UNDERSTANDING CONFLICT AND PEACE 101

From October 14 to 20, 2025, the School of Peace, which started on October 12, held sessions on Conflict and Peace, facilitated by Mr. Lav Bunrithy, with support from Mr. Prom Meta from Cambodia. Mr. Lav Bunrithy, the main facilitator, currently serves as a Peace Programme Manager at Women Peace Makers. Mr. Prom Meta joined as a co-facilitator. The program includes 14 participants from 8 countries—Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Laos, Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Nepal, and Vietnam—at the Laras Arsi Resort & Spa in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. The 15th participant from Pakistan arrived after the first week because his visa was issued late.

Within 7 days, participants went through two phases of the sessions to build their capacity to understand, analyze, and respond to conflict in both personal and national contexts. For phase 1, from October 14 to 16, 2025, the session focused on the fundamentals of conflict, peace, and conflict analysis tools. On the first day, participants learned about understanding conflict and peace. They had the chance to show the words “conflict” and “peace” in their own languages and understand that conflict always occurs in our lives. The next day, the facilitators introduced five conflict analysis tools: Conflict Tree, Conflict Mapping, ABC Triangle, Multi-Level Pyramids, and System Mapping. These tools were used during a workshop on October 16, where participants analyzed a case study.

The second phase, from October 17 to October 20, 2025, focused on the social situation. On October 17, participants were divided into groups by country to identify and analyze their national issues using the tools introduced earlier. After a day of reflection on October 19, they learned about conflict transformation and peacebuilding, drawing on the frameworks of Galtung and Lederach. Participants learned that conflict can be transformed into an opportunity to create just peace. On the last day, October 20, the basic principles of negotiation, mediation, and conciliation were introduced. 

To make the sessions more engaging and interactive, Mr. Bunrithy used a variety of methods and games, including Build a Water Tower, Privilege Walk, Blindfold Game, Cup Challenge, Egg Drop Challenge, and role-playing exercises. During the last session on mediation, after introducing the theory, participants were divided into groups to role-play to address basic conflicts that may arise among them during this two-month program.

In conclusion, after the first week of School of Peace 2025, participants gained both knowledge and skills to understand and address conflict not only in their daily lives but also in matters of community and country.

The world is experiencing significant conflict, which is why learning about conflict and peacebuilding is very important for the younger generation. 

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Ban Solinna, Cambodia

Phung Thi Thuy Giang, Vietnam

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