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Vern Redekop
Full Professor, School of Conflict Studies


For the past 25 years, Redekop has been studying deep-rooted conflict and reconciliation. Before that he was President of the Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution (CICR). His work has taken him to Indigenous communities in Canada, and a number of countries around the world. His publications continue to explore theoretical and practical sides of conflict and reconciliation in a number of contexts.


Trump's - Pantheistic Temptation

February 06, 2017

The “Pantheistic Temptation,” in political philosophy, is for a leader to interpret vox populi, the voice of the people, with vox Dei, the voice of God. This gives the elected leader a sense of being able to do whatever he or she wishes. Carl Schmitt wrote about this; however, he eventually became a National Socialist following Hitler who is a prime example of a leader succumbing to a Pantheistic Temptation. There are signs that Trump is vulnerable to a Pantheistic Temptation. Hannah Arendt makes the case that positive exemplars point the way of responding to those who become this kind of leader.



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Who is Imitating Whom? A Mimetic Meditation on the Upcoming Donald Trump Presidency

January 16, 2017

With Donald Trump poised to become President of the United States, the American people need discernment to determine how best to respond to him as President. The next four years could either lead to entrenched mimetic structures of violence, in which people mutually harm one another, or to mimetic structures of blessing—mutual empowerment.



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Celebrating the Life and Thought of René Girard

October 25, 2016

French-American thinker, René Girard, developed a transdisciplinary theoretical perspective centred on mimetic desire and scapegoating that is having a transformative effect in many fields and disciplines. His work has transformed our understanding of the human condition. His death on November 4, 2015 is being commemorated at Saint Paul University with a Glasmacher Lecture on the evening of November 3rd and a Colloquium on November 4th.



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Richard Batsinduka and Integrative Peacebuilding

October 13, 2016

Richard Batsinduka, who died in September, pioneered the introduction of Third Party Neutral training (Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution) in Rwanda in the 1990s. He worked closely with me in a relationship of mutual respect. In the process we developed understandings that are now pertinent to Integrative Peacebuilding (IPB).



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