Collaborative Structural Change

We're excited to share CSC roster member Mike Brand's latest article, "Creating a Prevention-Focused Foreign Policy", published by the New Lines Institute.

In this timely piece, Mike argues that many of the legal frameworks and policy tools needed to support atrocity and genocide prevention already exist. The challenge is ensuring that prevention becomes a consistent and institutionalized priority rather than an intermittent response to crises. The article introduces a new initiative to develop a practical, bipartisan blueprint to help future policymakers strengthen prevention-focused approaches to foreign policy.

Beyond this work, Mike collaboratively leads the Human Security Project and is the creator of Mike the Idealist, where he brings conversations about human rights, atrocity prevention, human security, and foreign policy to broader public audiences.

These efforts reflect a shared commitment to bridging the gap between policy, practice, and public engagement. Bravo!!

📖 Read the article: https://shorturl.at/uM8jr

🌍 Human Security Project: https://humansecurityproject.org/

🎥 Mike the Idealist: https://miketheidealist.com/

We are living through a moment that demands more than expert conversations—it demands public engagement.

Too often, discussions about atrocity prevention, human rights, and accountability remain confined to specialist circles. Yet meaningful prevention requires broader audiences to understand, engage with, and support this work.

That's why we're excited to spotlight the incredible work being done by Madeline Vellturo, D. Wes Rist, Jeffrey Sizemore, and the entire team behind Former Feds & Friends.

Using science fiction and fantasy films as a gateway, they bring complex conversations about violence, prevention, ethics, power, resilience, and leadership to audiences far beyond our traditional spaces.

Recently, CSC Founder Dr. Saghar Shahidi-Birjandian joined host Jeffrey Sizemore for a conversation on Watchmen and its relevance to today's world. Together, they explored violence, justice, gender-based violence, leadership in times of crisis, and the choices societies make when core principles are tested.

It was a powerful reminder that popular culture can help us engage with some of the most pressing prevention challenges of our time.

🎥 Watch the episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkkIQr1rRNE&t=1s

📺 Explore Former Feds & Friends: https://www.youtube.com/

Please subscribe, share their content, and help amplify a project that is bringing critical conversations about violence prevention, resilience, and human dignity to new audiences.

CSC Roster Spotlight: Jeffrey Sizemore!

We're proud to spotlight CSC roster member Jeffrey Sizemore, a globally respected atrocity prevention practitioner, educator, and advocate.

Jeffrey currently serves as the 2026 Mary Wing-Ming Senior Human Rights Research Fellow at the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect at the University of Queensland. Previously, he led atrocity prevention initiatives at the U.S. Department of State, helping advance training, policy, and international collaboration on preventing mass atrocities.

We're also excited to highlight Jeffrey's work with Former Feds & Friends, an innovative YouTube initiative led by Madeline Vellturo, D. Wes Rist, Jeffrey, and an incredible team. Through science fiction and fantasy films, they explore some of the most pressing questions facing our world today, from violence and justice to leadership, ethics, resilience, and prevention.

Recently, CSC Founder Saghar Shahidi-Birjandian, PhD. joined Jeffrey on the channel to discuss Watchmen and what it can teach us about power, violence, justice, gender-based violence, and leadership during times of crisis.

🎥 Watch the episode: https://lnkd.in/ga6NRu7T

📺 Explore Former Feds & Friends: https://lnkd.in/gzW-ywQu

We're proud to have Jeffrey as part of the CSC roster and encourage you to support the important work he and the Former Feds & Friends team are building.

Collaborative Structural Change is launching the second edition of Radical Review and inviting submissions from IR scholars and others engaged with global governance issues.

This edition asks a simple but important question: What would global governance look like if communities had a greater voice in shaping it?

We welcome abstracts exploring how people experience global governance in everyday life, what communities want from global institutions, and how accountability and legitimacy can be reimagined from the ground up.

📝 Abstracts: Up to 500 words
📅 Deadline: 1 July 2026
📩 Submit to: [email protected]

Help us rethink global order from local perspectives.

Founding Members Saghar Shahidi-Birjandian, and Yatana Yamahata co-authored “Redesigning Global Governance from Below,” which calls on International Relations (IR) scholars to rethink global governance through participatory, community-driven approaches rather than top-down institutional models. The article argues that IR should help amplify local voices, support democratic dialogue, and document alternative visions of global order to create more inclusive, accountable, and just forms of governance for the future.

You can read the full article here:

E-International Relations: https://lnkd.in/gPWzc6uz

Food for Change (Substack): https://lnkd.in/gwFGThaM

CSC is very proud to promote this forthcoming edited volume, which brings together interdisciplinary and lived perspectives on the intergenerational impacts of genocide and mass atrocities. At its core is a commitment to recognizing survivors and their descendants not merely as subjects of study, but as essential producers of knowledge whose experiences deepen understanding and strengthen scholarship, education, advocacy, healing, and atrocity-prevention practice.

Among the global network of brilliant knowledge producers who contributed to this volume, representatives of CSC made significant contributions. The volume was co-edited by CSC Founding Member Sarah Seiselmyer-Snyder and CSC Founder Saghar Shahidi-Birjandian. Saghar and Sarah also co-authored the Introduction. “Centering the Positionality of Intergenerational Survivors Producing Knowledge on Atrocity Violence” and Conclusion, “Positionality as Power: The Unique Epistemic Contribution of Intergenerational Survivor-Scholars”, offering original contributions to discussions of intergenerational survivorship and the role of knowledge producers. CSC Founding Member Yatana Yamahata co-authored a substantive chapter with Saghar titled “Living with Hypocrisy in Genocide Studies and Atrocity Prevention.” Sarah also co-authored an interview with Brenda Wanjiru, “From the Mother's Milk: Am I an Intergenerational Survivor of Genocide?” In addition, CSC roster member Mike Brand contributed a chapter entitled “From Gaza to Darfur: Preventing Mass Atrocities Should Never Be Controversial,” while Tawheed Reza Noor authored “Echoes of Trauma in Knowledge Production: Struggling for Recognition of Bangladesh’s 1971 Genocide.”

We hope this work helps create space for more honest dialogue, critical reflection, and meaningful engagement for current and future generations of scholars, practitioners, survivors, and advocates.

The book is now available for pre-order:

Routledge: https://lnkd.in/g3eYrJ6s

Amazon: https://lnkd.in/gSreyic4

Barnes & Noble: https://lnkd.in/gK2gQs6P

As seen in the case of Iran, when ex*****ons occur within closed and repressive systems, TWO different but equally important ecosystems work to halt and prevent such atrocities.

Network-Based Alert Systems

These are rapid-response networks built on evidence, trust, relationships, and real-time communication between families, lawyers, activists, diaspora communities, former prisoners, and people on the ground.

They often surface urgent cases during:
• Internet shutdowns
• Media blackouts
• Periods of state intimidation

Examples include:
• HumanInChain
• HRANA (Human Rights Activists News Agency)
• Hengaw Organization for Human Rights
• Iran Human Rights Monitor

Institutional Human Rights Organizations

These organizations focus on rigorous verification, legal analysis, systematic documentation, and international accountability.

Examples include:
• Amnesty International
• Human Rights Watch
• Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI)
• Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO)
• Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM)

The distinction matters.

Networks provide speed and early warning.
Institutions provide verification, credibility, and international leverage.

In environments shaped by internet shutdowns, state-controlled narratives, and restricted access to information, both are essential to documenting abuses, preventing ex*****ons, and building global pressure to halt atrocities.

*****onsInIran *****ons

🚨 IMMINENT RISK: Pakhshan Azizi

Pakhshan Azizi, a Kurdish Iranian Activist, is facing ex*****on in Iran.

According to Amnesty International:

💔 Arrested in 2023
💔 Solitary confinement
💔 Denied fair trial
💔 Coercive interrogation
💔 Death sentence upheld

⚠️ She is now at imminent risk of ex*****on

📢 Speaking out matters.

Her conviction is linked to peaceful humanitarian work.

⚠️ Ex*****on could happen at any time.

🔗 Amnesty source:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/9035/2025/en/

📢 Awareness can help save lives.

*****onsInIran

Payvand Naeimi, a young Baha’i political prisoner, is at imminent risk of ex*****on by state authorities in Iran.

Reports indicate:
• Torture and mock ex*****ons
• Forced confessions
• Charges inconsistent with known timelines

What you can do:
• Share his name
• Share his story (links to resources in comments)
• Engage publicly using the hashtag *****onsInIran

This is something we can all do—every day.
Ex*****ons in Iran are happening without the world watching.

We are changing that.

How?
By using *****onsInIran everywhere:
• On your posts
• In comments
• When sharing content
• Even in everyday updates

Why?
Because repetition builds visibility.
And visibility creates pressure.
One post helps.

Daily action builds a system.