Conflict Dynamics International develops and implements innovative strategies for conflict prevention and resolution, and for humanitarian policy relevant to conflict and other crises. Conflict Dynamics recognizes an increasing need for targeting the intersection between humanitarian policy and conflict resolution.

Conflict Dynamics explores new approaches to humanitarian policy and provides direct substantive and process-related support to conflict resolution activities in the international arena. Moreover, Conflict Dynamics takes a proactive, outcomes-oriented approach of identifying specific points at which substantive and process-related inputs can have the highest impact. In this way, Conflict Dynamics seeks to efficiently produce results that are high quality, timely and effective.

Conflict Dynamics International has designed three intersecting program areas to fulfil its mission. These three program areas are: Peacebuilding in Transition States, New Frontiers in Humanitarian Policy and Pressure Points for Conflict Prevention and Resolution.

With these goals in mind, Conflict Dynamics has established relationships with key players in the field of conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and humanitarian action, and continues to collaborate with such organizations as the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Harvard University, Save the Children UK, and Mercy Corps' Conflict Management Group.

Who We Are

Gerard Mc Hugh, President

Gerard is Founder and President of Conflict Dynamics International. Gerard has worked extensively on international conflict resolution and humanitarian policy for more than eleven years, building on a foundation of work in healthcare which he embarked upon over twenty years ago. He founded Conflict Dynamics in 2004 to function as an independent, not-for-profit organization to prevent conflict and to alleviate humanitarian suffering resulting from conflict and other crises.

Gerard has worked on policy- and practical aspects of humanitarian negotiations and humanitarian access, as well as other humanitarian policy issues, in many conflict settings. He was the lead developer of Conflict Dynamics’ Humanitarian Negotiation Training Initiative (HNTI) which he and colleagues have delivered for humanitarian practitioners working in Afghanistan, the Middle East Region, Nepal, Senegal, Somalia and Sri Lanka. Gerard has worked on several peace processes, mediation- and negotiation initiatives, most recently to support United Nations-African Union led mediation efforts under the Darfur Political Process (2007/2008). Between 2005 and 2007 Gerard also successfully completed three mandates as Coordinator of the U.N. Security Council Panel of Experts concerning the Sudan.

He has authored/co-authored numerous articles, reports and resources for peace- and humanitarian practitioners – on a range of topics – including: Sanctions Assessment Handbook (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2004); Humanitarian Negotiations with Armed Groups: A Manual for Practitioners (United Nations, 2006); Strengthening Protection of Children through Accountability (Conflict Dynamics, 2009); and Integrating Internal Displacement in Peace Processes and Peace Agreements (USIP and The Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, forthcoming 2009).

Gerard is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds degrees in political science, mechanical engineering, naval architecture, and mathematics from those institutions and also holds a professional qualification in nursing.

Gabrielle Aron, Junior Program Officer

Gabrielle is a graduate of Boston University, holding a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with specialization in African and Middle Eastern development. Gabrielle additionally earned a minor in Cultural Anthropology.  She has traveled extensively and was accepted to the International Honors Program as an undergraduate, where she conducted field research on comparative urban development issues in Brazil, South Africa and Viet Nam. Gabrielle spent time previously in the nonprofit sector as well as at the Constituent Services Office of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. At CDI, Gabrielle works across both the Humanitarian Policy and Peacebuilding portfolios. She recently completed work on a new report, Bridging the Accountability Gap: New Approaches to Addressing Violations against Children in Armed Conflict (June 2011).

Sophia Dawkins, Program Officer, Governance and Peacebuilding, South Sudan

Sophia is a Program Officer on the Governance and Peacebuilding portfolio, working between Headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts and CDI's field office in Juba, South Sudan. Sophia works on the Governance and Peacebuilding team, focusing on the following projects: Political Accommodation in the Republic of South Sudan; Political Accommodation and Public Participation; and Political Accommodation: Theory and Methodology. Prior to CDI, Sophia worked with a parliamentary capacity building organization in East and Southern Africa and on grassroots governance programming in the Abyei Area of Sudan. A graduate of Oxford University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Sophia focused her studies on post-conflict governance and peacebuilding, completing a Master’s thesis on how decentralization efforts brokered by external actors affect conflict in South Sudan.

Julia Freedson, Senior Consultant, Humanitarian Policy

Julia is an independent international affairs consultant focusing on human rights and humanitarian affairs. Currently she is the Senior Policy Consultant for the Children and Armed Conflict Accountability Project at Conflict Dynamics International. She is the author of CDI's new report, "Bridging the Accountability Gap: New Approaches to Addressing Violations Against Children in Armed Conflict." 

Julia has worked extensively in the area of protection of children in situations of armed conflict and the work of the UN Security Council on this agenda for over 12 years. Julia was the founding director of the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict and served in this role for several years. She has conducted research and published various reports and articles on the impact of armed conflict on children and adolescents in Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and other sites. She has advocated extensively for the protection of children and adolescents from abuses such as killing, maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, child soldiering, abduction, forced displacement, lack of access to healthcare, humanitarian assistance and education and the threat of HIV/AIDS and landmines. She has presented her work before varied audiences including the UN Security Council, Chatham House and various universities. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, National Public Radio, BBC News and other media outlets around the world.

Previously Julia has worked with the Global Coalition for Protecting Education from Attack, a private philanthropic organization, the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the Anti-Defamation League and other international organizations. She holds a Master’s Degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and an undergraduate degree in International Affairs from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Liz Gaere, Senior Consultant, Governance and Peacebuilding, South Sudan

Liz is Team-Leader for Conflict Dynamics' work on political accommodation in the Republic of South Sudan within the Governance and Peacebuilding Portfolio, based in the South Sudanese capital Juba. She also works on CDI's project promoting political accommodation between the Republic of South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan, following the independence of South Sudan in July 2011. Liz joined CDI in September 2011. Since graduating from Oxford with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) in the mid-1980s, she has worked in the non-governmental sector as well as serving for twenty years in the UK public service including the Department for International Development (DFID), and has also recently worked with UNDP. She has broad expertise in leading international development programs with a specific focus on governance reform in fragile and conflict-affected states. Africa has been a key passion and focus of her career, including West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria), and South Sudan, where she has been based since 2006 working on a variety of developmental, peace-
building and state-building initiatives. Liz's links with South Sudan date back to 1985, when she first visited Sudan as an undergraduate, returning just a year later to work in the Darfur Region, where she also met her South Sudanese husband Korby, with whom she has two daughters. Liz speaks Juba Arabic as well as French; she was awarded an OBE the Queen's 2009 Honors list in recognition of her contribution to peace and development work.

Tarig Hilal, Senior Program Manager, Governance and Peacebuilding, Republic of the Sudan

Tarig manages and coordinates a range of activities under Conflict Dynamics' initiative on political accommodation in the Sudan. His work includes policy orientated research; program design/implementation/monitoring;
management and other tasks. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Tarig has worked for Crisis UK, the International Crisis Group and the World Bank. Over the last two years he has resided in the Republic of the Sudan, where he played an integral role in the launch of the country's first nationwide civic education and election observation effort. Tarig speaks Arabic fluently.

Nathan Kennedy, Intern, Governance and Peacebuilding

Nathan is pursuing his Master's degree at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. His study focuses on development and human security, with a particular interest in governance and civil society in Africa. Before starting grad school, Nathan served in Niger with the Peace Corps, where he worked for two years on youth and education projects in a rural town. He spent a third year assisting NGO Plan Niger with communications and proposal writing.

Kirsti Samuels, Senior Technical Advisor, Governance and Peacebuilding

Kirsti is an attorney practitioner and policy analyst at the forefront of the state-building and peace building fields with extensive experience of the issues of countries in conflict – She has worked in Somalia, East Timor, Ecuador, Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq and most recently Sudan. She holds a Doctorate in International Law from Oxford University.

Kirsti’s last post was as the Transition Processes Advisor for AECOM/USAID in Sudan in 2010. In 2009 she worked in Iraq as the Legislative Advisor for the University of Utah Global Justice Project: Iraq, working closely with the Iraqi Parliament, the Office of the Speaker, and Advisors to the Prime Minister. In 2007-2008 she set up and implemented the Constitution Building Program for International IDEA as Senior Program Manager and Lead Constitution Building Expert. Dr Samuels was the lead legal expert involved in the shaping of the UNDP constitution-building project for Somalia in 2006 and she advised the Somali government on using a constitutional process as a peace building process. During 2003-2005, she headed up the State-building program at the International Peace Academy, focusing on the challenges faced and the lessons learned from previous state-building experiences. She has consulted widely to the World Bank, DFID, DOS, and the UN on Rule of law and Constitution Building in post-conflict countries. Martinus Nijhoff published her book on civil conflict and international law in 2007.

Paul Simkin, Senior Consultant, Governance and Peacebuilding, Somalia

Paul began in August 2011 working on CDI's Governance and Peacebuilding in Somalia portfolio. His principle focus is on political accommodation in Somalia in partnership with Somali authorities, the UN and donor
community. The project will give special attention to building links with Somaliland authorities, armed opposition groups and the ongoing constitutional process. Paul comes to CDI with extensive knowledge from East Africa and the Horn. Paul has worked with donors, the UN and NGOs principally in conflict and post-conflict scenarios. Paul will be working out of Nairobi and travelling in and out of Somalia with occasional trips to the Cambridge headquarters.

Simar Singh, Research Associate

Simar is working on a project entitled, Humanitarian negotiations with armed forces and groups that use 'terror tactics.' CDI is undertaking a project to develop policy guidance for humanitarian actors to effectively negotiate with non-State armed groups –including those which may be designated as "terrorist organizations" –with the goal of enhancing the capacity of these humanitarian actors to protect civilians affected by armed conflict. Simar is currently completing her Master in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School where she is a Public Service Fellow. She most recently worked on the development of CDI's 2011 report "Bridging the Accountability Gap: New Approaches to Addressing Violations Against Children in Armed Conflict." Prior to moving to Cambridge for graduate school, Simar was the Program Manager at the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, a global network of NGOs that strives to end violations against children in armed conflicts and to guarantee their rights. Originally from India, Simar is fluent in Hindi and Punjabi and proficient in French.

Aaron Stanley, Intern, Governance and Peacebuilding

Aaron is currently a senior at Boston University studying International Relations and African Studies. Prior to his time at Conflict Dynamics, Aaron has held positions with the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, the Institute for Women's Policy Research, and a start-up Zambian micro-finance organization. In addition, he has spent a semester in Uganda on a student exchange program.

Board of Directors

Gerard Mc Hugh (Chair)

Allison Spaxman

Chris Saunders

Internships

Conflict Dynamics often takes on graduate and undergraduate interns at our Cambridge, MA office to support ongoing programs.  If you are interested in applying for an internship with our office please email internship@cdint.org.