Ask Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, how he thinks we can make the world a better place, and he’ll answer without hesitation that we must teach young people how to deal with conflict better. In a conversation with us earlier last year, he spoke about our obligation to foster a generation of global citizens equipped to create value and improve relationships within families, across organizations, and among nation-states.
We believe the best way to fulfill this obligation is to encourage passion, teach theory, develop skills, and provide real-world opportunities through a multi-pronged approach involving combined classroom-clinical curricula, internships and jobs with clear professional development plans, and innovative customized experiences such as fellowships.
Blending Classroom and Clinical Education
Conflict management education requires the development of blended classroom-clinical curricula. It should begin as a fundamental component of youth education and continue through higher levels of academia. We need to move toward creating school-wide workshops, after-school international conflict management organizations, and negotiation competitions.