Event Report: The Power of Dialogue and the Impact of Silencing in Foreign Policy

AIA Fellows Mariia Levchenko and Bernhard Stahl organized a workshop on silence and dialogue in international relations. After Elisabeth Schweiger (University of Sterling, UK) first reflected on the analytical implications of silence in foreign policy from a theoretical and conceptual perspective, Bernhard Stahl, Sebatian Glassner and Julius Bonaventura (University of Passau) elaborated on this in more detail along concrete research projects, the second day of the workshop focused on the implementation of concrete dialogue processes in the context of peacebuilding measures. After a keynote speech by Jose Pascal da Rocha (Berghof Foundation), in which he presented dialogues as a political and transformative practice based on his wealth of experience, two practitioners, Marianna Barcuk-Halyk (Center for Civilians in Conflict, Ukraine) and Izzat Kashbakov (Berghof Foundation), had their say. They described the dialogue practices they use in polarized and post-conflict situations. They shared with the participants the dialogues and mediations they have led in Georgia and Ukraine. The very intensive and, for many participants, even touching discussion focused primarily on the question of expectation management and the factors for the success of inclusive dialog processes. All participants agreed that they took a lot away from this workshop, that the link between theoretical groundwork and practical application was very successful and that everyone now has a clearer picture of the valuable work mediators and peacebuilders do in an increasingly hostile world.