The Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and The Japan Times will open the Fourth e-Symposium on Conflict Prevention on Thursday.

The nine-day online event will focus on the theme of "NGOs and Other Nonstate Actors in Conflict Prevention."

Also participating will be the Transatlantic Internet/Multimedia Seminar Southeastern Europe, an organization that operates in New York, Munich, Budapest, Houston, Paris and San Jose, Calif.

The symposium will focus on the theme of conflict prevention and the involvement of nonstate actors. And while it will be conducted entirely on the Internet, it will follow the basic structure of a regular symposium.

There will be five presentations Thursday from prominent people, including John W. McDonald, chairman of the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy in Washington, and Jonas Moberg, operational policy manager of the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum.

McDonald will address the increasing impact of NGOs on policymakers in the field of conflict prevention. Moberg will address the need for private sector firms to take responsibility for their activities and engage positively with the societies in which they operate.

In other presentations, Howard Perlmutter, a professor emeritus of social architecture and management at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss the importance of a variety of different stakeholders in the peace processes, while David Carment, director of the Canadian Centre for Security and Defence Studies, will deliver a paper concerning conflict prevention in Canada.

Bal Krishna Passi, a member of the Thailand-based think tank Prasena, will give a broad presentation on the concept of peace.

On Friday, the presentations will be discussed. The five commentators include Albrecht Schnabel, a German senior research fellow at swisspeace; Oliver Kambala, director of the International Center for Peace in Central Africa; and Wim van Meurs, a senior research fellow at the Center for Applied Policy Research in Munich.

Between Saturday and Wednesday, members of the public are encouraged to participate in the Open Public Discussions and give their opinions on the panelists' papers and conflict prevention in general. People are invited to register online at www.dwcw.org/4th_e-symposium. Daily summaries of the proceedings will be sent via e-mail to those unable to participate live.

Opinions and questions can be sent to e-symposium @jccp.gr.jp and will be uploaded minutes before the Open Public Discussions session.

On Jan. 29, panelists will respond to questions put to them by the public. Detailed reviews will also be offered, rounding out the symposium Jan. 30.

Reviewers will be Bishnu Raj Upreti, a conflict management specialist from the World Conservation Union; Andjela Jurisic, consultant in operations and information with the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Iraq Transition Program; and Dennis Sandole, a professor of conflict resolution at the International Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University.