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What is Peace, and How do We Get There?

What is Peace, and How do We Get There?. Trying to understand the question. Critical reflection…. 0. What do you think you need yet to know to better understand peace? What are the potentials and pitfalls of what we are doing here, of studying peace?. Our beginning points.

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What is Peace, and How do We Get There?

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  1. What is Peace, and How do We Get There? Trying to understand the question

  2. Critical reflection… 0 • What do you think you need yet to know to better understand peace? • What are the potentials and pitfalls of what we are doing here, of studying peace?

  3. Our beginning points • We recognize that there are differing levels of response and consciousness in us at different times • We vary the level of peace-making and peacebuilding with the violence at hand

  4. Approaches (levels) to peace Peace as... • Work for the elimination of violence • An alternative to or a response to violence • The construction of new social, economic and political relationships in which peace and justice flourish

  5. Peace as: 0 • Personal non-violence • Organizing non-violent social change • What peace movements do • Conflict resolution • Creating new peace-making roles

  6. Let’s add some other factors: 0 • To get to peace at level 1-3 involves three major tasks: • Getting ourselves and others to think differently (conceptualization) • Getting ourselves and others involved directly in problems (action) • Blending the two (thinking our way into new action and acting our way into new thinking)

  7. Conceptualization What is crime? What is war and how do we deal with it? How can we get “justice” in criminal situations? What are the alternatives to war? Action Can we “take back the streets”? Can we deal with ‘the causes of war? What of victim-offender projects? How far can pre-war negotiation take us How this works, Levels 1-2

  8. Conceptualization What if the emphasis on crime was on cure for causes and not punishment of the offense? What if there were more institutions that helped to redress global grievances? Action Creating these mechanisms and these institutions How this works, Level 3

  9. Also another element: 0 • The tensions built into this: • How to balance my values/choices with others? • How to make the global and local connections? • How to balance realism with idealism? • How to balance thinking with action - when do we act, when do we think or rethink???

  10. Our model for peace involves Building linkages between: • The small and the large • The local and the more global • Thought, values and actions • Methods of peace-building and the problems that emerge in a given setting • The development of structures and processes that ensure peace (law)

  11. Small and Local Value changes in concept & action Spreading the value change to key groups (empower) Then taking key groups and values to the sources of power Deciding on methods and institutional development goals Larger and Global Connecting sources of power with new ideas and values Reforming existing institutions and creating new ones as needed, especially conflict resolution & law Nurturing economic development & political participation Respecting resources, cultures, and justice It also involves… 0

  12. Values and groups (smalland BIG) • Values - Tough to get to peace without clarity about one’s values. Also, we must recognize this is evolutionary and stimulated by issues • Key groups - Looking at the local culture as your key reference groups (Paulo Freire, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, talked about growth points in the local culture.)

  13. The Link Betweenthe smalland theBIG • Depends on your place and time – it is situational and cultural • NYC before and after 9/11 • Response to 9/11 inside v. outside of US • We must know how the issues about violence and peace get framed and how the structures work to see the “local-global” connection • Involves vocations and avocations

  14. Institutions 0 • What institutions “work” and why? • What ones have key processes tied to them that can be mobilized? • What structures operate to prohibit justice or peace? • How to ensure the rule of law?

  15. Issues 0 • Direct or observable violence • “Structural” violence • Understanding how issues “come and go” especially in US culture

  16. Methods 0 • Personal stand of non-violence • Develop a non-violent “change” movement • Use conflict resolution • Develop a protest or peace movement • Invent peace in particular situations

  17. Problems of studying peace 0 • “Study” involves open thinking, not action; action is training and training is “biased”. Thus peace studies is not really appropriate for the university • The inquiry isn’t full or open. It presumes that, “Peace is the answer - what are the questions?”

  18. Problems of studying peace (cont.) 0 • Data of history suggests you should study violence, terrorism, and war as these are the real issues…and they will always be with us. Those who think otherwise are fools and moralists.

  19. Problems of studying peace (cont.) 0 • Those who study peace tend to be social misfits. They believe that all good things go together, like peace, joy, love, sisterhood. • Let’s get real here… A less “personal” critique notes that for these folks everything seems to be a peace issue, from ordering a hamburger to playing football.

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