Launch of Berghof Foundation’s National Dialogue Handbook, German Ministry of Foreign Affairs
I served as an adviser to the team at the Berghof Foundation developing their ground breaking National Dialogue Handbook: A Guide for Practitioners and produced a conceptual paper for the project:
Dilemmas of Ownership, Inclusivity, Legitimacy and Power: Towards Transformative National Dialogue Processes. National Dialogue Handbook Background Paper No. 1. Berlin: Berghof Foundation. 2017.
This built on two earlier projects examining transformative war-to-peace transitions, with (more) inclusive and comprehensive dialogue and negotiations enabling reconsideration of the social contract:
Owning the Process: Public Participation in Peacemaking. Accord 13. Editor. London: Conciliation Resources, 2002 - and the related brief for policy audiences Public Participation in Peacemaking
Renegotiating the political settlement in war-to-peace transitions. Paper commissioned by UK Department for International Development for OECD-DAC International Dialogue on Statebuilding and Peacebuilding. March 2009.
Empowering the Polity: Governance, Conflict and Deliberative Dialogue
This paper, published by the Toda Peace Institute, examines the relationship between conflict, governance, and deliberative dialogue, arguing that dialogical processes are central to societies’ ability to manage difference through political rather than coercive means. Conflict is an intrinsic feature of social life, and governance systems ideally provide institutional mechanisms to mediate competing interests, identities, and values. When governance becomes unresponsive, polarized, or coercive, these mechanisms break down, increasing the risk of destructive conflict. The paper develops a framework for understanding how deliberative dialogue can strengthen governance across three contexts: stable democracies seeking more inclusive policymaking, polarized societies requiring renewed social cohesion, and conflict-affected systems renegotiating their political settlements. It also highlights the risks of poorly designed processes and emphasizes the need for conflict-sensitive, trauma-informed approaches that address power asymmetries.