience in this field?  Participants will analyze for a country of their choice, which mechanisms are at play that might distort development as a result of raw material exports.  The second half of the course concentrates on measures that have been taken to avoid or overcome a “resource curse” and on the opportunities and obstacles for countries that want to take similar measures. Initiatives of international organizations, national governments, large companies, non-governmental organizations and local communities will be reviewed, such as the Publish what you pay campaign, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Kimberley Process, the Voluntary Principles, and the Dodd Frank Act.  The central questions is in which way a combination of the different approaches can help specific countries to use their natural resources for the maximum benefit of the large majority of the people.

Course Description:
The aim of this course is to empower each participant to practice peace, both personally and professionally. BePeace is a synergistic skill set that combines coherence and connection to build social and emotional intelligence. This combination allows us to access our natural wisdom and compassion, which efficiently shifts us from stress to peace.

Coherence: During this course, students will use biofeedback software to achieve heart-brain coherence, which results in feeling peaceful.   Coherence leads to improved impulse control and better problem solving ability while enhancing creativity and intuition.  When we are coherent, we are able to tap our best wisdom for decision making.

Connection: The heart of this approach is the understanding that human beings share universal needs. Connecting to our own needs, and to those others, through empathy and honesty is the key to reliably accessing our compassion. 

The Power of BePeace: The transformational power of BePeace arises from the synergy of combining coherence with connection.  This allows individuals to resolve issues efficiently and peacefully.  By practicing BePeace daily, you will be able to
• Release stress, worry, anger and depression
• Open up and rely on your intuition
• Create deep self-confidence
• Resolve inner & interpersonal conflicts efficiently
• Become calm and clear when facing conflicts
• Connect with your feelings and needs
• Communicate honestly & empathically
These benefits lead to enriched relationships and the ability to contribute continuously to creating a more peaceful world.

This course is highly experiential. BePeace facilitators from the US and Costa Rica will each lead groups of 4 students in practice sessions throughout the week.  In this way, students will learn the BePeace Practice, the BePeace Path and BePeace Mediation.

BePeace was developed by Rita Marie Johnson in 2002 and has been implemented in 18 schools in Costa Rica, impacting 18,000 students.  Now the Ministry of Education in Costa Rica has committed to bring BePeace into every school in Costa Rica. Rita Marie has also taught BePeace to international leaders in peace, business and nonprofit organizations in the United States, Costa Rica, Denmark, Japan, Canada and Guatemala.

This course offers two credits in two weeks beginning January 14, 2013 and seeks to bridge the rapidly evolving dynamics, from traditional understandings of security to “human security” and explore how efforts at improving the human condition can best be understood and applied within a human rights framework. The concept of security is essentially contested, and the new normative human security agenda makes the concept even more contestable because individual human beings - not states - are the key referent object of security, as in human rights. Typically taught in academic environments as separate streams, human rights and human security interconnect when the focus is on women’s “lived rights” – particularly in conflict zones, fragile states or countries emerging from conflict. By examining different theoretical perspectives, including liberal internationalism, rooted in the legal traditions of international human rights and humanitarian law, international developmentalism, and critical theories such as post-Marxism, postmodernism, and feminism. Students in this course, with the instructors and guest lecturers, compare and contrast contemporary security studies, traditionally dominated by proponents of political realism who advanced the concept of national security, with women’s human rights through contemporary case studies drawn the “frontlines” of women’s peace building, working directly with women’s rights advocates well regarded in the field. Class assignments will provide opportunities for students to examine the history and current status of the emerging Responsibility to Protect doctrine in human security, the role of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in the Women, Peace and Security global agenda, as well as the theory and praxis related to UNSC Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889 and related human rights initiatives. In the second week, Ms. Cabrera-Balleza will come from the New York base of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, of which she is a co-founder, to lecture and to introduce to the class two women peacebuilders from two conflict zones. Assigned and facilitated by the instructors, students will be able to interview a senior diplomat with extensive UN peacebuilding experience and team with the NGO peacebuilding leaders to produce research and policy materials grounded in the practicalities of diplomacy and advocacy for inclusive conflict resolution and peacebuilding.   

This course will introduce students to the relations between the environment, natural resources, and peace and conflict. We will discuss the concepts of Global Environmental Change, Sustainable Development, and Environmental Security. Specific focus will be given to Climate Change and Deforestation, and to the different approaches to development inside the sustainable development discourse. Environmental Security will be analyzed emphasizing the underlying neo-Malthusian ideas that still prevail in much of the literature. Specifically, we will look at the linkages between natural resources and conflicts focusing not only on environmental scarcities, but also on the resource curse and resource abundance approaches to so-called “environmental conflicts”. We will take an in depth look at the role of the environment and of natural resources for sustainable peace, and how natural resources can or could be used in initiating a peace process. Finally, the students will examine the Rwanda genocide and the different approaches used to analyze and explain this conflict. This case study will serve to bring all the concepts of this course together and to draw general conclusions.

The United Nations Protocol on Trafficking in Persons, adopted in November 2000, defines trafficking as: "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, or deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs." This protocol has 105 signatories. In our globalizing world, trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, hasincreased in both magnitude and in reach, becoming a major human rights concern. Trafficking grew enormously. The human trafficking affects vulnerable individuals, particularly women and children, in every region of the world, the criminal nature of human trafficking makes it difficult to know the real extent of the phenomenon.

This course will address the gender and power influences at play within the broader phenomena of international human trafficking:

• The emotional and physical stress
• The trafficking techniques
• Concept of gender and power relations
• Cases of trafficking
• Challenging in combating human trafficking

The course intends to, after having initially discussed the Lisbon Treaty of 2009, give students an in depth understanding of the political, economic and social reasons behind what today constitutes the European Union. A fair amount of European history, contemporary and older will in this respect be subject for discussion. Furthermore, the course will extensively deal with how and why the European economic and, subsequently, political, social and judicial co-operation has taken place and arrived to where it is today. In the latter context students will have the possibility to look into the national diversities and similarities of the national political reasons that have taken the co-operation of originally six countries to the EEC/EC/Union today of twenty-seven in a span of less than half a century.

The objective of this course is to first explore the nature of our food systems and the paradox of why, despite the apparent scientific and technological developments in agriculture enabling production of a worldwide food surplus, food insecurity is increasing globally. Secondly, students will explore what needs to change in our food systems in order to reach a goal of sustainable food security.

To achieve these two objectives, students will be encouraged to explore food security from a household and community perspective in order to understand the environmental factors that contribute to food insecurity. This knowledge-building process will be done through group tasks in the classroom and in the field. Students will be expected to undertake practical work to assess the situation of households vulnerable to food insecurity, hopefully in two locations, one urban and one rural. The course emphasizes “learning by doing” and so there will be field trips to two locations to meet vulnerable households and to assess successful local research initiatives which are increasing household and community food security.

Group work in the class will address defining food security and what constitutes a healthy sustainable food system. In addition, there will be group work, for example, in exploring the causes of famines, the issue of food justice and a right to food, the problems of food aid, and the implications of commoditization of our food systems. To bring out opposing viewpoints on food issues, part of the group work will be organized as debates. The intention of the course is to emphasise experiential learning rather than focus on formal lectures although there will be an initial presentation by the instructor on a food security topic prior to each workshop session. Hopefully, students will have gained both practical skills and theoretical knowledge about hunger, famine and food security and will feel confident and empowered to address these issues directly or indirectly in their future work.

The course starts analyzing the declaration of the MDG of UN, looks at different approaches to understanding poverty, the relation of poverty and inequality, the relation of poverty, health and education, the institutional constraints for poverty reduction, international cooperation and aid and ends looking at some case studies of success and failure in developing countries. The course will attempt to provide students with a systemic and integrated view of the problem of poverty in the context of globalization and a critical analysis of  policy options.

The course targets the myth of contingent sovereignty and how the international legal system attempts in vain to reinforce this fiction in the Middle East and ends up regenerating conflict. Despite the fact that many of the conflicts today in regions such as the Middle East or Africa are directly linked to territory and borders, international law reinforces the fixity of borders, expecting states to be in control of them. Norms such as uti possidetis maintain the colonial borders separating people who want to be together, and joining those who want to remain apart. Emerging international legal norms, such as the Responsibility to Protect, while addressing issues of state weakness with violence and ending up weakening weak states even more, are justified under international law based on naive claims of contingent sovereignty. Thus, the first week of the course is a critical study of the international legal system's understanding of borders, territories and states. The second week is a factual exploration showing how the organizations, such as the UN, which were created for maintaining peace, have ended up generating conflict. The case studies are post-invasion Iraq, Lebanon and the 2006 war with Israel, Libya before and after the NATO intervention, and the Syrian crisis.

The moniker 'Democratic' has been adopted by movements, organisations and states of drastically different ideological persuasion, social and political vision. Whether genuinely or rhetorically, the pursuit of democracy and democratisation has been a permanent fixture in international and domestic politics since the end of the Second World War. Either through violent or non-violent means, political transition and regime change is always dramatic and never simple. The course explores what this process means and how democratic transitions happen through an overview of theories of change and the analysis of case studies.

This two weeks course intends to explore the study of happiness or subjective well-being as part of a more general move in economics that challenges the traditional global economic models and analyzes the conventional path of growth that the developed economies have followed and the developing ones intend to emulate. Happiness economics – which represents one new direction – relies on more expansive notions of utility and wellbeing, looking at interdependency and interconnectedness not claiming to replace income-based measures of welfare but instead to complement them with broader measures of well-being that eventually could lead us towards more sustainable livelihoods.

The program is intended to be of value to those who are developing a clear direction and mission. It provides the opportunity to sharpen your ability to lead, communicate, bring people together, collaborate and move projects forward. It also develops your confidence and helps you get great clarity around what you stand for and are willing to commit to.

The course will introduce ways that the process of performance, theatre and ritual can be used as strategies to create peace, collaboration and mutual understanding. Students will be engaged in developing and facilitating workshops and projects on subjects which in each case are personally relevant, and that they later are committed to delivering in another context.

Participants will also contextualize their experiences through research, documentation, readings, discussion and presentation.

With an emphasis on service to others, finding your authentic voice and collaboration, this is an integrated experiential approach to the concept of Leadership.

The course aims at strengthening the capacity of scientists, administrators and students to respond to specific donor demands to achieve complementary funding for projects (Project Funding) and institutions (Core Funding).The course is an instrumental one and systematically develops a logical framework based project matrix, a concept paper and gives an overview about potential funding agencies and options. The course is oriented towards the needs of the participants. They start the course with their own project idea in which external funding is required and finalize with concrete results such as a project planning matrix, project profile and potential donors identified to launch the project.

Ameena Alrasheed Ph.D candidate at Leeds University the UK, worked as Teaching Assistant at the Department of Political Science, Khartoum university, Sudan, TA at Leeds University, Middle Eastern Studies, Trainer and consultant with the UN and international organizations in Kosovo, Iran, Indonesia. Researcher on women’s refugees and immigrants in the Netherland and women and domestic violence in the UK at the National probation centers, West Yorkshire.

Balázs Áron Kovács is an instructor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the UNmandated University for Peace. He holds a Juris Doctorate from the Faculty of Law and Political Science, Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary and a Master’s Degree in International Peace Studies from the University for Peace. Since the beginning of 2007 he has been working with the Dual Campus Master of Arts in International Peace Studies programme in Manila, the Philippines and San José, Costa Rica. Prior to his appointment at UPEACE he worked as a programme officer at Freedom House Europe, Budapest. He also worked as a civil servant in the Hungarian Ministry of Justice on good governance and taught European and Hungarian history at FEB’93, a foundation engaged in education in Hungary.

Brian Dowd-Uribe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environment, Peace and Security. Brian is also a co-founder of the New Roots Institute for the Study of Food Systems, an educational nonprofit based in Santa Cruz, California dedicated to interdisciplinary research and education on food systems. Before joining UPEACE, Brian was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. His current research explores the social and economic dimensions of food, agriculture and water policy, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. One major research project assesses how the liberalization of agricultural commodity chains and the introduction of transgenic crops (GMOs) affect poor producers in Burkina Faso. Other current research explores (a) the politics of integrated water resource management (IWRM) implementation in Burkina Faso, and (b) the environmental and social impacts of community gardens in New York City. Brian received his interdisciplinary PhD in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Prior to his graduate work, he served as an Environmental Protection Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo, West Africa. Brian originally became interested in Costa Rica as an undergraduate study abroad student at the Universidad de Costa Rica, and at the University of California’s Tropical Biology and Conservation Program in Monteverde.

After graduating from the University of Lund, Sweden, Law School (with honors) he worked as a District Judges Assessor at a civil and criminal regional court in Sweden before joining the Swedish Foreign Ministry. With the Ministry he has held various positions at the home-office and abroad, among those as Director for American Affairs, as Director for Asian Affairs, and for Eastern European Affairs. Postings abroad include several in Central America, North and South America, including as Head of Mission in Montevideo, Uruguay and in Managua, Nicaragua. Furthermore Christer has served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Swedish Embassies in Rome, Italy and Vienna, Austria. During 4,5 years Christer served as Senior Advisor at the European Union Council Secretariat, Directorate General for International Relations. More recently Christer served as Ambassador for multilateral co-operation in the Baltic Sea Area, holding in 2006-2007 the presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, Committee of Senior Officials, and thereafter served as the Representative of the local EU-presidency in Nicaragua.
Since April 2009 Christer holds the position of Head of the Department of International Law and Human Rights  at the UN-mandated University for Peace, in San José, Costa Rica. He speaks, in addition to his native Swedish, English and Spanish. 

Prof. Ansorena holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, USA. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the National University of Costa Rica. The University of Massachusetts also granted a Master in Economics.

Since August 2011 will be Associate Professor at the University for Peace and have the responsibility of conducting the Master of Arts Programmes in Responsible Management and Sustainable Economic Development.

Before joining UPeace, Dr. Ansorena has been an economist practitioner with over 20 years of professional experience as project manager and advisor to different organizations such as Government of Costa Rica as General Manager for the Program of “Regulation of Cadastre and Registry and Municipal Strengthening” the Central American Integration Secretariat (2005-2008), the government of Nicaragua, (2003-2004), UNDP, UNICEF, World Bank, CATIE (1999-2002). He has been also an IADB economist and program officer (1991-1998) and advisor to the Ministry of Trade of the government of Costa Rica (1997-1998). He has a broad set of skills in economic and policy analysis, planning and trade.

His long professional experience has been combined with teaching, mainly in the University of Massachusetts and the National University of Costa Rica.

Gerd Junne held the chair for International Relations at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands for three decades. He has a background in political science, economics and law.  He founded The Network University (TNU) in 1997, which offers online courses on conflict transformation.  His teaching and research is in the field of international political economy, with a focus on conflict studies and postconflict development.  He cooperates with a broad range of NGOs and has evaluated many peacebuilding programmes.  He is a fellow of the Post-War Reconstruction and Development Unit of the University of York (UK), a board member of War Child Holland, of Radio Benevolencija Humanitarian Tools Foundation, and a member of the steering committee of the Cultural Emergency Response programme of the Prince Claus Fund in the Netherlands.

Harout Akdedian is an instructor and doctoral candidate at the Department of International Law and Human Rights at UPEACE. He is also a Research Fellow at the UPEACE Human Rights Center. Harout has a BA in Political Science and a Master’s degree in International Law. He has worked as a journalist in the Middle East covering the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon. He is the author of many articles related to the geopolitical situation in the Caucasus, and the 'Arab spring' from grassroots perspective, and has recently published his book; 'The Armenian-Turkish Protocols'. His present research interests are borders and territory in international law; and the political history of the Middle East.

Assistant Professor in the Department of Environment, Peace and Security, University for Peace. MSc. Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University and Research Center, The Netherlands. BSc. Tropical Forestry, Technological Institute of Costa Rica, Cartago, Costa Rica. He teaches Forestry, Agriculture, the San Jose Environmental Seminar and the Natural Resource Management Field Trip. Prior to this, he worked as a Student Research Assistant in Wageningen University and Research Center, WUR, at the Sociology Department, inside the Environmental Policy Group. Research interests: Payments for Environmental Services, Forest Conservation, Sustainable Rural Development, Community Forest Concessions.

Jesai (formerly known as Jeff Burnett) is a graduate of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London England. He has extensive credits as a director, actor, writer and teacher specializing in research, collaboration and unconventional theatre forms.

He directed various performances in the London fringe and was a company member of the interactive Liquid Theatre London. He became co-director and leading actor with International Theatre Research Group KISS in Holland touring internationally.

He also trained with the Roy Hart Theatre based in France which specializes in Voice Research and the Suzuki Company of Toga in Japan.

Jesai was involved in the collaborative creation of many performance events developed from mythic stories inspired by the work of Joseph Campbell and Jean Houston.

For 7 years he served on the faculty of Yale University Theatre Studies during which time he was involved in providing artistic direction to several large multi cultural arts festival aimed at bringing the diverse populations of the city of New Haven together in celebration.

He taught at Simon Fraser School for Contemporary Art in Vancouver BC and also offered training programs for Professors in Voice and Effective Communication.

Jesai has been a member of Vancouver Playback Theatre and lead trainer of the youth troupe which recreates stories with audiences from culturally diverse groups towards healing, conflict resolution and dialogue. Most recently he has taught group leadership and workshop facilitation at Rhodes Wellness College in Vancouver, directed a transformational theatre performance based on Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and wrote and performed in an exploration of male sexuality called "Conversations with Willie".

Juergen Carls (Ph.D.) is associated with the Department of Environment, Peace and Security since 2002. He is giving classes on sustainable development, strategic planning, project management and fundraising for international cooperation projects. Before he was teaching sustainable development at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

He studied "International Rural Development" and completed his doctoral dissertation at the Technical University of Berlin. His long term experiences as manager and government advisor of international research and cooperation projects financed by the WB, IADB, EU, FAO, GTZ in Asia, Africa and Latin America has been documented in 70 publications.

Marilou Mcphedran is a lawyer who has specialised in international human rights, particularly comparative constitutional law and legal empowerment of the poor - serving as the principal (dean) of The University of Winnipeg Global College from 2008-2011, having resigned in 2008 as the Chief Commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission and as the Ariel F. Sallows Chair in International Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law. McPhedran was made a Member of the Order of Canada (Canada’s highest civic honour) in 1985 in recognition of her co-leadership in the successful campaign for stronger equality protections in the Canadian constitution. She co-founded several internationally recognized non-profit systemic change organizations, such as LEAF – the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, which has conducted constitutional equality test cases and interventions for decades.In 1997, she founded the International Women’s Rights Project, located at the University of Victoria Centre for Global Studies and had assignments for monitoring and reporting on aspects of international women’s rights. She currently directs the Global College Institute for International Women’s Rights, is a founder and director of LEPNet.org for funders, policymakers, researchers and advocates in legal empowerment of the poor and is completing a UN Human Rights Fellowship at the UNFPA Geneva Office.

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza is a co-founder of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, with a Master of Arts in Communication Research from the University of the Philippines and a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Communication from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. She has served as Programme Associate and Manager of Isis International; as Senior Programme Associate of the International Women’s Tribune Centre; and currently as the International Network Coordinator/Program Director of the International Civil Society Action Network,based in New York City.

Mihir Kanade is the Director of the UPEACE Human Rights Centre and is an Academic Consultant to the Department of International Law and Human Rights at UPEACE. Prior to the present position, Mihir practiced for 6 years as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of India and the Bombay High Court, focusing on issues of fundamental human rights violations. He holds a LL.B. from Nagpur University and a Master’s degree in International Law and the Settlement of Disputes from UPEACE. He has served as a legal advisor to many human rights organizations in India and has represented them before different courts and tribunals in criminal, constitutional and labour cases. His principal area of academic research and study is Human Rights and International Trade Linkages, on which he has also worked as a consultant with the United Nations University, Tokyo.

Rita Marie Johnson is director of the Rasur Foundation in Costa Rica and Rasur Foundation International in the US.

In 2002, Johnson created the BePeace practice, a synergistic skill set that combines coherence and connection to build social and emotional intelligence. This combination allows us to access our natural wisdom and compassion, which efficiently shifts us from stress to peace.

In 2006, Johnson initiated a Ministry for Peace bill in Costa Rica which passed in 2009 without opposition.  This resulted in the current Ministry for Justice and Peace.

BePeace won the Ashoka Changemakers Innovation Award: Building a More Ethical Society, chosen from 79 projects in 32 countries. Johnson implemented BePeace in 18 Costa Rican schools, impacting nearly 18,000 students. In 2012, the Ministry of Education committed to a four year plan to bring BePeace into every elementary and high school in Costa Rica.

In September, 2011, Johnson gifted the University for Peace with Rasur Foundation headquarters, called Quizur. It is being used as a second campus for UPeace with an agreement that the BePeace program will continue there. This will insure the long term sustainability of BePeace as a national peace education program.

Instructor of the Responsible Management and Sustainable Economic Development (RMSED) program. From 2006-2008 she served in India as Director of the Valencian Government Foreign Trade Office and from 2004-2006 she was International Trade Advisor at the Commercial Office of the Embassy of Spain in New Delhi (India) gaining broad experience in international commerce and cooperation.  

She holds an MA in International Peace Studies from the University for Peace (Costa Rica), a postgraduate degree in Design of Sustainability from the Open University of Catalonia (Spain), she is an Expert in Mediation from the University of Alicante (Spain) and a BA in Business Administration from the University Cardenal-Herrera CEU (Spain).