Designing for Peace in the Middle East

[Pablo Picasso, 1949, Dove of Peace]

This Friday, October 27, 2023,

at 8am PDT / 11am EDT / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST,

Meet world leading experts in evolution of societal systems, transformative social change, integral development and thrivability of large social systems from cities to macroregions - co-founding members of Living Cities • Earth (the world’s largest community of experts in integral territorial development), participating in panel discussion:

Designing for Peace in the Middle East: How a Stratified Evolutionary Approach to governance can diffuse Conflict and Bring Lasting Peace to a Troubled World

Preliminary questions to discuss:

1. Historical background of the Middle East region’s development: 2000 years history and 20th century issues
2. Systemic/Integral causes of territorial/religious/cultural conflicts through the lenses of Spiral Dynamics - theoretical explanation with real-life examples.
3. What is common and what are the differences in the current conflicts around the disputed territories? What historical mistakes have been made in the Middle East and other current conflicts? How can we avoid them in the future?
4. What does peace look like in the Middle East and around the world? What is a bottom up second order change approach to peace and how could it look like in the Middle East?
5. What actions should be undertaken and who / what body could be able to bring peace to the current conflict(s)? What could be the role of international organisations?
6. How can the breakdown of stability in the Middle East be used as catalysis for a global movement toward a lasting peace on Earth? What are the drivers that can catalyse this transformation shift? What should be fundamentally fixed in people’s minds? How do we communicate the notions of Peace, Optimism, Discernment, Aliveness, Unity and Diversity amidst today’s burning world at the edge of the abyss?

Participating experts:

• Said Dawlabani - developmental theorist who uses multiple evolutionary approaches to frame macro system challenges, from geopolitics to economics. Along with Don Beck and Elza Maalouf, he cofounded the Center for Human Emergence Mideast in 2004, in order to implement new leadership models capable of diffusing conflicts and making peace in the region a reality.
• Neri Bar On - co-founder of Integral Israel. He is an electronics engineer with degrees from the Tel Aviv University in economics and philosophy. Neri was trained by Don Beck and Peter Merry and supported visits to Israel and Palestine for Don Beck and Elza Maalouf.
• David Gershon - founder and CEO of Empowerment Institute, has been called the number one expert on social change and dedicated his life to empowering humanity to believe we can create the world of our dreams and designing the strategies to make this a reality.
• Marilyn Hamilton - Founder of Integral City Meshworks Inc. and author of Integral City Book Series. Her meshworking, appreciative inquiry and action research methodologies build capacity for individuals, groups, organisations and communities to inquire, act and impact social wellbeing in the cities.
• Alexander Laszlo - a polycultural systems scientist, the 57th President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), known for his work on systems theories and "education ecosystems". He, furthermore, is the President of the Board of Directors of the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (BCSSS) and the director of research at the Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research (LINPR).

Moderator - Marina Demchenko, PhD in Economics, an expert in integral personal, organisational and societal development, first ever Advisor to the Mayor of the city on the holistic wellbeing and happiness of citizens.