The European Wasatia Graduate School for Peace and Conflict Resolution seeks to initiate a process of reconciliation (short Wasatia Graduate School, "wasatia" is an Arabic term for "moderation, balance and temperance").
Truth, law and reconciliation
The academic core of the trilateral project lies in an interdisciplinary, transnational and multi-religious doctoral program; it identifies truth, law, and reconciliation as a condition for peace and conflict resolution. Given that legal, political, and religious dimensions of reconciliation necessarily include moral components – i. e. the acknowledgment of suffering, the development of interreligious tolerance, and the analysis of entrenched narratives – the Wasatia Graduate School is conceived of as a forum for interdisciplinary scholarship conducted within the framework of an international network that regards reconciliation an essential component in social conflict resolution strategies.
As an academic project, it nevertheless extends into the political and social sphere. The university framework is meant to serve as a catalyst for a moderation process aimed at achieving understanding and reconciliation. One of its central aims is to train competent "knowledge ambassadors" who, in their role as mediators, build a bridge between the theoretical reflection on conflict resolution strategies and their real-world implementation.
Collaborations
The Graduate Schools’ cooperation with Europa-Universität Flensburg’s Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies, ICES, strengthens the European perspective on peace and reconciliation studies and fosters excellence in research and capacity building. The affiliation to the ICES Research School provides access to academic training opportunities for the doctoral candidates and networks them across disciplinary boundaries.
The close cooperation between Europa-Universität Flensburg and the Maecenata Foundation will also strengthen the European focus of the Wasatia Graduate School. Under the slogan "Europe Bottom-Up," the foundation's discourse is dedicated to developing and establishing a European civil society with special attention to the Middle East. A central aspect of the civil society paradigm is the question of how religious communities are integrated into society. The Maecenata Foundation can also draw on experience with trilateral dialogue based on past projects ("Zivilgesellschaftliche Akteure im trilateralen Dialog zwischen Judentum, Christentum und Islam" 2009; "Zivilgesellschaftsakteure in Trialogprozessen, 2013).
