Picture yourself Sitting in a room with Israeli, Arab, U.S., European and UN diplomats committed to finding solutions to the major issues in the 62–year–old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Design a strategy that will end Hamas rocket fire and arms smuggling and open up Gaza’s borders with Israel. Imagine being President Obama and calling on Israel to stop the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. How would you feel playing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, telling Israel to free Palestinian prisoners and dismantle military checkpoints while you negotiate a national unity government with Hamas?

The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars is offering a two-week intensive seminar and simulation to a select number of university students and post–graduates on the critical and timely subject of Arab-Israeli peace. Camp David III, offered for the sixth year, follows in the footsteps of Camp David I, which produced the 1979 Israeli–Egyptian peace accord, and the failed Camp David II summit of 2000. Students will visit Middle East embassies and participate in a mock international conference to tackle the difficult issues in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Whether you have already taken courses on the Arab-Israeli conflict or this subject is new for you, Camp David III is an exciting opportunity to get an inside look at the key parties involved in an issue that is a top priority for the U.S. and the world in the 21st century.

Program participants will learn how resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is linked to broader issues in the Arab and Muslim world including stabilizing Iraq, the Iranian threat, and the struggle against al–Qaeda and its allies. They will be exposed to various techniques and concepts in international negotiations such as pre-negotiation planning, third party mediators, back channel communications, and the role of personalities and the media in diplomacy. The lessons of conflict resolution are useful in almost any arena; one of the best ways to learn these lessons is through hands–on experience negotiating one of the most explosive and complicated conflicts in the world today.