The Roberta Buffett Institute's 2024–25 international diplomacy series culminated in our spring quarter symposium, Negotiating Peace in a Multipolar World: Lessons Learned, organized with Fundación Acordemos. This two-day event brought together diplomats, negotiators, and academics to discuss the high-profile peace processes of recent decades. Our aim was to draw lessons for future negotiations in a world confronting a crisis of multilateralism.
The final panel on Friday, April 4 focused on the challenges of implementing peace agreements and featured:
- Barney Afako, lawyer and member of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan
- Kate Fearon, founding member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition who participated in negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement
- Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine's former Minister of Foreign Affairs and co-founder of the Centre for National Resilience & Development
- Abiodun Williams, Professor of the Practice of International Politics at Tufts University and former Senior Vice-President of the Center for Conflict Management at USIP
- Moderated by Pontus Ohrstedt, Director of Support to Peace Processes at Folke Bernadotte Academy, the Swedish government agency for peace, security and development
Watch short video recaps from the symposium on the Roberta Buffett Institute's website >>
