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Issue 14: February 2002

INCORE head appointed to
council of Carter Center

Prof. Mari Fitzduff

The Director of UNU Institute for Conflict Resolution (UNU/INCORE), Prof. Mari Fitzduff, has been appointed to the International Council of Conflict Resolution (ICCR) at Emory University's prestigious Carter Center, founded 20 years ago by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to reduce conflict and alleviate suffering in the world.

The ICCR is made up of 20 eminent persons from world politics, conflict resolution and academia, including Lord David Owen, Mrs. Sadako Ogata and Sir Kieran Prendergast, as well as several prominent UN officials, including Assistant Secretary General Angela King and Dame Margaret Anstee of UNDP.

Prof. Fitzduff, who has already met with other council members in Atlanta to discuss future work and development of the centre, said: "Many Americans are still reeling in shock at their vulnerability to terrorism, and trying to come to terms with how their fate is so intimately connected with conflicts elsewhere such as the Middle East.

"Centres like INCORE, and the Carter Centre, whose work has for many years focused on such conflicts, have a
great deal to learn and share with each other, and there could be no better time than the present for doing so."

Diversity proving difficult for governments

Most governments, and not just Northern Ireland,  are having problems dealing with diversity, Prof. Fitzduff told an international audience at the London School of Economics Jan. 24.

Prof. Fitzduff, said that the ethnic and religious composition of most nation states had changed rapidly over the past decade to the point where more than 90 per cent of states are now multi-ethnic and multi-religious in nature.

"Even in Northern Ireland, where historically there have been two main and competing religious and political traditions, there are now over 50 ethnic groups making their home there to-day," she said. "Although as yet they constitute only a small fraction of societies, their presence is considerably enriching the cultural mix of the region – and even affecting the way in which politics is conducted." 

Prof. Fitzduff pointed out that almost all of the 40 current on-going conflicts in the world arise from the failure of states to manage their different ethnic and religious groups constructively. Many existing approaches may have been useful  in the past but are now divisive and competitive rather than constructive, she said.

"There is a need to take time out to challenge many of the existing assumptions about diversity if states are to be constructively ahead of their future, and not developing policies from past approaches to diversity that may well now be outdated."

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