Hands-On Learning in Peace Work: A Unique Internship Opportunity with Fleur Ravensbergen

​A six-month internship (October 2025–March 2026) with peace practitioner Fleur Ravensbergen offers students and recent graduates rare hands-on experience in conflict resolution, combining training design, research, online education, and communications work. Ravensbergen brings over 15 years of global field experience—from armed conflict negotiations to corporate mediation—providing interns with exposure to both international peace processes and community-level dialogue. The role includes creating real-case role-play simulations, supporting negotiation and career-entry courses, conducting conflict research, and contributing to outreach through podcasts and digital platforms. With remote flexibility, occasional meetings in the Netherlands, and a modest stipend, this internship bridges academic learning and professional practice, offering comprehensive preparation for careers in peacebuilding and dialogue facilitation.

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For students and recent graduates passionate about conflict resolution and dialogue facilitation, meaningful hands-on experience can be difficult to find. Most academic programs provide theoretical foundations, but the practical skills of mediation, training design, and fieldwork often remain elusive until after graduation. A new internship opportunity with independent peace practitioner Fleur Ravensbergen offers something rare: the chance to learn conflict resolution through direct involvement in real-world peace work.
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Ravensbergen brings over 15 years of experience facilitating dialogue in some of the world's most challenging conflict settings, including successful disarmament processes in Northern Ireland and the Basque Country, negotiations in Iraq, and work across the Great Lakes region of Africa. As co-founder and former deputy director of the Dialogue Advisory Group and current independent expert, she has recently been appointed by the UK and Irish governments as an Independent Expert on paramilitary group transition to disbandment. Her work spans from high-level negotiations in armed conflicts to corporate boardroom disputes, offering interns exposure to the full spectrum of peace work—from training development and research to direct conflict engagement and organizational strategy.

Learning Through Practice: A Comprehensive Approach to Peace Work

The internship, running from October 2025 through March 2026, provides what many dialogue and conflict resolution programs lack: integrated experience across multiple dimensions of peace work. Interns will contribute to training development by creating dialogue facilitation scenarios and role-play simulations based on real cases from Ravensbergen's extensive fieldwork. Her approach of having trainees "play out real cases I've personally experienced" brings complex conflict scenarios to life in ways that purely theoretical training cannot match.

The role extends into online education, supporting courses on entering peace work and negotiation skills—areas where many newcomers to the field struggle to find guidance. This component addresses a critical need in the dialogue and deliberation community: helping emerging practitioners understand not just the "how" of facilitation, but the "how to begin" of building a career in peace work. Ravensbergen's recent recognition with the 2024 Dutch Negotiation Prize and her authorship of "Disarmed" (2024) demonstrate the kind of reflective practice that informs effective training design.

Research responsibilities offer exposure to conflict mapping, literature reviews, and fieldwork preparation—skills essential for evidence-based practice in dialogue and deliberation. These activities provide grounding in the analytical foundations that inform effective intervention design, whether in international conflicts or community-level disputes.
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The communications and organizational support aspects of the role reflect the reality of modern peace work: practitioners must be able to share their insights effectively across multiple platforms and audiences. From website management to podcast production, interns gain experience in the knowledge-sharing and relationship-building activities that amplify the impact of direct intervention work.

Bridging Global and Local Practice

What makes this opportunity particularly valuable for NCDD's network is how it demonstrates the connections between international conflict resolution and community-level dialogue work. The skills required for facilitating disarmament processes in the Basque Country or coordinating verification commissions share fundamental principles with those needed for bridging political divides in American communities. Both require deep listening, careful preparation, cultural sensitivity, and the ability to create safe spaces for difficult conversations.

Ravensbergen's dual role as University of Amsterdam lecturer in the Conflict Resolution and Governance Master's Program and practitioner brings academic rigor to field experience. Her current work as Independent Facilitator for ABN AMRO's Human Rights Remedy Mechanism demonstrates how conflict resolution principles apply across sectors, from armed conflict to corporate governance. This breadth of application provides interns with understanding of how dialogue skills transfer across contexts and scales.
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The emphasis on language skills—with Dutch as an asset and non-European languages valued—reflects the increasingly global nature of peace work and the importance of cultural competency in dialogue facilitation. In an interconnected world, practitioners benefit from understanding how conflict resolution approaches vary across cultures and contexts.

Professional Development in an Evolving Field

For students considering careers in dialogue and deliberation, this internship offers insight into the entrepreneurial aspects of peace work. Working with an independent practitioner provides understanding of how to build sustainable practice while maintaining focus on impact rather than institutional constraints. This perspective proves increasingly valuable as traditional funding models for dialogue work evolve and new opportunities emerge.

The flexibility of remote work with periodic in-person meetings in the Netherlands models the kind of adaptive practice that characterizes effective dialogue work. The ability to maintain relationships and facilitate meaningful engagement across distance has become essential for practitioners working in multiple locations or with geographically dispersed communities.

The modest stipend acknowledges the reality that meaningful professional development opportunities should be accessible rather than requiring personal financial sacrifice—a principle that aligns with NCDD's commitment to equity and inclusion in the dialogue field.

For Master's students and recent graduates in conflict resolution, political science, and related fields, this represents an opportunity to gain the kind of integrated experience that typically takes years to accumulate. The combination of training development, research, direct practice support, and communications work provides a comprehensive introduction to professional peace work.

Those interested in applying should email their CV and a brief motivation letter (maximum 500 words) to [email protected] by September 23, 2025. Online interviews will take place at the end of September, making this opportunity accessible to candidates regardless of current location.
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In a field where theoretical knowledge must be complemented by practical skill and real-world understanding, opportunities like this internship provide the bridge between academic preparation and professional practice. For the dialogue and deliberation community, supporting emerging practitioners through such experiences strengthens the entire field's capacity to address the complex challenges facing our increasingly divided world.