The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution presents:
What We Are Learning From Behavioral Science About a World in Conflict
A virtual talk with:
Tim Phillips
Founder and CEO, Beyond Conflict
Monday, February 12, 2024
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm, ET (US and Canada)
Free and open to the public.
Click to access Zoom registration link.
This session will be recorded. Pending approval, we will post the recording on this page.
About the talk:
As we face a world of growing conflict and deepening polarization, can brain and behavioral science offer us a better way to build peace and coexistence? Phillips shares that many approaches and assumptions to resolving conflict and promoting reconciliation can often ignore what science increasingly tells us, and we could be causing more harm than progress.
Behavioral science tells us that we need to focus on how we think as humans and not what we think. We need to understand human cognition and emotion if we are to address conflict effectively in all its dimensions. We think in groups, we think automatically, and we think in mental models of the world that are shaped principally as children.
Tim Phillips will share what he and his colleagues have been learning in the field of behavioral science over the last decade about a world in conflict.
About the speaker:
Timothy Phillips is a leader in the field of conflict resolution and reconciliation and founder of Beyond Conflict, a global non-profit that has created powerful and innovative frameworks to open pathways for progress in peace talks, transitions to democracy, and national reconciliation in the aftermath of division and violence in dozens of countries around the world. Under his leadership, Beyond Conflict has catalyzed the field of behavioral science and social conflict and partners with scientists and practitioners to bring forward new evidence-based strategies to reduce conflict, increase tolerance, and facilitate positive social change in the United States and abroad. Phillips has advised the United Nations, the U.S. Department of State, and the Council of Europe, and helped launch the Club of Madrid, a forum of 120 former democratic Heads of State and Government who work to strengthen global democracy and institutions. Phillips was educated at Suffolk University, the London School of Economics, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Suffolk University in 2018.
About the Herbert C. Kelman Seminar Series:
The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution series is sponsored by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. The seminar considers ways to strengthen the capacity to prevent, resolve, and transform ethnonational conflicts.
For more information on the Kelman Seminar Series, contact Donna Hicks at dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu.
