Gabrielle Rifkind is a British mediator who has specialised in international conflict resolution working through non-governmental organisations, (NGOs) in the Middle East and United Kingdom. She is the Director of Oxford Process.[1] She is known as a commentator on international peacemaking and related themes and author of several titles.[2][3] Her work considers the role of human relationships[4] in managing parties with "radical disagreements"[5] with the goal of establishing areas of potential mutual self-interest.[6][7]
Gabrielle Rifkind | |
---|---|
Born | 1953 |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | University of Manchester University of Edinburgh University of London |
Occupation(s) | mediator, group analyst, psychotherapist |
Known for | collaboration, conflict resolution |
Early life
editRifkind is a graduate of the University of Manchester and the University of Edinburgh. After working for the Probation Service, she trained at the Institute of Group Analysis and became a group analyst and a psychotherapist.[8][9]
Later career
editRifkind joined the Oxford Research Group in the late 1990s to explore peacemaking in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[10] She became head of the Israel/Palestine programme. She next turned her attention to Iran and the wider Middle East.[11]
In 2016 she founded Oxford Process, which works in conflict situations to build relationships with conflicted parties to identify opportunities to reduce tensions or prevent further escalation of violence.[12] Rifkind's theory of conflict resolution focuses on the non-violent management of radical differences between groups, rather than searching for an elusive common ground.[13] Her work is currently focused on the Middle East and the war between Russia and Ukraine.[14]
Rifkind has frequently appeared on broadcast media in the UK has given public lectures on peacemaking and contributed to a colloquium at Princeton University and has twice debated at the Oxford Union.[15][16] She has been one of the conflict mediators for four series of BBC Radio 4's "Across the Red Line" presented by British political journalist, Anne McElvoy.[17] Rifkind is a featured speaker at the upcoming TED2024 conference in Vancouver.[18]
She is the co-author, with peace activist Scilla Elworthy of Making Terrorism History (2005)[19] and, with former senior UN diplomat Giandomenico Picco, of The Fog of Peace: The Human Face of Conflict Resolution,[20] and author of The Psychology of Political Extremism: What would Sigmund Freud have thought about Islamic State.[21]
Publications
editBooks
edit- Co-author with Tessa Dalley and Kim Terry. Three Voices of Art Therapy: Image, Client, Therapist. United Kingdom: Routledge, 1993 and 2014. ISBN 9780415077965
- Co-author with Scilla Elworthy. Hearts and Minds: Human Security Approaches to Political Violence. United Kingdom: Demos, 2005. ISBN 9781841801483
- Co-author with Scilla Elworthy. Making Terrorism History. London: Penguin/Random House, 2006. ISBN 9781846040474
- Co-Author with Giandomenico Picco. The Fog of Peace: How to Prevent War, Bloomsbury/I.B. Tauris, 2017. ISBN 9781780768977
- The Psychology of Political Extremism: What would Sigmund Freud have thought about Islamic State, 2018. ISBN 9-781-78220-663-7
- Contributor, "When Empathy Fails: Managing Radical Differences" in Encounters: The Art of Interfaith Dialogue 2018.[22]
Articles
editHer contributions to journals include:
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (1 June 1995). "Containing the Containers: The Staff Consultation Group". Group Analysis. 28 (2): 209–222. doi:10.1177/0533316495282010. S2CID 144883427.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (1 September 1995). "The Creative Process of the Artist and Group Analyst". Group Analysis. 28 (3): 331–337. doi:10.1177/0533316495283009. S2CID 143697955.
- "Language of war, language of peace and its application to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict". Psychotherapy and Politics International. 2 (2). June 2004.
- "Separating aspirations from realities". The Jerusalem Post. 1 May 2006.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (13 February 2007). "Want to ease tensions with Iran? Just try talking". The Independent.
- "From crisis to opportunity". The Jerusalem Post. 20 February 2007.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (28 October 2007). "This dialogue of the deaf is making war more likely". The Independent.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (25 January 2009). "The man to sell peace to the Middle East". The Independent.
- "A route to resolution for Syria and Israel | Gabrielle Rifkind". The Guardian. 26 February 2010.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (28 September 2010). "Solving the West Bank settler problem". The Guardian.
- "Iran nuclear talks: signs of cautious optimism emerge | Gabrielle Rifkind". The Guardian. 22 May 2012.
- Picco, Giandomenico; Rifkind, Gabrielle (2013). "To help Syria, talk first to Iran and Saudi Arabia". The Guardian.
- "A New Levant: a possible way through in the Syrian crisis". openDemocracy. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (7 September 2013). "One signature by Assad could help to avert the bombing". The Times.
- "Chilcot tells us what we already knew – how do we implement?". openDemocracy. 6 July 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
- "Chilcot: all peaceful options were not exhausted". openDemocracy. 15 July 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
- Let's try to understand North Korea's actions: it sees the world as its enemy, The Guardian, July 2017.
- Gaza regeneration: we all need dreams for the future, OpenDemocracy, June 2018.
- National Dialogue: Post-Brexit, We Need a UK-Wide Coming Together, OpenDemocracy, January 2019.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (15 February 2019). "Afghanistan's fragile future shows the paradoxical nature of peacebuilding". Prospect.
- "Preparing the Psychological Space for Peacemaking", with Nita Yawanarajah, The New England Journal of Public Policy, May 2019.
- "Ancient Hospitality", with John Harris, New Humanist, July 2019.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (3 December 2019). "We need a path towards reconciliation for Labour and British Jews". The Times.
- "The Deal of the century: any chance of an honest broker?", Open Democracy, March 2020.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (9 February 2022). "I'm a conflict mediator. This is a way out of the Ukraine crisis". The Guardian.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (26 January 2023). "How to talk peace while waging war". Prospect.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (25 November 2023). "A better future can be built for Gaza". Prospect.
- Rifkind, Gabrielle (11 January 2024). "Israelis and Palestinians by Jonathan Glover review – the psychology of conflict". The Guardian.
Broadcast Media
edit- BBC Radio 4: The Middle East Conundrum, July 2018.[23]
- BBC Radio 4: Across the Red Line (series 1–4), 2018 and 2019 [24]
- BBC Radio 3: Being Diplomatic, April 2019.[25]
References
edit- ^ "Our Team – Oxford Process". www.oxfordprocess.com.
- ^ "Gabrielle Rifkind – The Guardian". www.theguardian.com.
- ^ "Gabrielle Rifkind – openDemocracy". www.opendemocracy.net. 9 August 2017.
- ^ Wertheim, Eleanor H (2016). "Focusing on the human element to global conflict resolution efforts and suggesting a vision for the future through the lens of the past". Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology. 22 (2): 188–189. doi:10.1037/pac0000179 – via APA Psycnet.
- ^ Rifkind, Gabrielle; Yawanarajah, Nita (1 May 2019). "Preparing the Psychological Space for Peacemaking". New England Journal of Public Policy. 31 (1): 1–11. ISSN 0749-016X.
- ^ Sherry, Richard (2018). "Richard Sherry in conversation with Gabrielle Rifkind; group analyst, psychotherapist and specialist in conflict resolution. Her latest book is titled The Psychology of Political Extremism: What Sigmund Freud would have thought about Islamic State" (PDF). New Associations. 26: 18–21 – via Routledge.
- ^ Dobell, Graeme (13 November 2014). "Edging through the fog". Inside Story. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ Mark, Peter; Rifkind, Gabrielle (2016). "Establishing group psychotherapy in a student counselling service". In Lees, John; Vaspé, Alison (eds.). Clinical Counselling in Further and Higher Education. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. pp. 87–102. ISBN 978-0-415-19281-1.(See contributors, p. ix)
- ^ Rivailland, Monique (5 April 2014). "The light house – A psychotherapist who specialises in conflict resolution has transformed her London home with glass and modern art". The Times.
- ^ "Gabrielle Rifkind | Oxford Research Group". Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
- ^ "Free Thinking – Being Diplomatic – BBC Sounds". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ "OXFORD PROCESS C.I.C. – Overview (free company information from Companies House)". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk.
- ^ "About Gabrielle".
- ^ "About Gabrielle".
- ^ Gabrielle Rifkind; Elworthy, Scilla. "Hamas: Time to Talk". All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues (APPGCI). Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "Iran, the West, and the Region (March 11-12, 2007)" (PDF). Princeton University. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "Across the Red Line – Is Tax a Burden". BBC 4 Today. 1 October 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
- ^ "Speakers | TED2024".
- ^ Making Terrorism History. 2 February 2006. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
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ignored (help) - ^ Rifkind, Gabrielle; Picco, Giandomenico (2017). The Fog of Peace: The Human Face of Conflict Resolution. Bloomsbury – I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-7807-6897-7.
- ^ The Psychology of Political Extremism: What Would Sigmund Freud have Thought About Islamic State. London: Routledge. 2018. ISBN 9781782206637.
- ^ Rosen, A; Green, N, eds. (2018). "When Empathy Fails: Managing Radical Differences". in Encounters: The Art of Interfaith Dialogue. Belgium: Brepols. ISBN 978-2-503-58032-6.
- ^ "BBC Radio 4 – Analysis, the Middle East Conundrum".
- ^ "BBC Radio 4 – Across the Red Line".
- ^ "BBC Radio 3 – Free Thinking, Being Diplomatic".