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WELCOME TO THE YALE ACCORDS!

Yale University will host The Yale Accords, a Model Middle Eastern Peace Conference, in New Haven, the weekend of April 6-9, 2000. Approximately 200 undergraduates from American universities will participate in the conference. The conference endeavors to educate undergraduates of the intricate and difficult barriers to peace. Students will be compelled to actively discuss and deliberate these historic tensions and barriers in structured negotiations. The conference will invite academics, diplomats and other experts who are intimately involved in current peace efforts to interact and debate in panels and workshops; students will review their findings with these experts.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER DR. HANAN ASHRAWI

KEYNOTE SPEAKER ISRAELI CHIEF NEGOTIATOR URI SAVIR

PLEASE TAKE TIME TO READ THE RESOLUTIONS FROM THE 1999 CONFERENCE -HERE-

The divided nature and turbulent past of the Middle East have historically limited the potential for the peaceful interaction among peoples, religions and nations. The Yale Accords will challenge the apathetic and pessimistic feelings that many students hold concerning the possibilities for peace in this region.

Participants will first develop their own understandings and opinions of the tensions and difficulties in the Middle East through structured simulations. They will serve on one of eight different committees (arms control, environment, security, borders, economics and trade, Jerusalem/holy sites, infrastructure and tourism, and human rights) and will represent one of five Middle Eastern parties (Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Palestinian Authority, and a friendly Arab coalition led by Jordan and Egypt). The delegates will be provided in advance with research packets on their committee and country, to be prepared by Yale students. Yale undergraduates, representing either Americans or Europeans, will serve as mediators on the committees.

Through a series of structured party and committee meetings, students will be challenged to find agreements amenable to different constituencies of their own nation and their fellow committee members. A series of panels will be interspersed with the simulation meetings to allow participants to interact with leading academics and policy-makers. At the end of the simulation, the participants will have authored The Yale Accords.

The Yale Accords will be evaluated in an interactive format with Israeli and Arab academics and current international actors in the peace process. By emphasizing conflict resolution, mediation and respect for the diversity of the region, this conference will educate its participants of the intricacies and tensions of the Middle East. More importantly, it will encourage students to conceive of specific goals and solutions for the region, as opposed to regarding peace as an abstract term.