Dr. Tatsushi Arai
Tatsushi (Tats) Arai is a Research Fellow of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research and Associate Professor of Conflict Transformation at SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont. Previously, Tats taught International Relations at the National University of Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. As a trainer, mediator, and dialogue facilitator, he has led a number of peacebuilding workshops for diplomats, civilian and military government personnel, representatives of international organizations, and religious and civil society leaders from around the world, especially in the Middle East, the African Great Lakes, East and South Asia, and North America. Tats’s most recent activities focus on field research in Pakistan and public speaking and dialogues aimed at transforming the underlying discourse of the war on terror in the West, as well as the growing networks of organized militancy in the Afghan-Pakistan context. His publications include Creativity and Conflict Resolution: Alternative Pathways to Peace (2009, Routledge). Currently, he is working on a book project (Peace Potential in Conflict), which seeks to theorize methods of applied practice informed by field experience in conflict-affected societies. Tats is a Japanese citizen, holds a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University in Virginia, and lives in Massachusetts.