Negotiating Peace in a Multipolar World: Lessons Learned
April 4, 2025
The Buffett Institute's yearlong international diplomacy series culminated in our spring-quarter symposium, Negotiating Peace in a Multipolar World: Lessons Learned, organized with Fundación Acordemos. This two-day event brought together diplomats, negotiators and academics to discuss the high-profile peace processes of recent decades, drawing lessons for future negotiations in a world confronting a crisis of multilateralism.
Day 1: Opening Plenary
Negotiating Peace: Looking Back to Look Forward
- Christopher R. Hill, five-time US ambassador, whose last post was as ambassador to Serbia from 2022–2025
- Kate Fearon, founding member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition who participated in negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement
- Sergio Jaramillo, President of Fundación Acordemos and Colombia's former High Commissioner for Peace of Colombia
- Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine's former Minister of Foreign Affairs and co-founder of the Centre for National Resilience & Development
- Moderated by Ravi Agrawal, Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Policy
Day 2: Full-Day Program
00:00:00 | Opening Remarks
- Deborah Cohen, Director of the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and Richard W. Leopold Professor of History
00:05:47 | Conditions of Possibility
- Betty Bigombe, Uganda's Special Envoy to the peace process in South Sudan and ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
- Christopher R. Hill, five-time US ambassador, whose last post was as ambassador to Serbia from 2022–2025
- Tor Wennesland, the UN's former Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process
- Moderated by Ian C. Kelly, Ambassador (ret.) in Residence at Northwestern University
01:38:40 | Designing the Process
- Barney Afako, lawyer and member of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan
- Claire Hajaj, Executive Director of Inter Mediate
- Sergio Jaramillo, President of Fundación Acordemos and Colombia's former High Commissioner for Peace of Colombia
- Moderated by Dan Krcmaric, Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University
03:05:50 | Actors in Multilateral Peacemaking
- William B. Taylor, Distinguished Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, former Vice President for Europe & Russia at the US Institute of Peace (USIP) and former US ambassador to Ukraine
- Shoaib Rahim, former Senior Advisor to Afghanistan's State Ministry for Peace
- Tor Wennesland, the UN's former Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process
- Moderated by Danielle Gilbert, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University
04:33:25 | Challenges of Implementation
- Barney Afako, lawyer and member of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan
- Kate Fearon, founding member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition who participated in negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement
- Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine's former Minister of Foreign Affairs and co-founder of the Centre for National Resilience & Development
- Abiodun Williams, Professor of the Practice of International Politics at Tufts University and former Senior Vice-President of the Center for Conflict Management at USIP
- Moderated by Pontus Ohrstedt, Director of Support to Peace Processes at Folke Bernadotte Academy, the Swedish government agency for peace, security and development