Paula Garb co-founded the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding and for twenty years was
its co- director. She remains on the Center’s board and is a Senior Fellow at the
Center for Peacemaking Practice at George Mason University. Since 1994, she has facilitated
citizen dialogues and taught peaceful problem-solving skills in conflict zones in
the South Caucasus and Middle East. Her work as a peace practitioner and researcher
has led to several publications in books and journals, and to a commitment to promoting
the mainstreaming of peace literacy K-16 worldwide. For 25 years she taught courses
in mediation, conflict resolution, civic and community engagement at UC Irvine, and
gang mediation and negotiation at UCI, and at California State University, Los Angeles.
She directed several academic programs at UCI, including the Mediation Certificate
Program, Minor in Conflict Resolution, and Minor in Civic and Community Engagement.
Research Interests
- Culture and conflict and conflict resolution
- Theories and methods of nonviolent action
- Indigenous law and mediation
- Regions -- Orange County, Los Angeles, Post-Soviet Caucasus and Russia
Education
Ph.D. in Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Anthropology, 1990
M.A. in Anthropology, Moscow State university, 1982
B.A. in History, Moscow State university, 1980
Publications
Garb, P., Cavitt, J., Godinez, J., Martinez, B., & Valdez, A. (2013). Gang Intervention Mediation Specialists: Training Manual with accompanying videos.
Garb, P. (2012). "Building and Sustaining a Permanent Conference. In Mediation and Dialogue in the South Caucasus: A Reflection on Fifteen Years of Conflict Transformation Initiatives." International Alert
Garb, P. (2012). "Civil Society and Conflict Transformation in the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict: Accomplishments and Challenges." European Security, Volume 21, Issue 1, March, pp 20-101.
Garb, P. (2009). "The View from Abkhazia on South Ossetia Ablaze." Central Asian Survey, Volume 28, Number 1, June, pp 235-246.
Garb P. and Nan, S. A. (2009). "The Dynamism of Shared Success in Abkhaz-Georgian Peacebuilding." In Craig Zelizer and Robert A. Rubinstein (eds.) Building Peace: Practical Reflections from the Field. Kumarian Press.
Garb, P., Kaufman, W., Inal-Ipa, A., Zakareishvili, P., & Clogg, R. (eds.) "Conflict and Migration: The Georgian-Abkhazian Case in a European Context." Conference Proceedings, Istanbul, June 18-19, 2008. 15th Conference in the series Aspects of the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict.
Garb, P. and Kaufmann, W. (2007). Georgian NATO Accession and Potential Impacts on the Georgian-Abkhaz Peace Process. Report on the 14 th Conference in the Series Aspects of the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict.
Garb P. (2007). Russia’s Radiation Victims of Cold War Weapons Production: Surviving in a Culture of Secrecy and Denial. Johnston, Barbara Rose (Eds.) Half-Lives and Half-Truths: Confronting the Radioactive Legacies of the Cold War. School for Advanced Research.
Garb P. and Nan S. A. (2006). "Negotiating in a Coordination Network of Citizen Peacebuilding Initiatives in the Georgian-Abkhaz Peace Process." International Negotiation, Volume 11, Number 1.
Hemmer, B., Garb, P., Phillips, M., & Graham, J. (2006). "Putting the 'Up' in Bottom-up Peacebuilding: Broadening the Concept of International Negotiations." International Negotiation Journal, Volume 11, Number 1.
Garb, P., Inal-Ipa, A. & Zakareishvili P. (eds.) 2002. Aspects of the Abkhaz-Georgian Conflict. A Summary. University of California, Irvine.
Garb, P. and Komarova, G. (2001.) "Victims of 'Friendly Fire' at Russia’s Nuclear Weapons Sites." Peluso, Nancy Lee and Watts, Michael (Eds.) Violent Environments , Cornell University Press.
Garb, P. (2000). "Shaping a State and Law in a 'Mousetrap'.” The Anthropology of East Europe Review, (Spring.)
Garb, P. and Whiteley, J. M. (2001). "A Hydroelectric Power Complex on Both Sides of a War: Potential Weapon or Peace Incentive." In Ingram, Helen, Blatter, Joachim (eds.) Reflections on Water: New Approaches to Transboundary Conflicts and Cooperation. The MIT Press.
Garb, P. (2000). "Small Steps toward Peace in Abkhazia". Give and Take. (Publication of the Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia), Vol. 7, Spring.
Garb, P. (1999). "The Inguri Power Complex". Accord. A Question of Sovereignty: The Georgia- Abkhazia Peace Process. Issue 7.
Roemer, C., Garb, P., Neu, J. & Graham, J. L. (1999). "A Comparison of American and Russian Patterns of Behavior in Buyer-Seller Negotiations Using Observational Measures." International Negotiation . April, 1-25.
Dalton, R., Garb, P., Lovrich, N., Pierce, J., & Whiteley, J. (1999). Critical Masses: Citizens, Nuclear Weapons Production and Environmental Destruction in the United States and Russia. The MIT Press.
Garb, P. (1998). "Ethnicity, Alliance Building, and the Limited Spread of Ethnic Conflict in the Caucasus." David A. Lake and Donald Rothchild (eds.). The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict: Fear, Diffusion, and Escalation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Garb, P. (1998). "The Abkhazians." Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life. Eastword Publications Development.
Garb, P. (1997). "Complex Problems and No Clear Solutions: Difficulties of Defining and Assigning Culpability for Radiation Victimization in the Chelyabinsk Region of Russia." Barbara Rose Johnston (ed.) Life and Death Matters: Human Rights at the End of the Millennium. Walnut Creek:Altamira Press.
Garb, P. (1996). "Mediation in the Caucasus." Alvin W. Wolfe and Honggang Yang (eds.) Contributions of Anthropology to Conflict Resolution, Vol. 29. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Garb, P. (1995). "Environmentalism in Russia." Nationalities Papers Vol. 23, N. 4, December, pp. 687-696.
Garb, P. (1995). "The Return of Refugees Viewed through the Prism of Blood Revenge." The Anthropology of East Europe Review, Vol. 13, Number 2, Autumn, pp. 41-44.
Garb, P. (1994). "Growing in Wisdom and Age: Abkhazian Elders as Mediators of Conflict." M. Ember and C. Ember (eds.), Portraits of Culture. Ethnographic Originals. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc. 61-86.
Garb, P. and Komarova, G. (1994). "What the Neighbors Say about Living in Chelyabinsk." CIS Environmental Watch. Number 5.
Garb, P. (1993). "The Legal Status of Foreign Employees in Russia." B. Gross and P. Juviler (eds.), Human Rights for the 21st Century: Foundations for Responsible Hope. M.E. Sharpe Inc. pp. 103-110.
Garb, P. (1993). "Abkhazians of Georgia." State of the Peoples: A Global Human Rights Report on Societies in Danger. Boston: Beacon Press. 1994. Garb, P. (1991). "Culture Learning and Cultural Adaptation of North Americans in the USSR." University Microfilms International. Ph.D. Dissertation. Garb, P. (1987). "Kemerovo: A Colony of Americans in Siberia." In Context. Winter, 47-49.
Garb, P. (1987). They Came to Stay: North Americans in the USSR. Moscow: Progress
Garb, P. (1984). From Childhood to Centenarian. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Reprinted in the US as: Where the Old Are Young: Long Life in the Soviet Caucasus. (1987). Palo Alto, CA: Ramparts Press.