Example Agenda for one-day Spence School (NYC)-Axis of Hope Workshop
Based on ‘Whose Jerusalem?’ Conflict Resolution Case Study

  7:30 – 8:00        Students arrive in conference room. Bagels, juice and coffee. Handout of conflict resolution materials.

  8:00 – 8:20        Welcome/overview of workshop by Prof. Carl Hobert, Executive Director, Axis of Hope.

  8:20 – 8:40        Outward Bound icebreaker and team-building exercises.

  8:40 – 9:00        Icebreaker and team-building exercise de-briefing.

  9:00 – 9:45        History of Arab-Israeli Conflict (including Part 1: PBS Video)

  9:45 – 10:00      BREAK

  10:00 – 10:30    Preventive Diplomacy Negotiation Techniques and Axis of Hope Whose Jerusalem? Framework

  10:30 – 11:00    Role-play groups read Whose Jerusalem? confidential instructions.

  11:00 – 11:20    Teams present individual summary statements

  11:20 – 12:00    Role Play: Round 1 of negotiations

  12:00 – 12:40    LUNCH (including Part 2: PBS Video)

  12:40 – 1:20      Role Play: Round 2 of negotiations   

  1:30 – 2:10        Role Play: Round 3 of Negotiations

  2:10 – 3:00        Role Play: Round 4 of Negotiations

  3:00 – 4:00        Groups work together to author 250-word Mideast Peace Proposal**

  4:00 – 4:40        Negotiation de-briefing and student evaluation of conference

  4:45 – 5:30        Meeting of interested faculty members/staff/parents

  6:00 – 8:30        Parent/Trustee Dinner and lecture on “Preventive Diplomacy: The New Mideast Roadmap to Peace”

*At one, predetermined point in the day, Professor Hobert will arrange to have friend and colleague Aaron David Miller, a Middle East analyst, author and negotiator, call in for a question and answer period with students. Miller worked within the United States Department of State for twenty-four years (1978-2003) and was an advisor to six Secretaries of State, participating in American efforts to broker peace agreements between Israel, Jordan, Syria, and the Palestinians. He is now Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. and he has recently published his fourth book, The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace.

** The Peace Proposal will be presented to President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Special Envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, focusing on security, education and health care reform.