John Lukacs Institute’s senior research fellow, Tamás Csiki Varga, participated in ‘Strategic Peacebuilding Academy 2025’, a professional training run by Notre Dame University, between May 20-24, 2025, where exchanging lessons learnt from peace processes, theoretical and practical training, as well as policy planning exercises took place based on the organizer Kroc Institute’s extensive network of experts, and their decades of international experience. The theme of the 2025 training was built around ‘Peace Processes’ – from designing to realizing and then executing peace processes in practice. Thus, participants explored the theoretical and practical conditions for an effective, lasting settlement of civil wars and interstate conflicts, how the framework of the settlement can be established in a stable peace agreement, then ensure its implementation, and thus create the conditions for long-term reconciliation at the political and social levels.
In international peace research, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies has gained unique experience and expertise in the field of monitoring and evaluating the implementation of peace agreements over the past decade. Their analysts focus on the conditions for resolving conflicts such as the ones in Colombia, Northern Ireland, Nepal or Indonesia – but also numerous conflicts in Africa and the Middle East.
‘It bears unique professional value and a practical input of knowledge when you meet professionals who not only talk about peace-making, but who have participated in both the highest-level political negotiations and practical peacebuilding on the ground for decades, and the results of their work are tangible’ – Tamás Csiki Varga summed up his experience.