International Institute for Sustained Dialogue

          SDCN is an initiative of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (IISD), headquartered in Washington DC. IISD is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002 to promote the process of sustained dialogue for transforming racial, ethnic, and other deep-rooted conflicts in the United States and abroad. IISD’s founder and President, Dr. Harold Saunders, has worked with citizens and communities in civil conflict for over forty years. In his service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State to Henry Kissinger, Dr. Saunders played a key role in U.S. mediation of Arab-Israeli peace agreements, including the Camp David Accords. Soon after leaving government in the 1980s, Dr. Saunders co-chaired the Dartmouth Conference, the longest continuous dialogue between Soviets and Americans, with future Prime Minister of Russia Yevgeny Primakov. In 1981, this conference initiated the Regional Conflicts Task Force, which Dr. Saunders also co-chaired. In 1992, Task Force members decided to draw on their experience in fostering and sustaining dialogue; with these members, Dr. Saunders helped to design and initiate a 5-stage Sustained Dialogue among citizens in Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic plagued by civil war.

 
The Inter-Tajik Dialogue operated with a dual agenda: to discuss specific problems confronting Tajiks in a time of civil war and to examine the strained Tajik relationships that operated at the root of the conflict. Co-moderated by Dr. Saunders since its 1992 initiation, the Inter-Tajik Dialogue continues today, having celebrated its 10th year and 35th meeting in 2003. The Inter-Tajik Dialogue has contributed to the multi-level peace process in Tajikistan; specifically, its participants helped to imitate and maintain the UN-sponsored Inter-Tajik negotiations in 1994.
 
With his experience in peace processes and particularly in moderating the Dartmouth Conference and the Inter-Tajik Dialogue, Dr. Saunders further observed and documented Sustained Dialogue's 5-Stage Process. In 1999, Dr. Saunders published A Public Peace Process: Sustained Dialogue to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts. In that same year, students at Princeton University initiated Sustained Dialogue to transform strained race relations on their campus. In 2002, Dr. Saunders founded IISD, which he oversees with Vice President Randa Slim, who participated in the Inter-Tajik Dialogue.
 
 By IISD’s inception, students were engaged in Sustained Dialogue not only at Princeton, but also at the University of Virginia and Dickinson College. Student SD practitioners, working with Dr. Saunders, conceived of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network in 2002, in order to support Sustained Dialogue on school campuses. SDCN is an important objective of IISD; it engages future leaders in learning the practice of systematic dialogue, in an effort to build constructive relationships. Through organizing, convening, and conducting Sustained Dialogue, students learn to create the public spaces where democratic, political and economic life begins. IISD supports the network of students at Princeton University, the University of Virginia, Dickinson College, the University of Notre Dame, Colorado College, the Lawrenceville School, and other campuses engaged in Sustained Dialogue.
 

Link to IISD
 
View A Timeline of IISD History
 
 
Morgan Mirth
Moderator
School: Dickinson
Year: 2007
Major: Neuroscience, with a Pre-Health focus
"Sustained Dialogue has challenged me to step out of the boundaries set by my own surface assumptions about other people. I have become comfortable talking about issues of race, gender, religion, and the relationships that are encompassed by these issues. Without Sustained Dialogue it would have taken me many more years to arrive where I am today. It has been an amazing experience, and has only fueled my determination in creating an environment where issues can be discussed at the dinner table rather than swept under the rug."


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