What is the link with the Normandy Peace Forum?

The Chair is designed to be in perfect synergy with the Forum and the annual Normandy for Peace agenda and is also defined in terms of the Forum’s singularity:

• its freedom of tone insofar as it is not an institutional summit
• its capacity :
  • to host real debates
  • to bring opposing viewpoints into dialogue
  • to create contradiction. 

For example, the workshop of international mediators organized behind closed doors during the 2018 Forum outlined what could be the role of Normandy in terms of mediation and international negotiations: to appear as a laboratory for experimentation between practical cases and academic research on conflict resolution and the advent of sustainable peace.

It is now time to step up and demonstrate that Normandy is a place to build solutions, to initiate the resolution of crises, and to create the conditions to welcome parties who are unable to engage in dialogue today.

The work undertaken in this sense will be continued, with the organization of a series of workshops on :

• negotiation models
• comparison of processes to capitalize on successes/failures: Colombia, Darfur…
• the creation of debates in the presence of interlocutors who are not usually present in this type of event (for example, members of indigenous peoples).

These are all subjects on which the actors of the Normandy Chair of Excellence for Peace will be involved. 

For the Normandy Region, the COMUE and the CNRS, the priority is to produce high-level reflective content to contribute to the international debate and to encourage an innovative and interdisciplinary approach.

It is therefore expected that the work of the Chair will be directly linked to research on current conflicts and will question the actions to be implemented in the face of contemporary challenges. The international dissemination and communication of the Global Forum will highlight the research and publications of the associated researchers.