As many of my readers know, I spent nearly two decades in the domestic field of conflict resolution and consensus building before seriously pursuing my interest in peace processes. One of my big areas of practice was in public policy: helping government officials work with interest groups (or “stakeholders”) and the general public on controversial […]

This year, I’ve resolved to exercise daily, get eight hours of sleep every night, eat less sugar and fat and more fiber and protein, floss nightly… Yeah, right! Most of us have figured out that we can’t change multiple bad habits at once; nor can we expect perfection of ourselves even if we do concentrate […]

Last night my father, Ahmad Ghais, spoke to a group I belong to here in Colorado called the International Business Circle. He spoke (alongside Monir Ludin and moderator Paul Kullman) on the topic of the origins of Islamist extremism. It was a great discussion (and nice for me to be a relaxed audience member instead […]

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Alliance for Peacebuilding‘s annual conference. It was my first time attending, and I think it’s my new favorite conference, striking what for me is the right balance of practical and practitioner-friendly topics but well informed by scholarship. One thing that struck me was how   no one […]

My 9-year-old daughter has her multiplication facts down cold. She can give a fast answer to any problem from 0 x 0 to 10 x 10. She is very proud of herself. Or actually, she was, until I came home the other evening from “Curriculum Night” at her school and told her the teachers now […]

Where you were on September 11, 2001? (I bet you remember the day as vividly as I do.) I slept late that morning, having been up on and off all night with my then-six-week-old baby. The first weird thing I encountered was a voice mail from my father assuring me that my brother, who worked […]

In my last blog post, I wrote about the importance of including all major armed rebel groups in peace negotiations. Conveniently, my self-imposed 600(ish)-word limit gave me an excuse to avoid a very difficult question: what if one of those rebel groups (or the only rebel group) is extremist? By that I mean a group […]

A friend of mine belongs to a dinner club. You know the kind: there are maybe 8-10 members, and they take turns hosting a fancy, home-cooked dinner. My friend travels often, and she’s recently gotten frustrated because the decision making–on who’s hosting when, on what the rules are–always seem to be made without her. (She […]

Do you like to cook? I do, when I have the time and energy (which seems to be less and less often lately). I enjoy getting new recipes and giving them a try. But I have developed a healthy skepticism about recipes. A recipe is just one of many ways to accomplish more or less […]