Program of Peace Studies, the first of this kind in SR Yugoslavia
(since 2003: Serbia and Montenegro), started in 1999. It
consists of a series of courses and training seminars organized
by methods of active and cooperative learning and in workshop format,
and of planning and conducting of regional students projects under
the auspices of Most experts.
The Peace Studies program is organised by group MOST. The
program is coordinated by Dragan Popadic and Danijela Petrovic,
and Ivana Vitas, secretary.
Project "Peace Studies" was financialy supported by Unated
States Institute for Peace (USIP) and Fond for an Open Society,
Belgrade.
Peace Studies program for 2005/2006 is finances by Catholic Agency
for Overseas Development (CAFOD).
Each school year, approximately 30 students were enrolled. During
the school year, students attend 164 hours of lectures and group
discussions structured in the courses (12-19) and round tables.
They also have five weekend training seminars lasting 80 hours.
The courses and round tables deal with issues of conflict resolution,
human rights, international relations etc. The lecturers are eminent
academicians, experts and peace activists from Serbia&Montenegro
and abroad.
Here is the list of the courses conducted by now:
| |
1999/
2000 |
2000/
20001 |
2001/
2002 |
| Social Conflicts: Origins, Functions, Dynamics and
Ways of Resolving (lecturer:
Dragan Popadic) Basic information about the conflicts and conflict
management are given. |
P |
P |
P |
Human Rights Protection and International Law (lecturer: Vojin Dimitrijevicć) The course gives
the basic information about human rights, their status in
international law and ways of their protection. |
P |
P |
P |
| War and Peace in Political Mythology (lecturer:
Ivan ČColovicć). It examines how war propaganda and
symbolic political communication before and during war conflicts
1990-1995 exploited existing myths and create new ones. |
P |
P |
|
| Politics of Identity and Conflicts: Balkan Case (lecturer:
Vesna Pešicć). Conflicts in Balkan in last decade and the
role of the politics of identity in them are analyzed. |
P |
P |
|
The
Other Side of War - Anti War History of Wars (coordinator: Dubravka Stojanović).
The wars throughout human history are described from the point
of view different from that contained in the history textbooks,
revealing a lot of sad and not-to-be-praised details. |
P |
P |
P |
Women
Culture and Nonviolence: Comparative Legal Feminist Theory (lecturer: Zorica
Mršević). The goal is to analyze violence - from domestic
violence to wars - from gender perspective and feminist theoretical
perspective. |
P |
P |
P |
| Religion-War-Peace (lecturer:
Milan Vukomanović) This course is about inter-religious
and interconfesional conflicts and about the role of religions
in causing of conflicts and its reconciliation. |
P |
P |
P |
| Us and Them: Serbian History Textbooks (lecturer:
Dubravka Stojanović) In this course, the current history
textbooks now in use in Serbia and Republika Srpska are analyzed,
with the aim to reconstruct the collective memory and values
contained in them. |
P |
|
|
Peace Journalism. Students have an opportunity to hear about prominent
representatives of Peace Journalism in our country, from three
different media: TV, radio, and news. |
P |
P |
P |
Peace Initiatives. Various peace initiatives and groups from Serbia
or abroad are presented by their promoters. |
P |
P |
P |
| International Politics, War and Peace (lecturer:
Dragan Matić). Main approaches to the issues of war and
peace in theories of international politics are presented and
their explanatory power is compared on various examples form
current world history. |
P |
P |
P |
(Dis)continuity in Struggle for Human Rights in Serbia (lecturer: Nebojša Popov). Democratic traditions in Serbia
in XIX and XX century are reviewed and their causes and impacts
as well as their mutual interdependence are discussed. |
P |
|
P |
Nation
and Nationalism (lecturer: Aleksandar Molnar). The meaning and development of the concepts
of nation and national identity were presented. The forms
of ethnic nationalism and its role in the process of disintegration
of Yugoslav society and war conflicts were analysed. |
|
|
P |
Political Mis(Use) of Traditional Music (lecturer: Ivan Colovic). The lecturer analyzed the ways in
which traditional music was misused in the process of producing
interethnic hatred and war propaganda. |
|
|
P |
Role of Education in Democratization of Society (lecturer: Tunde Kovac-Cerovic). Deputy Minister of Education
and Sports reviewed the changes in education process in the
neighboring countries and described the Ministry's policy
concerning the education for democratic citizenship |
|
|
P |
Terrorism (lecturer: Vojin Dimitrijevic). The terrorism
and terror were defined and analysed from legal and historical
perspective. The current cases of terrorist acts were analysed
and possible ways of combating terrorism were discussed. |
|
|
P |
Globalization (lecturer: Dragan Matic). Since the processes
of globalization are relatively unknown to our students, the
goal of the course was to give basic information about the
globalization process and about the arguments for and against
it. |
|
|
P |
Will
The Fourth World War Happen? (lecturer: Vesna Pesic). In this course, Yugoslav
ambassador in Mexico analyzed possible threats for peace in
the world, and the actions of preventing them were discussed. |
|
|
P |
History of Delusions ( coordinator
Dubravka Stojanovic) In this course, the history of popular national myths and delusions
were presented. Their origins, transformation, political utilization
and consequences were discussed. |
|
P |
P |
Intellectuals - power and responsibility (lecturer: Djordje Vukadinovic). The origins of the social
role of intellectual in contemporary society were described,
and the role of intellectuals in Yugoslav conflicts was analyzed. |
|
P |
P |
Truth, responsibility and reconciliation (coordinator: Dragan Popadic). The students had an opportunity
to listen about history of Truth and reconciliation commissions
and to discuss about possible role of Yugoslav commission
and to hear opposing views about this current issue. |
|
P |
P |
The role of media in conflicts (lecturer: Snjezana Milivojevic). The
role of media in international and inter-society conflicts
was analysing on theoretical level as well as by analising
the results of empirical investigations of this issue in last
decade in Yugoslavia |
|
|
P |
Training seminars offer practical
knowledge and skills concerning nonviolent communication and dealing
with conflicts and NGO management and protection of human rights.
Training seminars were facilitated by trainers from group Most.
| |
1999/
2000 |
2000/
2001 |
2001/
2002 |
| Communication skills and conflict management |
P |
P |
P |
| NGO management and cooperation |
P |
P |
P |
| Negotiation
and alternative dispute resolution |
P |
P |
P |
| Human
right protection |
P |
P |
P |
| Mediation
and facilitation in conflict |
P |
|
|
| Identity and Multicultural Understanding |
|
P |
P |
In the programs of "Balkan Bridges" participated:
Pamela Aall, United States Insitute for Peace, Washington
D.C.
Voja Antonic, publicist
Stasa Babic, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
Pernille Baerendtsen, Next Stop Serbia, Denmark
Marina Bogdanovic, MOST
Stojan Cerovic, journalist of magazine "Vreme"
Ivan Colovic, PhD, Ethnographic Institute, Serbian Academy
of Science and Arts (SANU)
Velimir Curguz, Fund for an Open Society
Miljenko Dereta, Civic Initiatives, Belgrade
Vojin Dimitrijevic, PhD, Director of Belgrade Center for
Human Rights
Daša Duhacek, PhD, Center for Gender Studies, Belgrade
Paula Green, director of Karuna Center, Boston
Matias Hellman, Outreach program, ICTY, Head of Belgrade
Hague Tribunal's office
Sulejman Hrnjica, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade, member
of the Truth and Reconciliation Comision
Dragan Ilic, journalist of B92
Dragana Ilic, psychologist, group MOST
Željko Ivaniš, Faculty of Civic Defense, Belgrade
Dejan Janca, lawyer
Aleksandar Joksimovic, Belgrade Center for Human Rights
Miroslav Jovanovic, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
Vladimir Jovanovic, Institute for History, Belgrade
Srdan Katic, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
Tatjana Katic, Institute for History, Belgrade
Vesna Kesic, Center for Peace Studies, Zagreb, Croatia
Slavica Kijevcanin, psychologist, group MOST
Svetlana Kijevcanin, psychologist, group MOST, UMCORE
Tunde Kovac-Cerovic, PhD, Deputy Minister for Education and
Sports
Marija Krivacic, psychologist, group MOST
Gary Kissel, Dpt of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Nova
Southeastern University, USA
Brana Markovic, PhD, Insitute for International Politics
and Economy, Belgrade
Dragan Matic, IOCC, Belgrade
Brendan McAllister, Belfast Mediation Network
Yichak Mendelson, psychotherapist, Jerusalem
Chris Miller, Albert Einstein Institute, Boston
Milan Miloševic, journalist of magazine "Vreme"
Lepa Mladjenovic, Women in Black, Belgrade
Aleksandar Molnar, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
Snjezana Mrse, MA, psychologist, group MOST
Zorica Mrševic, PhD, Institute for Social Sciences,
Belgrade, OSCE
Olga Murdzeva-Skaric, Center for Peace Studies, Skopje, Macedonia
Latinka Perovic, PhD, Institute for Contemporary History,
Belgrade
Vesna Pešic, PhD, director of Center for Antiwar Action,
Yugoslav Ambassador in Mexico
Danijela Petrovic, MA, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
Vesna Petrovic, Belgrade Center for Human Rights
Dragan Popadic, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
Nebojsa Popov, PhD, Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade
Radmila Radic, PhD, Institute for History, Belgrade
Srdjan Rajkovic, Institute for History, Belgrade
Gene Sharp, Albert Einstein Institute, Boston
Irena Slunjski, Center for Peace Studies, Zagreb, Croatia
Sanja Stanisic, psychologist, group MOST
Dubravka Stojanovic, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
Dubravka Velat, Civic Initiatives, Belgrade
Mina Vidakovic, journalist, ANEM
Miroslav Vujovic, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
Ðorde Vukadinovic, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
Milan Vukomanovic, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
A handbook "Introduction to Peace Studies" was
published in 2000, along with 6 readers and an anthology of students'
final works. The library and web-site (can be found on www.most.org.yu)
are established.
A 40-minute documentary film about Peace Studies is made
in 2002.
Several students' projects were successfully realized, to
mention just some of them:
Students Peace initiative SEE PEACE - meeting of
Peace Studies students from three republics of former Yugoslavia:
Zagreb (Croatia), Skopje (Macedonia) and Belgrade (Serbia), in Belgrade,
in April 21-23, 2000.
A summer work camp Next Stop Peace! which took place
in Pancevo, August 11-17, 2000, with 30 participants from Serbia,
Macedonia, Croatia and Denmark.
"Next Stop Serbia", a project conducted
in co-operation with the nongovernmental Danish Association for
International Co-operation (Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke), university
students, trade unionists and people with a special interest in
Balkan affairs from Denmark. Its goal was to create contacts between
people in Serbia and Denmark and to break down the stereotypes and
prejudices through meeting around common activities. A group of
youth from Denmark visited Belgrade in August 21-25, 2000. During
this period, students organized excursions, presentations of national
arts, and public debates.
Next Stop Summer University for 135 students from
several European countries took place from 13 to 25 July 2001 in
Novi Sad and Belgrade. The Summer School consisted of five independent
courses: Psychology of Peace and Tolerance, Media Impact on Public
Opinion, Ecology, Human Rights, Anthropology and Film.
Project "From Head to Toe" realized in
period April - September 2001 was organized by students of Peace
Studies together with students from Albania and Kosovo. The documentary
film about human rights was filmed in several small cities in Yugoslavia,
Albania and Kosovo. |
