[ALBSA-Info] Events at Harvard

[aalibali at law.harvard.edu]

March 9, 2001


Coexistence Panel to
Explore Ethnic Tension


On Thursday, April 5, a panel titled "Does Coexistence Mean I have to Like You? 
Practical Wisdom for Dealing with Ethnic Tensions" will be presented in 
Langdell Hall South at Harvard Law School from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. Panelists will 
include Darko Jordanov, a Macedonian, and Herbi Elmazi, an ethnic Albanian, who 
have developed a joint project to increase communication and constructive 
relationships between Albanians and Macedonians in the South-Slavic region.

In the last few weeks, growing tensions in Macedonia between ethnic Albanians 
and Macedonians threaten to precipitate a regional war not unlike the 
catastrophic conflict which occurred in Kosovo a few years ago. This evening 
panel will explore the work Jordanov and Elmazi are doing to offset ethnic 
strife. Other members of the panel are Drs. Sara Cobb, Executive Director of 
the Program on Negotiation; Roger Fisher, Director of the Harvard Negotiation 
Project; and Dan Shapiro, Associate at the Harvard Negotiation Project. They 
will join Jordanov and Elmazi in reflecting on the challenges of coexistence 
and conflict management among ethnic groups.

In this discussion, special attention will be paid to the role of emotions in 
conflict management: How do groups coexist given the fears and realities of 
their relationship with the other? The panel is the first meeting in a series 
on the role of emotion in negotiation. Fisher, author of the negotiation 
classic Getting to YES (2nd ed. 1991), and Shapiro are working on a book on 
this subject.

Panelists invite all members of the Harvard community to participate in this 
discussion of a subject with implications for peace in many regions of the 
world. For further information contact Dan Shapiro: dlshapir at law.harvard.edu.