Workshop: Changing Mental Models in International Conflict Engagement

Mental Models in International Conflict Engagement

International engagement in situations of violent conflict—or in the presumed aftermath—sets these situations up for a never-ending violent path. The most recent and painful examples of this are events in Myanmar and Sudan, with the situation rapidly deteriorating in other places, for example Tunisia. That international engagement has a part to play in the return to violence is a bold claim, but one that a decade of a major research consortium (the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium SLRC), which conducted longitudinal empirical multi-method work in eight conflict-affected countries, supports. 

In book Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict (Bloomsbury 2023, open access), Mareike Schomerus (who was one of the SLRC’s research directors) shows why a new mental model that underpins international engagement is required. Mental models, a concept rooted in behavioural science, are the fundamental short cuts that all humans use to make sense of the world around them, to establish the causality that seems plausible to them, and to shape their engagement. This interactive workshop is designed following behavioural learning principles and is particularly aimed at peacebuilding practitioners and programme designers (and welcomes researchers) and offers two related trainings: 

1. It breaks down the empirical research that shows the flawed mental model in action (for example by showing how an economic growth models overlooks how social economies really work, how violence can often be the least disruptive element of lives in conflict situations, to what extent the invisible elements of the so-called ‘the mental landscape’ are the most important parts to pay attention to, and how current understandings of identity and identity-based targeting of populations obscure the burdens of categorisation. 

2. It then offers an interactive introduction to understanding how mental models are created, how they link to the latest research in behavioural science and how this can be put to use in understanding and engaging in conflict situations. It elaborates how a mental model revision (and the challenges this poses) allows unpacking the underpinning beliefs, imagery, metaphors and ideologies that stand in the way of more constructive engagement. 

Upon concluding this workshop, participants will be able to 

 – Recognize basic concepts in behavioural science, including mental models;

 – differentiate between standard and behavioural approaches as applied in the analysis of or the engagement in situations of violent conflict;

 – articulate the specifics of common mental models in conflict engagement; 

 – critique the mental models that profoundly shape peacebuilding or conflict-engagement work; and

 – Have a better understanding of the implications of the UN’s commitment to mainstream behavioural science in all its programmes.