A TYPICAL DAY AT THE BOLOGNA SYMPOSIUM
7:30am You and your roommate (a journalist from Nepal) wake up.
8:00am You eat an Italian-style breakfast of pastries, yogurt, and espresso while listening to a friend’s story about her experiences working with displaced persons in Darfur.
8:45am You take the five-minute walk to the SAIS Bologna Center, and on the way, discuss the legality of U.S. drone strikes in Northern Pakistan with an IPSI summer staff member who teaches conflict resolution at the National Defense University in Islamabad.
9:00am The morning session begins; it is the third day of intensive training in mediation and negotiation techniques led by Mark Young, author of “Rational Games” and a Harvard Program on Negotiation trainer. You break into groups of 12 and are given the instructions for a negotiation exercise based on a kidnap and ransom situation with the Afghan Taliban. You are assigned the role of a UN appointed negotiator, and you spend the next 30 minutes with two partners discussing a strategy to achieve the release of the captives from the Taliban through offering aid to the local shura to build a dam.
10:45am After a quick 15 minute coffee break, you and your partners enter structured negotiations with other IPSI participants playing the roles of the Taliban, local elders, and an interested NGO.
11:45am You reach a negotiated settlement and sign a four-point deal.
12:00pm The entire student body gathers in the main auditorium for a debrief and a lessons-learned session.
12:30pm You eat lunch at a table of eight and discuss the varying strategies and secret instructions used by other participants with different roles.
1:30pm You head to the computer lounge to upload some photos from your weekend trip to Florence with your roommate and another friend who works in microfinance in El Salvador.
2:00pm Gareth Evans, former Foreign Minister of Australia and President of International Crisis Group, begins a riveting lecture about his current work in negotiating with world governments towards a nuclear weapons free world. He teaches through stories of personal experience and those of some of the top negotiators in the world.
3:30pm The group heads to the lounge for a 30 minute coffee and snack break. You get in a discussion with a military officer from the Philippines about his two years battling insurgency in Mindanao.
4:00pm A spirited question and answer session begins with Mr. Evans on topics ranging from his co-authoring of the Responsibility to Protect and the feasibility of using Human Security to overturn state sovereignty, his role in negotiating the International Chemical Weapons Convention, and his part in the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation initiative.
5:00pm In a large group, you walk to a caffé in Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore for an aperitivo and a glass of spumante. You brainstorm about social entrepreneurship projects that may be pioneering enough to gain the financial support of a Peace & Security Lab. Soon, a lively debate erupts a few seats down about Chavez’s role in Venezuela and his influence in South America.
6:15pm The group splits; some decide to order dinner; some head back to the SAIS Bologna Center to screen a documentary on the Russia-Georgia war led by students from Moscow and T’Bilisi. You have been selected to have dinner that night with the speakers, so you head back to the hotel to clean-up.
7:30pm You sit down with four other students, Gareth Evans, Mark Young, Academic Coordinator William Zartman, Jeffrey Mapendere (who is leading the morning session on “reaching out to rebels” based on his experiences in negotiating with militants in Africa), and Dr. Joyce Neu (leading the afternoon session on her experiences as the team leader for the UN Standby Team of Mediation Experts) for a three-course dinner in a quiet corner of a restaurant.
10:00pm You cannot believe that it is already ten o’clock, and that you have been listening and sharing stories with some of the most influential thinkers and practitioners in the world for two-and-a-half hours. You walk back to the hotel looking forward to the new experiences and lessons that tomorrow will hold.