Resolving conflicts proves fun for Canterbury student

Published by the Communications and Development Department

22 October 2003

Imagine that you are a representative for the U.S. on the United Nations Security Council. The year is 2006 and you have one week to help resolve some of the most serious crises the world has ever faced.

This is the situation that University of Canterbury Honours student Tania Kurbatoff recently faced during a four-week summer school on international conflict and mediation in The Hague, the Netherlands. Tania not only survived the simulation, she describes it as the “highlight of the course,” which also involved meeting with diplomats and United Nations officials as well as practical training in international negotiations.

The summer school was run by the Institute of International Media and Conflict Resolution, which is a non-profit institution whose mission is to promote the use of peaceful conflict resolution techniques among a generation of future leaders.

About 100 people from around the world attended the course, including mostly postgraduate students but also people practising conflict resolution in the field.

Tania was the only participant from New Zealand and she says the other participants were “amazed to have someone from so far away.” She is the third person from the National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE) to attend the summer school. The NCRE along with the Peace and Disarmament Educational Trust and the University of Canterbury International Student Centre funded her trip.

The summer school was Tania’s first trip to Europe and an opportunity to finally see some of the places that she has studied for four years at Canterbury.

She admits that the course was hard work, with 10 hours of studying most days, but she found the work “great fun” and is enthusiastic about every aspect of her trip – even the record-breaking heat wave that rocked Europe while she was there. She particularly enjoyed meeting people from around the world, many of whom she continues to communicate with via a course website.

Tania now plans to make a career out of her new skills in conflict resolution. "Having studied the conflicts in places like Rwanda and Bosnia in-depth, now I couldn’t not work in the field.”
She hopes to begin a Masters degree next year, focusing on ethnic conflict in Eastern Europe and Russia since the fall of Communism.

She encourages other students to apply for “amazing” opportunities such as this. She says, “Lots of students in my class were intimidated by the course, but I didn’t expect to get in and I did. People should just put themselves out there.”

For further information contact:
Professor Martin Holland
National Centre for Research on Europe
University of Canterbury
Ph 03 364 2586
Email martin.holland@canterbury.ac.nz
www.europe.canterbury.ac.nz