Our Mission

The Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation (CIIAN) is dedicated to the prevention and resolution of destructive conflict and to building sustainable peace at local, national, and international levels.

Our Commitment

We believe that reducing violence, achieving stability and building sustainable peace can only be attained through the sound engagement of the people and institutions in conflict. We are committed to building relationships and partnerships with appropriate leaders and organizations as a route to real change. We use and develop state of the art, empirically tested methods of conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding. And we are committed to transferring knowledge and competencies to those with whom we work.

Achieving Our Mission

CIIAN achieves its Mission and fulfills its Commitment through four programs: International Program; Domestic Program; Violence Prevention Early Response Unit; and special Programs.

All of CIIAN's professionals are theory-informed practitioners. Experienced as facilitators, trainers, mediators, researchers and peacebuilding consultants, their services draw upon lessons learned and best practices to design customized interventions and training  programs.

A Brief History

Founded in 1992, CIIAN was built upon the notions of peace, social justice, and principled dispute resolution based in negotiation. CIIAN soon became one of the leading ADR organizations, gaining a solid reputation for effective programming and training. Our growing reputation resulted in international recognition and by the mid-1990's we were invited to partner with organizations, especially in the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Recent years have seen CIIAN continue to offer dispute resolution programming through local organizations in a number of conflict zones, including Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Columbia, Haiti, Lebanon, Macedonia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Crimea. We are now recognized as a leader in violence prevention, using a catalytic approach that balances security and development.

CIIAN's Presidents

CIIAN has been strengthened by the leadership and wisdom of the following:
Founding President: Senator and past Ambassador to the UN for Disarmament, Douglas Roche
The Late Honourable, Justice Mark McGuigan
Co-Founder of CIIAN and past Director of Conflict Resolution for the Carter Center, Dr. Ben Hoffman.

CIIAN's International Program

CIIAN's International Program provides services in conflict prevention, conflict resolution as well as peacebuilding programming, often in long-term partnerships with local organizations. The Program also offers specific, clinical training workshops including a Certificate Program in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution.

CIIAN's Domestic Program

The Domestic Program provides three levels of training for those interested in learning dispute resolution competencies:

• Individual Courses
• Certificate Programs
• Professional Designations

In Canada, CIIAN confers two professional designations:

1. Registered Practitioner in Dispute Resolution - Generalist
2. Registered Practitioner in Dispute Resolution - Workplace Specialist

CIIAN's Early Response (ER) Unit

CIIAN's ER Unit works in conflict situations to prevent potential violence and intervenes in cases of violence to stabilize and restore the situation. The ER Unit also develops and delivers training courses for other early responders, provides consultation on violence prevention, and continues to conduct research on this topic.

CIIAN's Special Programs

CIIAN's Special Programs focuses on the development of special resources such as research papers, manuals and videos. It also sponsors a speaker's series and designs innovative training workshops such as the 'Power Clinic For Mediators'.