This article was prepared by Christian-Radu Chereji and Constantin-Adi Gavrilă. Peter Drucker once famously said, “the only definition of a leader is someone who has followers“. While we do agree that Peter Drucker is a magnificent thinker and writer, his definition sounds a bit too simplistic. The followers are an important “ingredient” to leadership, but…

This month´s article was written together with Emmanuela Cipriano, University Professor and Doctoral Student at the University of Fortaleza, Collaborative Lawyer and Conflict Mediator Talking about a Culture of Peace nowadays is a challenge and implementing a culture of peace in different spaces is essential to reduce the escalation of conflicts, we are faced with…

The world of mediation today is far from the embryonic world I joined in the late 1980s. It has been wonderful to be part of the journey. From time to time there are major ‘disruptions’ – the exploration of mandatory mediation in some jurisdictions; the debates over definitions and enforceability and most recently the impact…

I recently had the pleasure of taking part in a workshop led by William Ury in which small teams of participants were invited to apply his BB3 framework to challenging situations they were confronting. BB3 brings together a number of ideas and approaches that Ury has contributed to the field of mediation and negotiation over…

Communication is one of the most important pillars of human relationships. Connections established through communication make life in society possible and it explains why so many different types of language have been developed and improved since the early dawn of civilization. However, while it unites us, communication can also divide us, as most of us…

I have been musing about what a mediator might say to President Putin given the opportunity. That led me to compose a letter a few weeks ago, with which I have since tinkered. This is merely a thought experiment. The letter goes something like this: “Dear President Putin I write as a mediator, a peacemaker….

As soon as the news of the Ukrainian invasion emerged in late February, I felt the urgent need to address in writing what had been unthinkable only days earlier but which has now changed Europe for good. At the same time, I felt a massive sense of despair and helplessness which rendered me mute. Weeks…

It was Thursday, February 24th, 2022. From the morning, I had been mediating a dispute between a grandfather and two of his granddaughters. Then, during the break, I switched on my phone and read the news. Very shocking news. As a person that has spent all his professional life bringing peace and understanding to the…

According to the Wikipedia, “Make love, not war” is an anti-war slogan commonly associated with the American counterculture of the 1960s. It was used primarily by those who were opposed to the Vietnam War, but it has been invoked in other anti-war contexts around the world since then. The part of the slogan – “make…

In the 1930’s anthropologist Gregory Bateson developed the concept of Schismogenesis – the creation of division. He defined this as ‘a process of differentiation in the norms of individual behaviour resulting from cumulative interaction between individuals’, or groups of individuals. A process of this sort can result in individuals or groups drifting apart, almost becoming mirror…