Peace and Collaborative Development Network

Here’s quite a

website

for peaceworkers! The URL made me laugh out loud. International Peace and Conflict. Talk about a juxtaposition.

Yes, I suppose peacework is most often about conflict, but what I liked about this resource is its community. Here’s what they say about themselves.

“This is a free professional networking site (with over 6840 members from around the world) to foster dialogue and sharing of resources in international development, conflict resolution, gender mainstreaming, human rights, social entrepreneurship and related fields. Feel free to explore the site content and features, REGISTER and create your own profile, contribute to a DISCUSSION TOPIC, start a blog, connect with colleagues, CHAT on conflict related topics, INVITE OTHERS to join, view a VIDEO, and more. You can also read the GUIDES to CAREERS, ACADEMIC PROGRAMS, FUNDING, RESEARCH AND PRACTICE.

Sincerely,

Craig Zelizer, Ph.D., Associate Director, Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution, Department of Government, Georgetown University”

It’s funny. I’ve been looking for peace organizations for two decades, weighing them against my inner peace mission. I still haven’t found the one that’s right for my work, so I’m on the verge of creating my own online peace presence. Still, I liked Dr. Zelizer’s intention.

So often, not-for-profits seem to duplicate their raisons d’être. So often workers for social change seem to reinvent the wheel. So often it appears that we are not sharing resources with one another.

The Peace and Collaborative Development Network is all about sharing resources, and not reinventing the wheel. What a nice change. I joined the network and my membership is pending approval.

Their discussion forums are juicy. Here are some topics:

• Peace, Conflict and Development Work
• Scholarship, Fellowship Opportunities and Academic Programs
• Training Opportunities, Conferences and Events
• Competitions, Prizes and Awards
• Career Resources
• Peace, Conflict and Development Practice
• Peace Advocacy … and more.

The news from the Peace and Collaborative Development Network is skewed toward the academic, but I think that when academia decides to take up a discipline, it has arrived. Peace Studies, or Peace & Justice Studies as it is often known, is a valuable track to learn where peace has been lacking in the past. I hold out the hope that learning about mistakes in a peace process will prevent us from being doomed to repeat them.

In almost every photo in their 122 page album, the warm, expectant faces of human beings shine out in cyberworld. And this is a key to creating peace... It’s not a theory. It’s a practice. A practice that will only work one person at a time. And that’s why, even though I joined the network, I’m still an inner peace activist.

To learn more, visit www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org, or visit Dr. Susan Corso’s website www.susancorso.com