Blog posts of '2025' 'June'

Join co-author Patricia Rykiel as she discusses her late father's stirring Vietnam War fictional memoir and the unusual journey to publication with producer Guy Meyer, followed by a book signing.

Feeling life is slipping him by, an American agriculturalist heads to Vietnam to try and make a difference in the lives of the people as part of President Johnson's 'Hearts and Minds' campaign. There is just one big problem - there's a war going on.

Eddie joins a small group of civilian advisors chosen to work with local farmers to help make Vietnam once again self-sufficient in rice. He is drawn to the adventure, the challenge, and the opportunity to make a difference, but he is leaving some problems behind.

His story follows the ups and downs of cultural and tropical agriculture training in Washington DC and the Philippines, and then his assignment in the Gia Dinh province just outside Saigon. The stakes increase as the war intensifies and Eddie's connections in the country deepen, providing the backdrop for the cultural, political and personal struggles that unfold.

Date and time

A talk about inclusive global peacebuilding and social justice

A discusion about peace and how it can be built today, involving peacebuilding practitioners including Saskia Binet, Jonathan Cohen and Helen Kezie-Nwoha. The discussion will explore the challenges to peace, and how the impact of AI and climate change will affect future conflicts. This will be followed by a book signing of 'At the Heart of Conflict: Talking Resolution' ed. Cheryl Robson at The Quaker Bookshop.

Saskia Binet is an inclusive peacemaking practitioner currently working as a Middle East North Africa Co-ordinator at the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She primarily focuses on supporting inclusive peace process and women's participation in peacebuilding and peacemaking in Syria and Yemen. Previously, Saskia worked at UN Women, inluding on Women, Peace, and Security in Libya.

Caroline Brooks is an experienced peacebuilding and conflict transformation practitioner. Currently, she serves as a Senior Advisor at Amnesty International, advising on conflict transformation, crisis management, wellbeing, and organizational development. Before joining Amnesty, she was the Syria Programme Manager at International Alert, focusing on multi-track diplomacy and inclusive peace processes. Caroline is also a fellow of the OSCE’s inaugural Women Peace Leaders Programme, which promotes women’s involvement in mediation.

Her career includes work in political and security risk consulting, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Caroline has been deeply involved in Syrian civil society, working with activists, diplomats and communities affected by conflict. She has worked directly with children impacted by the Syria conflict in Lebanon and Turkey.

Jonathan Cohen is Executive Director of Concilation Resources, a post he took up in 2016. Over the past 28 years at Conciliation Resources, Jonathan has supported dialogue and peace-building initiative in contexts including the South of Caucasus, Kashmir, the Philippines, Colombia, Ethiopia, and Papua New Guinea. He is an Associate of the Institute for the Public Understanding of War and Conflict at the Imperial War Museum, a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London, and a Board Member of the Peace Dividend Initiative.

Helen Kezie-Nwoha is a feminist scholar, peace-builder, and human rights advocate with over two decades of experience advancing gender equality in conflict and post-conflict settings. She is the founder and Lead Researcher at Researchers Without Borders and Former Executive Director of the Women's International Peace Centre. Her work spans Africa and beyond, providing strategic policy advice to regional institutions such as the African Union. She holds a Ph.D. in Women and Gender Studies from Makerere University and has published extensively on feminist peacebuilding, political participation, and transitional justice.

Anjan Sundaram is an acclaimed Indian author, journalist, and academic known for his award-winning memoirs Stringer, Bad News, and Breakup. Regarded as “one of the great reporters of our age” by BBC’s Feargal Keane, his books have garnered attention from figures such as Christiane Amanpour and Jon Stewart.

He contributes regularly to The New York Review of Books and Granta Magazine. Sundaram graduated from Yale University with a degree in mathematics and earned a PhD in journalism from the University of East Anglia. He began his journalism career reporting from Congo and Rwanda for The New York Times and The Associated Press. His third book, Breakup, explores the personal effects of war reporting. He has hosted TV series Coded World and Deciphering India.

'At the Heart of Conflict: Talking Resolution' is a book that is an essential read for those studying conflict resolution, international relations, or working in the field, looking to know more about the lived experiences of UN officials, translators, ambassadors, NGOs and military personnel. This new and critically important book challenges conventional wisdom and asks: Can peace be built by dialogue alone? When is the use of force necessary? Is there cause for hope? With 20 unflinching first-person accounts, this book uniquely gives voice to both sides of the conflict resolution debate.

Date and time