Dialogue for Understanding e.V.

Do you write on environmental movements in Europe? The Civil Society Forum e.V. is taking applications until 20 August. 🌱

This is the first round of the Call for Forum Policy Briefs 2026–2027. The theme is environmental movements in Europe and how authorities respond to their actions.

You need the short application form, at least one previously published policy paper as a writing sample, and the CV of each author. Questions go to [email protected]. ✍️

Tag someone who works on this, the window is short.

Links in the comments.

People hold political positions because of values, fears and needs, not stupidity or bad faith. 💬

That was the starting point of "How to talk to people who disagree with you. Dialogue in an age of polarisation", five evenings of two hours each, part of our project The Great Divide: Civic Education in Exile.

Participants began with Jonathan Haidt's moral foundations theory, then compared how one contested story was covered by a broadly left and a broadly right outlet, practising the difference between a fact and an interpretation.

Most of the course was practice. In pairs, one person told a personal story explaining their position while the other worked on listening and paraphrasing, then they swapped. The role plays used situations everyone knows: the family dinner, the group chat that escalates, the argument at work. ✨

The last part is the one you rarely see taught: how to tell when a conversation has turned toxic, and how to leave it without wrecking the relationship.

How do you know a conversation is over?

The project is realized thanks to the contribution of the Auswärtiges Amt.

Youth exchange between Germany and Ukraine is not a nice extra. It is infrastructure, and infrastructure needs funding. 🌍

On International Youth Day, one thing we have learned: young people do not become close because they agree about the war. They become close because they meet more than once, organise something together, and stay in touch afterwards. That is slow work and it rarely photographs well.

Last October we saw what that looks like: 35 young people from Germany and Ukraine, thirteen days in Berlin and Brandenburg, and their own films, songs and theatre pieces on stage at the end. ✨ The next exchange is in preparation.

What is the exchange that shaped you? Tell us where you went and how old you were.

Links in the comments.

The exchange was organized by D4U in collaboration with Humanist_innen Berlin im HVD Berlin-Brandenburg and Обʼєднання «Агенція розвитку освітньої політики in Kyiv, with support from the Bundesministerium für Bildung, Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend through the Federal Child and Youth Plan (KJP) and from the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family.

#АРОП

«Нам ещё много надо общаться, чтобы перестать бояться друг друга».

Можно ли построить мир, если общества по-прежнему живут в страхе и почти не знают друг друга?

В новом выпуске «Common Ground: Armenia-Azerbaijan Dialogue» журналист и правозащитник Сабухи Гафаров беседует с ведущими Тахминой Тагиевой, журналисткой и правозащитницей, и Овсепом Хуршудяном, общественным деятелем, о том, какую роль сегодня могут сыграть диалог, гражданское общество и личные контакты между людьми.

💬 В центре разговора: Почему диалог между обществами остаётся необходимым даже после завершения военных действий? Какие уроки можно извлечь из многолетних армяно-азербайджанских диалоговых инициатив? Почему доверие невозможно восстановить без общения, совместных проектов и личных встреч? Как преодолеть взаимный страх, язык ненависти и десятилетия отчуждения? Какую роль могут сыграть журналисты, историки, молодёжь, правозащитники и гражданское общество?

Одна из главных мыслей разговора: «Альтернативы диалогу нет. Альтернатива мирным переговорам — только война.»

Участники дискуссии подчёркивают, что именно регулярные контакты между людьми, совместные инициативы и готовность слушать друг друга способны постепенно восстановить доверие и сделать мир устойчивым.

💭 А как вы считаете: что сегодня больше всего мешает армянам и азербайджанцам снова начать доверять друг другу? Поделитесь своим мнением в комментариях. Нам также интересно узнать, какие темы вы хотели бы увидеть в следующих выпусках.

📺 Полный выпуск — ссылка в комментариях.

Проект «Common Ground: Armenia–Azerbaijan Dialogue» реализуется в сотрудничестве с @სამოქალაქო ინიციატივა - Civic Initiative и Institute For Human Rights при поддержке Auswärtiges Amt.

Ukrainian drone strikes are hitting Russian fuel depots and fuel shortages are spreading across the country.

Our colleague Angelina Davydova reports on an unfolding internal crisis with unexpected consequences. Supplies shrink, local authorities blame each other, central coordination fractures under pressure. The conflict reaches beyond the frontline for Russia. Who bears these economic costs when supply systems break down? How does accountability work within the system?

Link in the comments.

Eight Armenian lives, told by the people living them. On show in Berlin until 21 August, free entry. 🇦🇲

"Zwischen Herkunft und Zukunft. Armenische Lebenswege in Deutschland" came out of a student project. Eight people of Armenian origin were interviewed about their years in Armenia, their reasons for leaving, and what turned out to be hard and what turned out to be possible in Germany.

We are sharing it because conversations about the South Caucasus here almost always start at the conflict and almost never at a biography. ✨

Where? Museum Berlin-Karlshorst, Zwieseler Straße 4, 10318 Berlin.

If you go, tell us which of the eight stayed with you.

Links in the comments.

The project "Common Ground: Armenia–Azerbaijan Dialogue" is implemented in cooperation with სამოქალაქო ინიციატივა - Civic Initiative and the Institute For Human Rights, with generous support from the Auswärtiges Amt.

Four days before the 18th anniversary of the August 2008 war, Georgia's prime minister spent his statement on the opposition, not on Russia's occupation.

In a lengthy statement on 4 August, Irakli Kobakhidze accused critics of "Russophobia." His argument: concern about Moscow only emerged after 2022, supposedly directed by a foreign "Global War Party," not shaped by anything Russia did in Georgia itself. He named names: Elene Khoshtaria, Zurab Japaridze, Misha Mshvildadze and called them "foreign agents."

His case rests on the fact that Georgia welcomed Russian tourists and kept economic ties with Russia after 2008, contrary to what the opposition is asking after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Philosopher Levan Gambashidze pointed out the flaw: 2008 and 2022 aren't the same moment. Economic contacts after 2008 didn't automatically create a sense that the country’s politics was managed from Moscow. On the other hand, since 2022 Georgian Dream has itself kept warning the public about the possibility of war with Russia, then treated the anxiety that follows as something foreign-controlled.

Gigi Tsereteli of European Georgia went further, saying the statement reads like it carries the imprint of Kremlin-aligned circles. Opposition figures across party lines agreed on what should have been said instead. Irakli Pavlenishvili of the United National Movement called the timing no coincidence: "This is exactly what the Kremlin would want." Grigol Gegelia of Lelo – Strong Georgia said the prime minister should have been talking about Russian aggression and Georgia's security, not questioning the loyalty of Georgian citizens.

While Tbilisi argues over its own civil society, the situation on the ground keeps moving. On 9 May, Putin and then de facto leader of South Ossetia Alan Gagloev signed an agreement in Moscow letting Russian and South Ossetian citizens hold posts in each other's administrative structures. In June, Russian citizen and former Russian official Marat Kambolov became South Ossetia's prime minister, then Gagloev moved into an advisory role in the Russian presidential administration. That same month, 56 former Georgian ministers, diplomats and officers wrote to the UN, EU, OSCE and NATO calling for targeted sanctions against those driving the annexation forward.

While Georgian Dream is exploiting a painful scarf in Georgia’s recent history to undermine civil society and opposition legitimacy, Russian control on the ground is deepening. Civil society naming an occupation is not the threat to Georgia. The occupation is.

«Возможен ли мир без справедливости?»

Именно этот вопрос стал центральной темой нового выпуска проекта «Common Ground: Armenia-Azerbaijan Dialogue».

Гость программы — Лусине Акопян, юрист, президент ассоциации Europe in Law и координатор Платформы гражданского общества ЕС-Армения.

Вместе с ведущими Тахминой Тагиевой, журналисткой и правозащитницей, и Овсепом Хуршудяном, общественным деятелем, они обсуждают один из самых сложных вопросов современного мирного процесса: может ли устойчивый мир существовать без правосудия и защиты прав человека?

💬 В центре разговора: Почему права человека и верховенство права должны оставаться частью мирного процесса? Возможно ли примирение без установления истины и ответственности за военные преступления? Какие гарантии необходимы для безопасного и достойного возвращения вынужденных переселенцев? Какую роль могут сыграть гражданское общество, международное право и диалог между обществами в построении долгосрочного мира?

Одна из ключевых мыслей разговора: «Мир не может быть устойчивым, если вопросы справедливости остаются без ответа.»

💭 А как вы считаете: возможен ли мир без справедливости? Поделитесь своим мнением в комментариях. Нам также интересно узнать, какие темы вы хотели бы увидеть в следующих выпусках.

📺 Полный выпуск — ссылка в комментариях.

Проект «Common Ground: Armenia–Azerbaijan Dialogue» реализуется в сотрудничестве с სამოქალაქო ინიციატივა - Civic Initiative и Institute For Human Rights при поддержке Auswärtiges Amt.

Nearly 95 percent of communities in Chernivtsi Oblast now have their own social work specialist. Many had none before. 🚐

Olha Khodoba has led the regional social protection department since 2022. In a story by UNDP Ukraine / ПРООН в Україні, she describes what changed: social protection used to run mostly through subsidies and payments. Now mobile teams drive minibuses into mountain communities with home care, palliative care, psychological support, even help with chopping firewood.

One line from her says it best: "Previously, our work followed a top-down approach from the state to the local level. Now everything starts with the people and moves up." ✨

The story was produced as part of the EU4Recovery partnership between the EU and United Nations Development Programme - UNDP .

Who is the person in your community that everyone calls when they need help?

Links in the comments.



Photo Credits: https://www.flickr.com/photos/undpukraine/53172884303/