Twenty-five political leaders from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain attended a workshop at the Kennedy School this week, studying issues that underlie conflicts around the world.

Leaders from 15 political parties attended the program, titled "Managing Change in a Diverse Society." Among those in attendance were Northern Ireland nationalist parties such as Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic and Labour Party; loyalist parties such as the Ulster Unionist Party; and Irish and British political parties.

According to project organizers, the workshop focused on three key issues: cultivation of institutions for justice; strategies for local and regional development; and political leadership in divided communities.

Organizers stressed that the participants were brought together for educational purposes--not to negotiate a settlement to the unrest in Northern Ireland.

"This week is not part of the peace talks. It is not part of the peace process," said project Chair James Cooney.

Like Kennedy School students, program participants discussed case studies ranging from economic development in Andalucia to school segregation in the United States.

But Paul Arthur, an observer from the University of Ulster, said the program can contribute to the peace process.

"By looking at some of the cases, it has made us think in new ways about our own problems," he said.

In fact, participants yesterday spontaneously began discussing issues specific to Northern Ireland during a seminar on political leaders as educators.

"The cases are really just a vehicle for people working on their own issues," said Martin Linsky, a lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School who led the discussion.

Linsky said the attendees were inspired to discuss their own problems after studying the case of Robert Moses, the New Deal-era New York City politician and urban designer criticized for bulldozing communities to make way for his extensive public works projects.

Linsky said the participants were energized by the Moses case because they found it relevant to their own situation.

"You can calibrate the intensity of the conversation by the extent to which the issues resonate with their own lives," he said.

The workshop was organized in conjunction with the Foundation for a Civil Society's Project on Justice in Times of Transition.

In June 1995, the Foundation, a New York-based non-profit institute, organized a conference in Northern Ireland titled "Community and Reconciliation."

According to Cooney, the Foundation started planning the Kennedy School conference about five months after the Ulster event, before the resurgence of unrest in Northern Ireland