Estonia

The Carter Center worked with Estonia from 1994 through 1996 to prevent violence by involving people of the majority ethnic group, Estonians, in dialogues with Russian minorities.

Impact

Created a cohesive network of high-level participants
Helped establish trust and communication, building hope for a peaceful future

Legacy

Conflict Resolution

How it Started

The Carter Center worked with Estonia from 1994 through 1996 to prevent violence by involving people of the majority ethnic group, Estonians, in dialogues with Russian minorities.

Our Work and Methods

To prevent tensions between the Russian-speaking third of the population and the Estonian majority, our Conflict Resolution Program collaborated with others to run a series of six dialogue workshops on ethnicity, nationalism, and political change. The workshops:

Provided a nonthreatening, unofficial space for parties to speak openly about their differences with neutral third-party facilitators
Consisted of parliamentarians, ambassadors, academics, and other influential leaders from Russia and Estonia