Gabrielle Rifkind Explained

Gabrielle Rifkind
Birth Date:	1953
Nationality:	British
Occupation:	mediator, group analyst, psychotherapist
Alma Mater:	University of Manchester University of Edinburgh University of London
Known For:	collaboration, conflict resolution

Gabrielle Rifkind is a British mediator who has specialised in international conflict resolution working through non-governmental organisations, (NGOs) in the Middle East and United Kingdom. She is the Director of Oxford Process.^[1] She is known as a commentator on international peacemaking and related themes and author of several titles.^{[2] [3]} Her work considers the role of human relationships^[4] in managing parties with "radical disagreements"^[5] with the goal of establishing areas of potential mutual self-interest.^{[6] [7]}

Early life

Rifkind is a graduate of the University of Manchester and the University of Edinburgh. After working for the Probation Service, she trained at the Institute of Group Analysis and became a group analyst and a psychotherapist.^{[8] [9]}

Later career

Rifkind joined the Oxford Research Group in the late 1990s to explore peacemaking in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.^[10] She became head of the Israel/Palestine programme. She next turned her attention to Iran and the wider Middle East.^[11]

In 2016 she founded Oxford Process, which works in conflict situations to build relationships with conflicted parties to identify opportunities to reduce tensions or prevent further escalation of violence.^[12] Rifkind's theory of conflict resolution focuses on the non-violent management of radical differences between groups, rather than searching for an elusive common ground.^[13] Her work is currently focused on the Middle East and the war between Russia and Ukraine.^[14]

Rifkind has frequently appeared on broadcast media in the UK has given public lectures on peacemaking and contributed to a colloquium at Princeton University and has twice debated at the Oxford Union.^{[15] [16]} She has been one of the conflict mediators for four series of BBC Radio 4's "Across the Red Line" presented by British political journalist, Anne McElvoy.^[17] Rifkind is a featured speaker at the upcoming TED2024 conference in Vancouver.^[18]

She is the co-author, with peace activist Scilla Elworthy of Making Terrorism History (2005)^[19] and, with former senior UN diplomat Giandomenico Picco, of The Fog of Peace: The Human Face of Conflict Resolution,^[20] and author of The Psychology of Political Extremism: What would Sigmund Freud have thought about Islamic State.^[21]

Publications

Books

• Co-author with Tessa Dalley and Kim Terry. Three Voices of Art Therapy: Image, Client, Therapist. United Kingdom: Routledge, 1993 and 2014.
• Co-author with Scilla Elworthy. Hearts and Minds: Human Security Approaches to Political Violence. United Kingdom: Demos, 2005.
• Co-author with Scilla Elworthy. Making Terrorism History. London: Penguin/Random House, 2006.
• Co-Author with Giandomenico Picco. The Fog of Peace: How to Prevent War, Bloomsbury/I.B. Tauris, 2017.
• The Psychology of Political Extremism: What would Sigmund Freud have thought about Islamic State, 2018.
• Contributor, "When Empathy Fails: Managing Radical Differences" in Encounters: The Art of Interfaith Dialogue 2018.^[22]

Articles

Her contributions to journals include:

• Containing the Containers: The Staff Consultation Group. 1995-06-01. Group Analysis. 10.1177/0533316495282010. Rifkind. Gabrielle. 28. 2. 209–222. 144883427.
• The Creative Process of the Artist and Group Analyst. 1995-09-01. Group Analysis. 10.1177/0533316495283009. Rifkind. Gabrielle. 28. 3. 331–337. 143697955.
• Language of war, language of peace and its application to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. 2. 2. June 2004. Psychotherapy and Politics International.
• Separating aspirations from realities. The Jerusalem Post. 2006-05-01.
• News: Rifkind. Gabrielle. Want to ease tensions with Iran? Just try talking. The Independent. 13 February 2007.
• From crisis to opportunity. The Jerusalem Post. 2007-02-20.
• News: Rifkind. Gabrielle. This dialogue of the deaf is making war more likely. The Independent. 28 October 2007.
• News: Rifkind. Gabrielle. The man to sell peace to the Middle East. The Independent. 25 January 2009.
• A route to resolution for Syria and Israel Gabrielle Rifkind. The Guardian. 2010-02-26.
• News: Rifkind. Gabrielle. Solving the West Bank settler problem. The Guardian. 28 September 2010.
• Iran nuclear talks: signs of cautious optimism emerge Gabrielle Rifkind. The Guardian. 2012-05-22.
• To help Syria, talk first to Iran and Saudi Arabia . The Guardian. 2013. Giandomenico. Picco . Giandomenico Picco. Gabrielle. Rifkind.
• Web site: A New Levant: a possible way through in the Syrian crisis. openDemocracy. 2015-09-22.
• One signature by Assad could help to avert the bombing. 2013-09-07. The Times. Rifkind. Gabrielle.
• Web site: Chilcot tells us what we already knew – how do we implement?. 2016-07-06. openDemocracy. 2016-12-22.
• Web site: Chilcot: all peaceful options were not exhausted. 2016-07-15. openDemocracy. 2016-12-22.
• Let's try to understand North Korea's actions: it sees the world as its enemy, The Guardian, July 2017.
• Gaza regeneration: we all need dreams for the future, OpenDemocracy, June 2018.
• National Dialogue: Post-Brexit, We Need a UK-Wide Coming Together, OpenDemocracy, January 2019.
• Rifkind. Gabrielle. Afghanistan's fragile future shows the paradoxical nature of peacebuilding. Prospect. 15 February 2019.
• "Preparing the Psychological Space for Peacemaking", with Nita Yawanarajah, The New England Journal of Public Policy, May 2019.
• "Ancient Hospitality", with John Harris, New Humanist, July 2019.
• News: Rifkind. Gabrielle. We need a path towards reconciliation for Labour and British Jews. The Times. 3 December 2019.
• "The Deal of the century: any chance of an honest broker?", Open Democracy, March 2020.
• News: Rifkind. Gabrielle. I'm a conflict mediator. This is a way out of the Ukraine crisis. The Guardian. 9 February 2022.
• Rifkind. Gabrielle. How to talk peace while waging war. Prospect. 26 January 2023.
• Rifkind. Gabrielle. A better future can be built for Gaza. Prospect. 25 November 2023.
• News: Rifkind. Gabrielle. Israelis and Palestinians by Jonathan Glover review – the psychology of conflict. The Guardian. 11 January 2024.

Broadcast Media

• BBC Radio 4: The Middle East Conundrum, July 2018.^[23]
• BBC Radio 4: Across the Red Line (series 1–4), 2018 and 2019 ^[24]
• BBC Radio 3: Being Diplomatic, April 2019.^[25]

External links

• Oxford Research Group
• Herbert C. Kelman Institute for Interactive Conflict Transformation
• Gabrielle Rifkind

Notes and References

1. Web site: Our Team – Oxford Process. www.oxfordprocess.com. en-GB.
2. Web site: Gabrielle Rifkind – The Guardian. www.theguardian.com. en-GB.
3. Web site: Gabrielle Rifkind – openDemocracy. www.opendemocracy.net. 9 August 2017 . en-GB.
4. Wertheim. Eleanor H. 2016. Focusing on the human element to global conflict resolution efforts and suggesting a vision for the future through the lens of the past. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology. 22. 2. 188–189. 10.1037/pac0000179. APA Psycnet.
5. Rifkind. Gabrielle. Yawanarajah. Nita. 2019-05-01. Preparing the Psychological Space for Peacemaking. New England Journal of Public Policy. 31. 1. 1–11. 0749-016X.
6. Sherry. Richard. 2018. Richard Sherry in conversation with Gabrielle Rifkind; group analyst, psychotherapist and specialist in conflict resolution. Her latest book is titled The Psychology of Political Extremism: What Sigmund Freud would have thought about Islamic State. New Associations. 26. 18–21. Routledge.
7. Web site: Dobell. Graeme. 2014-11-13. Edging through the fog. 2021-08-16. Inside Story. en.
8. Book: Clinical Counselling in Further and Higher Education. Establishing group psychotherapy in a student counselling service. Vaspé, Alison. Lees, John . Mark, Peter. Rifkind, Gabrielle. 87–102. 978-0-415-19281-1. United Kingdom. Taylor & Francis. 2016. (See contributors, p. ix)
9. The light house – A psychotherapist who specialises in conflict resolution has transformed her London home with glass and modern art. Rivailland, Monique. The Times. 2014-04-05.
10. Web site: Gabrielle Rifkind | Oxford Research Group . 29 September 2020 . 28 September 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200928121825/https://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/gabrielle-rifkind . dead .
11. Web site: Free Thinking – Being Diplomatic – BBC Sounds. 2021-08-16. www.bbc.co.uk. en-GB.
12. Web site: OXFORD PROCESS C.I.C. – Overview (free company information from Companies House). find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk.
13. Web site: About Gabrielle .
14. Web site: About Gabrielle .
15. Web site: Hamas: Time to Talk. All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues (APPGCI). 9 December 2011. Gabrielle Rifkind. Elworthy, Scilla.
16. Web site: Iran, the West, and the Region (March 11-12, 2007). Princeton University. 9 December 2011.
17. News: Across the Red Line – Is Tax a Burden. 25 August 2018. BBC 4 Today. 1 October 2020.
18. Web site: Speakers | TED2024 .
19. Book: Making Terrorism History . www.penguin.co.uk. 2 February 2006 . 2020-10-01.
20. Book: The Fog of Peace: The Human Face of Conflict Resolution. Rifkind, Gabrielle. Picco, Giandomenico. 2017. Bloomsbury – I. B. Tauris. 978-1-7807-6897-7.
21. Book: The Psychology of Political Extremism: What Would Sigmund Freud have Thought About Islamic State . London. Routledge. 2018. 9781782206637.
22. Book: Rosen, A. Green, N. in Encounters: The Art of Interfaith Dialogue. When Empathy Fails: Managing Radical Differences. 2018. Belgium. Brepols. 978-2-503-58032-6.
23. Web site: BBC Radio 4 – Analysis, the Middle East Conundrum.
24. Web site: BBC Radio 4 – Across the Red Line.
25. Web site: BBC Radio 3 – Free Thinking, Being Diplomatic.