Projects
Our projects span negotiation skill-building, conflict transformation, campus dialogue, and climate diplomacy. Each initiative reflects NCRC’s core commitment to creating research-driven tools, convening diverse leaders, and equipping practitioners with the skills to drive lasting change. Explore our current work below.
Turn the Tide
Turn the Tide is an inter-university collaboration that equips climate, land, and biodiversity negotiators, students and leaders with the negotiation skills required to advance policy action in high-stakes forums.
Built in collaboration with university faculty, active negotiators, and senior advisors, our curriculum pairs core negotiation strategy with the real-world complexities of multi-party diplomacy. We deliver our curriculum through trainings that integrate research-based teaching, immersive simulations, and practical tools. Every year, we bring our trainings to hundreds of young negotiators from underserved regions to elevate their negotiation skills and help close the gap facing vulnerable nations at the negotiation table.
Beyond our own trainings, we host a growing open-source library of teaching materials, simulations, and guides—free for educators worldwide to bring negotiation training into their own classrooms. We actively invite educators to contribute their own materials, helping this library grow into a shared resource for the global negotiation community.
The Propeller / Why It Worked
Why It Worked is a pioneering global initiative focused on transforming the future of conflict transformation.
The initiative provides actionable insights and tools, including the Propeller Framework for Conflict Transformation, to help communities and leaders in conflict zones design locally-driven, long-term solutions. By uncovering the common elements that have driven successful peace processes, we are equipping leaders worldwide with the knowledge to build more resilient societies and create lasting peace, even in the most fractured regions.
Dialogue For Understanding
Dialogue for Understanding is a training program designed and delivered by NCRC that equips participants with practical skills for navigating difficult, divisive conversations.
Born out of student demand at HBS, it has grown from a small series of workshops into a full program now delivered to up to 1,000 incoming HBS students each year — and more broadly to students and fellows at Harvard Kennedy School and to external organizations. Through interactive sessions grounded in behavioral science and dialogue frameworks, participants learn to manage cognitive biases, balance inquiry with advocacy, and engage more constructively across deep disagreement. The program goes beyond polite debate, helping future leaders sit with discomfort and communicate more honestly when it matters most.