This online training is for you who is interested in exploring the potential of dialogue to transform conflicts into opportunities - online.
«Dialogue in Conflict» is five-day digital process-oriented introductory course. The course addresses topics and introduces tools that can contribute to transforming conflicts. You will improve your dialogue skills, learn conflict mapping and actively use your own life experiences - online.
MAIN COMPONENTS
Identity
Through exercises, you will learn more about yourself and how to build trust in a group. The focus is on the importance of one’s own identity in relation to others.
Introduction to Dialogue
We introduce the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue’s approach to dialogue and conflict transformation. Together, we explore the concept of dialogue through exercises where the participants are challenged to reflect on key elements of a dialogue process.
Active Listening and the Art of Asking Good Questions
You are introduced to basic dialogue skills: Active listening, sharing and asking dialogical questions. Through exercises, the participants will experience and develop these skills.
Tools for Conflict Analysis
Conflict analysis is important to understand the complexity of conflict. Based on examples from the participants own experience, we apply four steps in analyzing a conflict:
Identifying challenges, dilemmas and opportunities for change.
Mapping of the actors, their relationships and how they affect each other. This analysis also includes internal and external factors that can affect a conflict situation.
The actor’s positions, interests and needs
Analyzing the roots and effects of the conflict
Online course:
The online course differs from the onsite course in that it is shorter days (5 hours daily, where the onsite is 9 hours daily). While the same themes are touched upon in both courses, the process is deeper between the participants in the onsite course, where the participants also conduct roleplays and try out different forms of facilitation.
Both the online and the onsite course make participants eligible for the advanced course in Dialogue Facilitation.
Who is the training suitable for?
Participation is open for anyone interested in learning dialogue skills, and how to analyze and transform conflicts.
Dialogue is a way of communicating which aims to deepen and challenge our understanding of ourselves and our relation to “the other”, rather than trying to convince or win with arguments and facts. As dialogue creates space for people´s personal thoughts, emotions, experiences, and world views – it enables us to build and rebuild relationships, as well as becoming better communicators.
Practical information
DURATION: 5 days
DATE: Monday 8th to Wednesday 10th June + Monday 15th + Tuesday 16th June 2026 (5 days in total)
TIME: 11:00–16:00 (CET)
VENUE: Online
LANGUAGE: English
PARTICIPANTS: Max 14 persons
FEE: € 450
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Application deadline: 25th of may
Based on assessment of personal applications and group composition, Nansen Peace Center (NCPD) grants participation in the training. We advice you to apply as soon as you can.
The course does not provide any formal certification. You will receive a document showing proof of completion at the NCPD.
Pockets of Peace Alumni Gathering 2027
Lillehammer June 2027 | Date to be decided
Plans are yet to be made – but save the month: For three days in June 2027, we invite all members of the Pockets of Peace Alumni and other participants with dialogue qualfications to Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue at Lillehammer.
Expect three days of conversations, sharing of experiences and reflections. Themes are to be announced – but for now: Start the countdown!
Online alumni gathering May 2026
All members of the Pockets of Peace alumni are invited to our online Pockets of Peace pregathering at May 20th - 21st 2026. Participation on the online gathering is free, programme and registration at: peace.no/pockets2026/
Background
Pockets of Peace is the name of the alumni network/community of the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue (NCPD).
Our vision is to develop the network as a thriving meeting place, where contact is created and maintained. A community where experiences are exchanged and where participants can get professional replenishment, material and inspiration, opportunities for guidance and sparring with peers.
Pockets of Peace is also a meeting place for dialogue news, events, positions, where new courses can be recruited and where fertile ground can be established for potential new collaborations; both between NCDP and partners and internally in the alumni network.
The alumni network has been named Pockets of Peace because we believe dialogue exists in "pockets of peace". These pockets of peace can be found among people, cultures and meeting places all over the world. The goal of the alumni network is to gather small and large pockets of peace in the world into a larger community. Together, we can also expand these pockets of peace.
Members
To become a member of the network, members must have attended at least a course or seminar equivalent to NCPD's basic course in dialogue and conflict transformation
PS: Sign up for Pockets og Peace at POCKETS OF PEACE – NCPD Alumni Network
International Seminar: Dilemmas in War and Peace
Join us for this international seminar on the difficult questions regarding war and peace. We hope to see you in Lillehammer on June 11-13th.
From Sunday June 11th to 13th, The Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue is inviting professionals, activists, and other relevant actors in the field of dialogue, peace, and conflict, to Lillehammer, Norway. The three-day seminar will center around dialogical reflection and knowledge exchange on difficult dilemmas regarding war and peace, where there is space for challenging questions, uncertainty, and complexity, rather than conclusions and absolute answers.
As peace workers and engaged citizens the last few years have confronted us with the rugged and complex landscape that exist between war and peace since the return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan in 2021 and Russia’s war in Ukraine in the beginning of 2022. In a world that for many feels increasingly unsafe, unpredictable, and violent, the field of peace, dialogue, and mediation come together and ask ourselves some difficult questions.
What do our dilemmas do with us and how do we react to them? How do we prepare for peace? How do we navigate responsibility and guilt in times of war? When is it time for dialogue? What is the place of pacifism in the current peace movement? When is a war won? Who do we sympathize with, and why? What does do-no-harm mean in practice? Can war be stopped without violence? What are the limits of dialogue?
Based on elevating personal experiences from specific contexts around the world, this seminar will have a broad focus, centering on fundamental questions that all peace practitioners and civil society around the globe are faced with. Together we will explore how we navigate the individual, societal, and professional challenges, opportunities, and contradictions in our diverse realities.
Through a combination of dialogues, workshops, and keynote lectures, the aim is to create a space for both the personal and professional. Organized in a process-oriented manner, the seminar content will be partly influenced by participants contributions and experiences.
See our program below:
WHEN? Sunday June 11th to Tuesday June 13th (advised arrival on the 10th)
WHERE? Nansen Academy & Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue, Lillehammer, Norway
COST
Participants are asked to contribute with a participation fee of 150 EUR, which will cover accommodation and meals all seminar days, as well as dinner Saturday the 10th for those arrived. Travel is at self-cost.
APPLYING TO THE SEMINAR
This seminar has limited spots and participants will be chosen based on experience and background. This is a forum for international practitioners and professionals in the field, which includes those with volunteer and activist experience. Previous participants of our trainings and workshops and members of our alumni network Pockets of Peace are especially encouraged to apply.
Apply as soon as possible, as spots are given consecutively. Accepted applicants will be given information about detailed practicalities and payment, as well as the chance to share your own dietary needs etc.
Pockets of Peace 2023: Dilemmas in War and Peace receives funding from the Norwegian National Comission for UNESCO.