Peace Negotiation Preparation, Skills, and Techniques

PILPG’s Peace Negotiation Summer School commences on Monday, July 15, 2024. Day two of the summer school includes mini lectures with experienced peace negotiators. This page includes the schedule for the day, details on the experts who presented, additional resources and a recording of the July 16 zoom session.

Click on the video above to watch a recording of this session.

Schedule:

Expert Insight Videos

Additional Resources

Experts:

  • Ambassador Donald J. Planty is a Senior Peace Fellow at Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG). Ambassador Planty is also a Senior Advisor of the Albright Stonebridge Group (ASG), where he advises clients on international issues. He is also President and CEO of Planty & Associates LLC, his own consulting firm. He is former Senior Foreign Service Officer of the United States and U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala with 40 years of experience in the public and private sectors. Ambassador Planty is an expert on Latin American affairs and European security issues, drawing on his experience living and working in Panama, Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Norway, Italy, and Spain. As Ambassador to Guatemala, he was instrumental in facilitating negotiation of the historic 1996 Peace Accords, which ended four decades of internal conflict in that country.

  • Vartan Oskanian served as minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Armenia from 1998 to 2008. Prior to his ministerial appointment, he held several high level positions in the ministry, and has been Armenia’s chief negotiator for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan from 1995 till the end of his ministerial tenure.

    After leaving his ministerial position in April 2008, Mr Oskanian established the Civilitas Foundation, a think tank and center for public advocacy in Yerevan, which remains one of the most reputable institutions in Armenia. Mr Oskanian was elected to the Armenian Parliament in 2012, where he served for five years.

    Mr Oskanian has taught a course “Politics of Self-Determination and Secession,” at the Center of Armenian Studies at the University of Southern California and at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.

    Since 2019, Mr Oskanian is serving as advisor to the CEO of RECOM, a renewable energy company with solar projects globally.

    Mr Oskanian has an MS in Government Studies from Harvard’s extension program and an MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Tufts University.

  • Betsy Popken is the Executive Director of the Human Rights Center (HRC) at UC Berkeley School of Law, where she leads a team conducting a global human rights assessment of generative AI and spearheads HRC's work on international peace negotiations, collaborating with the United Nations Institute on Training and Research (UNITAR) and the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG). Betsy also manages HRC's developing work in the climate and human rights space.  Drawing from her real-world experience, Betsy teaches courses on Technology & Human Rights and International Peace Negotiations at Berkeley Law. 

  • Dr. Alush Gashi is a professor of Anatomy and a Specialist in General Surgery. Dr. Gashi was a professor of Anatomy at the University of Prishtina (Kosova) from 1974 - 2017, served as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at University of Prishtina from 1988 - 1992, and was a visiting scientist at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine from 1981 - 1984.A signatory to the Declaration of Independence of Kosova (2008), Dr. Gashi served as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic League of Kosova, Senior Advisor to President Ibrahim Rugova, Majority Leader of the Parliament of Kosova, Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, and the first Minister of Health of the Republic of Kosova. Dr. Gashi later served as a Political and Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister from 2020 - 2021.As a well-known human rights activist, Dr. Gashi has documented and published inhumane actions of the Serbian regime. When the Serbian regime closed schools and organized the systematic firing of Albanians in all sectors, Dr. Gashi was highly active in the organization of the so-called “parallel system”, which enabled the continuation of education and services in private homes. For decades, Dr. Gashi was the face of Kosova in Washington D.C., establishing a strong connection between the United States and Kosova, and testifying about the crimes of the Serbian regime in Congressional Hearings. After Kosova gained independence, he continued his support for people seeking freedom and justice.He is the founder of the Institute on Foreign Relations (IFR) in Kosova and serves as the Chairman.

  • Anna Triponel is an internationally renowned business, human rights and climate expert and the founder of Human Level. She is also an international lawyer.    

    Anna was previously the director of PILPG’s New York office, and she also led the PILPG team advising on Libya’s post-conflict constitutional process – following on from work with other post-conflict countries including Tunisia, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire. Anna is now a Senior Peace Fellow with PILPG. 

  • Ambassador Zorica Maric Djordjević is a Senior Peace Fellow and Chair of the Circle of Former Ambassadors to the United Nations Human Rights Council  at PILPG. She was until recently the Head of the Permanent Mission of Montenegro to the World Trade Organization. Her career in public service and diplomacy spans 40 years. She has held various leadership positions including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro (1989-92) and the Chief Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister (1992-1997). She served as the Special Envoy of Prime Minister and President Milo Djukanovic to the United States and the Head of Montenegro Trade Mission in Washington DC (1998-2006). She was responsible for coordinating USAID assistance and was the liaison to the US Congress, State Department, and the Pentagon for the Government of Montenegro. Through these positions, Ambassador Maric Djordjević made the case for Montenegro's independence.

    She is currently a pro-bono Senior Peace Fellow at the Public International Law Policy Group (PILPG), a Washington DC-based non-profit organization providing support to democratic systems in post-conflict areas. In this capacity, Ms. Maric was sent to a special mission in South Sudan and worked on several projects related to Sierra Leone. In addition to her Senior Peace Fellow role at PILPG, Amb. Maric is the Chair of PILPG’s Circle of Former Ambassadors to the United Nations Human Rights Council, convened in March 2022. 

    She is a champion of the UNHRC approach to transitional justice, the “Trade for Peace” initiative (WTO and ITC), and a strong advocate of trade and commercial diplomacy as part of the toolbox for peace building. She is the author of numerous studies, white papers, analyses and comments in the field of international economic relations and diplomacy.

  • Amb. Amina Mohamed has had a distinguished career in the Kenyan Public Service spanning over thirty-five years. She served in three Government Ministerial portfolios. She was Cabinet Secretary in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and International Trade; Education, Science and Technology; and Sports, Culture and Heritage. She was also Permanent Secretary for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs and ASG/Deputy Executive Director of UNEP. Prior, she was Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN, WTO, and the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland.

  • Originally from Toronto, Canada and a past National Law Journal “40 Under 40” awardee, Matt leads Mintz’s global Private Equity practice and helps his clients navigate complex corporate transactions including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, growth equity, venture capital and other minority investments, and restructurings. Prior to joining Mintz, Matt worked for Torys LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.

    In addition to his corporate practice, Matt is a recognized international negotiator and legal advisor. In 2010, the United Nations and African Union appointed Matt the Principal Legal Advisor to the Darfur Delegation in the Darfur Peace Negotiations. Embedded in Doha, Qatar as an official member of the Darfur delegation, Matt led a team of over two dozen legal and policy advisors on all aspects of the peace negotiations including the negotiation of a $2 billion development fund, the return of IDPs and refugees, and the formation of a regional government for Darfur. Since 2006 Matt has affiliated with the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) in Washington, DC where he has advised on over a dozen post-conflict legal and policy initiatives including leading the first-ever surrender to the International Criminal Court, war crimes prosecution efforts in Uganda, and the Iraqi constitution. Matt currently serves in a pro bono capacity as a PILPG Senior Peace Fellow advising on various peace processes and post-conflict initiatives.