2024 Pearson Global Forum to examine negotiation and agreement

Does negotiation still have a place in the world? In these trying times, with people seemingly so divided, is agreement still possible?

The 2024 Pearson Global Forum, to be held on Oct. 18, aims to answer these questions, by bringing together academics, political leaders, policymakers, journalists and members of the public for a day of discussions. This year’s theme, “Negotiation and Agreement,” reflects the Pearson Institute’s hopes to touch on major conflicts of the day, but also on relevant issues that may not be receiving a great deal of media attention.

“It's a very complicated moment in the world,” said Nobel laureate James A. Robinson, the institute director of The Pearson Institute, the Reverend Dr. Richard L. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies and University Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy and the Department of Political Science. “With the conflicts in Ukraine and in Gaza, the expansion of China, and what seems to be a resurgence of Cold War realpolitik, it's an interesting time to talk about whether there is any real place for negotiation in this world, or whether it is now just about power, [and] how many rockets you have. These topics are of an enormous intellectual and practical interest.”

This year’s forum, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the David Rubenstein Forum. It will be available via webcast to those who register to attend virtually.

“Negotiation and agreement are always relevant,” said Sheila Kohanteb, executive director of the Pearson Global Forum. “Unfortunately, there are always conflicts to analyze—ongoing ones in addition to past conflicts. This is important work, and unlike a traditional academic conference where scholars present papers, the Pearson Global Forum prioritizes accessibility: We want everybody—whether you are a policymaker or average Jane citizen—to be able to join, and access the information being shared.”

Topics of negotiation and agreement will not only be explored for places like Colombia and Northern Ireland, but for destinations from across the globe, with in-depth discussions on Congo, Kosovo, Sudan, Haiti, and Israel and Palestine. There will also be flash talks from Kathleen Cavanaugh, executive director of the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights at UChicago; Prof. Richard English, director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, at Queen's University Belfast; Asst. Prof. Raúl Sánchez de la Sierra, a Pearson Faculty Affiliate at Harris; and Boaz Keysar, the William Benton Professor in Psychology at UChicago.

Two conflicts that have reached resolution provide lessons that will be examined during the Forum, Kohanteb said. Robinson will discuss conflict in Colombia with Sergio Jaramillo Caro, the former high commissioner for peace there, alongside Harvard Professor Melani Cammett and NPR’s Aya Batrawy. Another discussion that will include Melanne Verveer, a former U.S, Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, will discuss the pivotal role of women in the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, now in its 26th year of being in effect.

Another panel discussion will focus on Israel and Palestine and will include Ami Ayalon, the former head of Shin Bet, and former Member of Knesset; Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East correspondent with The Economist; and Sanam Vakil, the James Anderson Adjunct Professor at the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. The panel will be moderated by Luke Baker, the head of media strategy at Portland and a former correspondent and bureau chief at Reuters.

An annual conference that began in 2018, the Pearson Global Forum was designed to convene academics, practitioners, policymakers, and an interested public for the purpose of developing new strategies to prevent, resolve, and recover from conflict.

“The Pearson Global Forum has found a way to succeed in engaging in a nonacademic environment without making compromises on intellectual seriousness,” said Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, dean and the Sydney Stein Professor at Harris. “They are not just bringing people together, but striving to build communities of trust, where well-intentioned people who are working on important and difficult problems can come together and learn from each other. The Forum has led to very real engagement with non-scholars that has driven my work for years.”