THE INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS

4th IMA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

ANALYSING CONFLICT

TRANSFORMATION

28-30 June 2010                                St Anne’s College, Oxford, UK

Registration is now open at http://online.ima.org.uk/

In a world that is increasingly driven by conflict, often involving emergent non-state factions in rapidly changing patterns of inter-relationship, the need for rigorous conflict analysis is more pressing than ever.  However, to be robust and insightful, such analysis must be informed by the wide range of disciplines - including mathematics and decision sciences, diplomacy and international relations, peace and war studies, anthropology and psychology, military and political science, linguistics and communication studies - whose scholars presently engage with the topic of confrontation.  This conference, the 4th in an established and successful series hosted by the IMA will, like its predecessors, provide a forum for sharing the latest thinking in these disparate fields and for building multidisciplinary links between conflict researchers.  

The theme of the present conference is the process of conflict transformation.  When conflict analysts focus upon specific episodes within what are usually protracted and complex networks of interaction, they may easily lose sight of relevant issues in the spatial, temporal or causal environment.  Furthermore the processes by which confrontation may transform into collaboration, or co-operation may degenerate into conflict, are central both to conflict escalation and conflict resolution.  The conference will therefore be concerned with the dynamics of conflict processes and will include wide-ranging interpretations and explorations of this theme. 

There is a secondary emphasis.  Rather than separating the analytical activity from its 'real world' impact there is a preference that those contributing to this event should demonstrate attention to the actions that their work informs.  The means by which this is achieved may range from facilitating workshops or running simulations to experimentation and interactive modelling, and presentations may describe such activities.     

This is an international event and will attract contributors from many countries.  The conference is intended as a meeting place for those who operate directly in arenas of conflict (e.g. the military, staff of NGOs, mediators), those who provide support or advice (e.g. analysts, contractors, counsellors) and others who offer theoretical concepts and practical frameworks for handling conflict (e.g. academic researchers).  

Organising Committee:

·         Prof Jim Bryant (Sheffield Business School, UK) (Conference Chair)

·         Colin Irwin (Dstl, UK)

·         Prof Marc Kilgour (Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada)

·         Dr Jason Levy (Virginia Commonwealth University)

Invited Plenary Speakers (confirmed):

Roger Forder

Roger Forder enjoyed a long career in operational research within the UK Ministry of Defence, in 1995 being appointed Chief Analyst of the Centre for Defence Analysis (subsequently Dstl) , a position that he held until his retirement from full-time employment in 2007.  He is a Fellow and, currently, one of the two Vice-Presidents of the Operational Research Society and was recently elected a Companion of Operational Research for his “sustained support and encouragement for the development of OR”.

Donal O'Neill

Prior to his present role as a consultant on the impact of industry on host societies, Donal spent 36 years with Shell, almost a third of them in Sub-Saharan Africa.  He left Shell as Vice President: External Affairs and Social Performance.  Previously he had held a number of senior operational positions with the company including Managing Director of Shell Venezuela Exploration and Production between 1996 and 2000.  Recently he has developed and used a portfolio of scenario-based role-playing simulation tools at a number of universities to enable participants to explore the challenges of collaboration in a development context.

Mary Crannell

Mary Crannell is president and founder of Idea Sciences, a company that designs decision support tools that integrate intuition and logic to assist organizations in all sectors make smarter decisions.  Previously she was a senior manager in SAIC.  She has more than 20 years of experience in organizational transformation, intercultural consulting and training and has been a key contributor to the merger and acquisition efforts of Fortune 100 companies.   Ms Crannell is a frequent speaker on cultural change within organizations, and articles she has authored have appeared in systems engineering, government and training/management consulting journals. 

Conference topics include:                                                          Scientific Committee:

• Conflict: concepts and theory                                         Dr Amer Obeidi (University of Waterloo, Canada)
• Modelling and analysing conflict                                     Gordon Burt (Open University, UK)
• Group decision and negotiation                                      Mary Crannell (Idea Sciences, Washington DC)
• Processes of confrontation and collaboration              Dr Orit Gal (Chatham House, London)
• Conflict resolution and peace-building                          Dr Deborah Goodwin (RMA, Sandhurst)
• Collective action addressing conflictual issues            Prof Hugh Miall (University of Kent, UK)
• Simulation and role play                                                     Andy Pickup (Dstl, UK)
• Evaluation and assessment                                               Dr Suman Sensarma (The Louis Berger Group)
• Information architectures and technologies    
• Lessons from specific conflicts

Registration

Registration is now open at http://online.ima.org.uk/ Conference fees are as follows:

Non Member   £ 360.00

IMA Member   £ 285.00

Student             £ 165.00

Bed and breakfast accommodation at the college is available on 27th, 28th and 29th June at £66.00 per night for an en-suite room and £42.00 per night for a standard room. The conference fee includes a reception and conference dinner on 29th June but no dinner is provided on 28th.

Conference webpage: http://www.ima.org.uk/Conferences/4_analysing_conflict.html

Pamela Bye

Conference Support Officer

The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications

Tel: 01702 354020

April 20 , 2010