As the long conflict between Georgia and its secession-demanding territory South Ossetia approached two decades, George Mason University invited two speakers to present their views on how the two sides can create some semblance of a community.
The School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and the Center for Eurasian Studies sponsored a research presentation, entitled “Georgian-South Ossetian Conflict: In Search of Peace.” The speakers presented on Oct. 3 on the Arlington campus, then again on the Fairfax campus Oct. 4. Event chair Susan Allen Nan, faculty member in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, invited speakers from Georgia and South Ossetia to present their research to the Mason community.
The presenters were Archil Gegeshidze, a senior fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies and a former Fulbright scholar at Stanford University, and Lira Kozaeva, a human rights activist and founder and director of the Association of Women of South Ossetia for Human Rights and Democracy. The overall conflict between the two sides – which has roots dating back to the 1920s – includes disputes over land, territory, oppression, culture and human rights, which led to a violent conflict in 2008 between Georgia and Russia. Instead of focusing on all-encompassing conflict resolution, the two speakers presented their research findings, which explored the possibilities of developing interpersonal, interregional relationships.
“Dr. Nan brought together members of civil society, human rights advocates and scholars to create dialogue and confidence building around day-to-day humanitarian issues that emerge from conflicts like this,” said Steven Barnes, director of the Center for Eurasian Studies. “The focus was on how to help individuals and communities deal with their own problems.”
Gegeshidze and Kozaeva each presented three papers, focused on opportunities for peacebuilding. Members of Nan’s course – CONF 300: Conflict Resolution Techniques and Practice – attended the events, which were open to the Mason community and the general public.
“Listening to people who can present two different perspectives on a conflict they share is a very valuable experience for my class,” Nan said. “We’re realizing that in conflict, there are many different perspectives, but no single perspective can explain it all. This event helps the class understand that fundamental dynamic of conflict and peacebuilding.”
Barnes, too, believes this event deals with some of the important problems that have emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union, and other conflicts within the region.
“It is important to provide the opportunity for people interested in peacebuilding to work together, despite disagreements they may have,” he said. “Both sides share some of the same goals.”
George Mason University’s interest in the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict isn’t a one-time deal either. Nan is the editor of two sets of papers – fittingly, one from the Georgian perspective and one from the South Ossetian perspective – on the conflict, which are available on the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution website.