Conflict Revolution:

Mediating Evil, War,

Injustice, and Terrorism

Kenneth Cloke

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to

yearn for the vast and endless sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 In your veins, and in mine,

there is only one blood, The same life that animates us all!

Since one unique mother begat us all, Where did we learn to divide ourselves?

Kabir

“I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest person whom

you have seen, and ask yourself if the next step you contemplate is going to be of any use to that person.”

Mohandas K. Gandhi

The individual is able to think, feel,

strive, and work by himself; but he

depends so much upon society -- in

his physical, intellectual, and

emotional existence -- that it is

impossible to think of him, or to

understand him, outside the

framework of society. It is "society"

which provides man with food,

clothing, a home, the tools of work,

language, the forms of thought,

and most of the content of thought;

his life is made possible through

the labor and the accomplishments

of the many millions past and

present who are all hidden behind

the small word "society".... Man

can find meaning in life, short and

perilous as it is, only through

devoting himself to society.

Albert Einstein

The Relationship Between Inter-personal

and Social, Economic, Political and

Environmental Conflicts:

Theses on Chronic Conflict

Every conflict takes place not only between individuals, but in a context, culture, and environment; surrounded by social, economic, and political forces; inside a group or organization; contained by a system and structure; among a diverse community of people; at a particular moment in time and history; on a stage; against a backdrop; in a setting or milieu.

None of these elements is conflict-neutral. Each contributes – sometimes in veiled and unspoken, yet profound ways to the nature, intensity, duration, impact, and meaning of our conflicts. And each, depending on circumstances, can play a determining role in the success of the conversations, interventions, and methods used to prevent, resolve, transform, and transcend them.

Social inequality, economic inequity, and political autocracy are systemic sources of chronic conflict, yet they are nearly always experienced interpersonally, leaving the systems and structures that regularly re-create them in the shadows, unnoticed and unresolved.

All conflicts possess characteristics that are self-similar on all scales. This self-similarity allows us to adapt resolution techniques that have been successful on one level to disputes on an entirely different level.

Other than when social, economic, and political issues are explicitly raised, it is rare that the contextual, environmental, or systemic elements that fuel them are openly identified, acknowledged, analyzed, or resolved. Instead, they linger in the background, generating distortions and misunderstandings that make matters worse.

All conflicts take place between people; that is, at the borders and boundaries that separate individuals, cultures, organizations, and nations. Every conflict can therefore be regarded as reflecting and reinforcing the borders and boundaries between people, drawing lines of demarcation that separate them into opposing sides, positions, cultures, experiences, and individuals, and alienating them from one another.

Every border and boundary is also a connection, a unifying potential, a place where two sides can come together. As a result, resolution can be regarded as consensually crossing borders. Non-consensual border crossings are experienced as boundary violations and strenuously resisted. Consensual border crossings are experienced as acts of friendship, indicators of caring and affection, and precursors to collaboration, problem solving, and reconciliation.

Conflicts can therefore be prevented, resolved, transformed, and transcended by identifying the boundaries that separate us and consensually crossing them, communicating across the internal and external borders we have erected to keep ourselves safe, overcoming the sources of opposition we have created within ourselves, and redesigning the systems and institutions we inhabit and turning conflict resolution values and principles into priorities.

Environment

al Conflicts:

How

Mediators

Can Help

Save the

Planet

“It’s a question of discipline,” the little prince told me. “When you’ve finished washing and

dressing each morning, you must tend your planet.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“’We’ and ‘they’ no longer exist. This planet is just us. The destruction of one area is the

destruction of yourself. That is the new reality.”

The Dalai Lama“Ecology is the study of balance, and some of

the some principles that govern the healthy balance of elements in the global environment

also apply to the healthy balance of forces making up our political system. In my view,

however, our system is on the verge of losing its essential equilibrium. The problem is not so

much one of policy failures: much more worrisome are the failures of candor, evasions

of responsibility, and timidity of vision that characterize too many of us in government.”

Al Gore

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”

H.G. Wells

A Diagram of Exponential Change

0 AD 1500 1900 1950 2050

Exponential Change

• size and density of human populations• CO2 and methane emissions resulting in

global warming• destructive power & availability of military

technology• Species extinctions & loss of tropical

rainforest & woodland• Loss of potable water & arable land• Resistance to antibiotics & cost of medical

care• Vulnerability to pandemics, natural

catastrophes, & severe weather conditions• Loss of bio-diversity • Unregulated economic transactions • global impact of local, relatively minor

environmental decisions • Nuclear proliferation, willingness to use war &

resort to violence • Terrorism & unending cycles of revenge and

retaliation• Acceptability of use of torture & cruelty • Intentional targeting of civilians in warfare• Global financial crisis & unregulated economic

transactions• Continuing poverty, social inequality &

economic inequity • Destabilization due to political autocracy &

dictatorship• Rise in prejudice & intolerance against

foreigners, Jews, Gypsies, & homosexuals• Genocidal policies & “ethnic cleansing” • Growth of the drug trade, sexual trafficking, &

organized crime

Incremental Change

• Implementation of solutions to poverty & hunger

• Reductions in bigotry and prejudice • Assertions of territoriality and

willingness to use warfare • Vulnerability of civilian populations to

terror • Effectiveness of international

regulatory institutions • Control over policies and practices of

currency speculators, hedge funds, and multinational corporations

• Increased life expectancy and declining child mortality

• Vulnerability to infectious diseases • Elimination of illiteracy • Mistreatment of women and children• Rapidity of government responses to

ecological problems • International cooperation to halt

environmental destruction • Understanding, training,

implementation, and institutionalization of conflict resolution

• Awareness of the extent and seriousness of global problems

Whose Responsibility Is

It?• Those who did it, caused it, or

ordered it to be done

• Those who proposed it or supported it

• Those who defended, justified, or applauded it

• Those who profited from it, whether knowingly or unknowingly

• Those who obscured it, denied it, or covered it up

• Those who knew about it and did nothing to stop it

• Those who ought to have known about it and chose to remain silent and disregard it

• Those whose lives it affects, whether directly or indirectly

• Those who care about the people whose lives it affects or could affect at some point in the future

Why Mediator

s Can Help

Save the Planet

1. Global problems will only increase in importance as human populations expand and become more interdependent.

2. These problems will be less and less amenable to local or national solutions.

3. To solve these problems and survive as a species, we need to increase our capacity to create solutions through international collaboration.

4. To improve our capacity for collaboration, we need to reduce the systemic sources of chronic conflict and resistance to change worldwide.

5. To reduce chronic conflict and resistance to change, we need to increase social equality, economic equity, and political democracy.

6. To increase these qualities, we need to design and implement interest-based improvements in social, economic, and political institutions and practices.

7. To do any of these successfully, we require expanded skills in cross-cultural communication, prejudice reduction and bias awareness, informal problem solving, group facilitation, public dialogue, collaborative negotiation, multi-party mediation, conflict resolution systems design, and forgiveness and reconciliation.

The Copenhagen Conference – COP 15

In December 2009, delegates from around the world will meet in Copenhagen for the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is a critical opportunity for the world’s nations to reach agreement before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Article 33, Section 1 of the United Nations Charter provides: The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.”

Article 14 of the 1992 UNFCCC negotiated in New York and Rio de Janeiro, which is reaffirmed in Article 19 of the Kyoto Protocol, states: “… in the event of a dispute between any two or more Parties concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention, the Parties concerned shall seek a settlement of the dispute through negotiation or any other peaceful means of their own choice.”

Aside from these provisions, there is nothing in the Protocol that encourages the parties to mediate climate change disputes.

MBB Proposed Mediation Language

“1. (A) Reaffirming the principles set forth in Chapter IV, Articles 33-38 of the UN Charter governing the peaceful settlement of disputes, the parties agree that the parties to any dispute resulting from the interpretation or implementation of this treaty “shall first seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.”

(B) In the event that efforts to negotiate a solution are unsuccessful, parties are encouraged to use mediation to settle their disputes at all stages, including before, during and after conciliation, arbitration, and actions before the International Court of Justice.

(C.) Mediation shall be conducted in accordance with procedures to be adopted by the Conference of the Parties as soon as practicable, in an annex on mediation.”

What You Can Do

Attend one of the COP 15 meetings as a Mediators Beyond Borders Observer and speak directly to national representatives who are attending these Conferences

Participate in the Mediation Seminar in Copenhagen on December 10 and 11

Email delegates and local opinion leaders and encourage them to support ADR

Help fund travel scholarships for mediators in countries affected by climate change who do not have the resources to come to Copenhagen

Contribute blogs on mediation and climate change to public media and websites where people discuss environmental issues

Help collect and circulate convincing articles on mediation and environmental conflicts to opinion leaders in your area

Film brief interviews with knowledgeable people in your area on the value of mediating climate change issues and put them on Youtube

Help develop training materials, stories and case studies in diverse regions and cultures on successful climate change and environmental dispute resolution

Contribute names and contact information to prepare a referral list of mediators around the world who are able to mediate environmental disputes

Help organize public dialogues in your community on climate change and alternative ways of resolving environmental conflicts

Since one of the most

promising approaches to the

peaceful settlement of disputes

is skillful third‐party mediation,

we, the United Nations, have a

responsibility to “we the

peoples” to professionalize our

efforts to resolve conflicts

constructively rather than

destructively and to save

succeeding generations from

the scourge of war.

Report of the Secretary‐

General, 2009/189

The Sources of Chronic Social, Economic and Political

Conflict:

Mediating Evil, War, Injustice and Terrorism

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words or actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men … and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sources of Chronic Conflict

Chronic conflicts are those that nations, societies, organizations or individualshave not fully resolved need to resolve in order to grow and evolve are capable of resolving can only resolve by abandoning old approaches and adopting new ones are resistant to resolving because they are frightened, dissatisfied, insecure, uncertain, angry, or unwilling to change

Power, Justice, and Decision Making

Kind of Power

Power With

Power Through

Kind ofDecision Making

Restorative

Power Against

Power Over

Delegation Declaration

Reparative

VotingConsensus

Retributive

Unanimity

Kind of Justice

Consultation

Revengeful

3 META-SOURCES OF CHRONIC CONFLICT

Social Inequality

Economic Inequity

Political Autocracy

How to Stereotype 1. Pick a

characteristic

2. Blow it completely out of proportion

3. Collapse the whole person into the characteristic

4. Ignore individual differences and variations

5. Ignore subtleties and complexities

6. Ignore our common humanity

7. Make it match your own worst fears

8. Make it cruel

Elements of Demonization

Assumption of Injurious Intentions - they intended to cause the harm we experienced

Distrust - every idea or statement made by them is wrong or proposed for dishonest reasons

Externalization of Guilt - everything bad or wrong is their fault

Attribution of Evil - they want to destroy us and what we value most, and must therefore be destroyed themselves

Zero-Sum Interests - everything that benefits them harms us, and vice versa

Paranoia and Preoccupation with Disloyalty - any criticism of us or praise of them is disloyal and treasonous

Prejudgment - everyone in the enemy group is an enemy

Collapse of Neutrality and Independence into Opposition - anyone who is not with us is against us

Suppression of Empathy - we have nothing in common and considering them human is dangerous

Isolation and Impasse - we cannot dialogue, negotiate, cooperate, or resolve conflicts with them

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - their evil makes it permissible for us to act in a hostile way toward them, and vice versa

[Based partly on work by Kurt R. and Kati Spillman]

Mechanisms of Moral

Disengagement1. Rationalizing the possible beneficial

consequences of otherwise wrong behaviors that are imagined to outweigh their negative consequences. (“If I make enough money by doing this I can help people later.”)

2. Obscuring or lessening personal responsibility for participating in the wrongful activity. (“I just did what I was told.” “I just played a small part.” “Other people do the same thing, so why can’t I?”)

3. Denying the seriousness of harmful effects on others. (“He won’t mind.” “He’s going to be fine.” “It was only a small thing.” “He can claim it on his insurance.”)

4. Blaming, dehumanizing, or derogating the victim. (“He was stupid.” “She was a bitch.” “It served him right.” “She shouldn’t have …“)

5. Demonizing the perpetrator. (“He is vicious.” “He’s not human.” “He should be shot.”)

6. Magnifying or exaggerating the harm that occurred. (“What he did [if a minor infraction] is intolerable.”)

7. Distancing or separating from both sides. (“A plague on both their houses.” “It has nothing to do with me.”)

(Based on work by Albert Bandura)

Common Moral Rationalizations

• Moral Justification: “He did it first.”

• Euphemistic Labeling: “All I did was …”

• Disadvantageous Comparison: “He’s much worse than I am.”

• Displacement of Responsibility: “She made me do it.”

• Diffusion of Responsibility: “Everyone is doing it.”

• Disregard/Distortion of Consequences: “What I did wasn’t that bad.”

• Dehumanization: “He deserved it.”

• Blaming the Victim: “She was asking for it.”

(Based on work by Albert Bandura)

The Smallest Piece of

Evil

Sometimes evil originates simply in the attribution of blame to someone other than ourselves for a harm that has befallen us, or the assumption that our pain was caused by our opponent’s pernicious intentions.

Blaming others for our suffering allows us to externalize our fears, vent our outrage, and punish our enemies or coerce them into doing what we want against their wishes.

It allows us to take what rightfully belongs to them, place our interests over, against, and above theirs, and ignore their allegations of wrongdoing against us.

The “smallest piece of evil” is the inability to find the other within the self.

A potential for evil is thus created every time we draw a line that separates self from other inside ourselves. This line expands when fear and hatred are directed against minorities and we remain silent or do nothing to prevent it; when dissenters are described as traitorous and we allow them to be silenced, isolated, discriminated against, and punished; when negative values are exalted and collaboration, dialogue, and conflict resolution are abandoned and we do not object.

1. Powerful and ubiquitous nationalism

2. Disdain for human rights

3. Stereotyping of enemies and punishment of critics and scapegoats

4. Supremacy of the military

5. Rampant racism and sexism

6. Control of mass media and intentional dishonesty

7. Obsession with national security

8. Intertwining of religion and government

9. Protection of corporate power

10. Suppression of labor power

11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts

12. Obsession with crime and punishment

13. Rampant cronyism and corruption

14. Fraudulent elections and disregard of democracy

15. Glorification of war and conflict

[Based on work by Dr. Lawrence Britt]

Definitions of Fascism

• Fascism is: “… the simplification of language to the point that complex thought becomes impossible.” Umberto Eco

• Fascism is: “… the instrumentalization of truth.” Robert Paxton

• Fascism is: the conversion of dialogue into propaganda and debate into war. Thus:

“Propaganda is not a substitute for violence, but one of its aspects. The two have identical purposes of making men amenable to control from above. Terror and its display in propaganda go hand in hand … The superiority of [Nazi] propaganda lies in the complete transformation of culture into a saleable commodity.” Franz Neumann

• Fascism is the effort to eliminate human diversity and complexity, and reduce paradox to a single simple truth.

10 Questions to Ask Before

Executing Adolf Hitler

1. Which is the greater evil, Hitler or fascism?

2. By executing Hitler, do we in any way let fascism off the hook?

3. Could you do it yourself -- not by pulling a switch, but with your bare hands?

4. What would happen to you if you did? Would that be worth it? Who, or what, would have won?

5. What about all the little Hitlers who made him possible? Would you execute them as well? Where would you draw the line? Does not the line separating guilt from innocence run through every person? Through the entire world?

6. Could you imagine a fate worse than death for Hitler?

7. What would you design as a form of poetic justice for Hitler?

8. Why give him the lesser punishment and let him off the hook by killing him?

9. Who does his life belong to: his victims or the government? If you gave his victims a choice between personally executing him and having him work for the rest of his life so their children could go to college, which would they chose?

10. Have we been complicit? What have we contributed to the rise and success of Hitler? Shouldn’t part of our anger be reserved for ourselves? What should our punishment be?

Changing the

Way We

Change

“The love of one’s country is a splendid thing.

But why should love stop at the border?”

Pablo Casals

7 Core Skills to Recover from Conflict

1. Communication skills to reduce bias and prejudice and engage in constructive dialogue

2. Negotiation skills to solve problems and settle differences

3. Emotional skills to work through rage and guilt and assuage grief and loss

4. Mediation skills to resolve disputes collaboratively

5. Community building and public dialogue skills to develop interest-based, collaborative leadership and become productive, functional communities again

6. Heart and spirit enhancing skills to rebuild empathy and compassion and encourage forgiveness and reconciliation

7. Conflict resolution systems design skills to prevent and resolve future disputes before they become intractable

1. Building personal capacity for awareness, empathy, honesty, integrity, learning, and open hearted communication

2. Building interpersonal capacity for egalitarian relationships, open and authentic dialogue, teamwork, collaborative negotiation, and democratic decision-making

3. Building systemic capacity for designing preventative, strategic approaches to resolving social, economic, political, and environmental disputes, and encouraging positive attitudes toward diversity, community, and change

Three Forms of Capacity Building

12 Conflict Resolution Methodologies

1. Interest-Based Negotiation 2. The Multi-door Courthouses3. Prejudice Reduction and

Bias Awareness 4. Cross-Cultural Mediation5. Public Policy and

Environmental Mediation 6. Victim-Offender Mediation

and Restorative Justice 7. Public Dialogue and

Community Building8. Nonviolent Communication

and Appreciative Inquiry 9. Transformative,

Transcendent, and Heart-Based Mediation

10. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

11. Conflict Resolution Systems Design

12. Integrated Capacity Building

MBB: A Twelve-Step

Program

1. Identify potential partners and allies and convene a cross-cultural team of experienced trainers to conduct research and deepen understanding of what may be required

2. Meet with the leaders of hostile factions to secure agreement on a common plan, build trust, and encourage on-going support

3. Interview leaders of opposing groups, sub-groups, and factions, listen empathetically to their issues, and clarify cultural mores, values, interests, goals, and concerns

4. Elicit from each group or culture the methods currently used to resolve disputes, and identify ways of validating, supplementing, and expanding their core strategies

5. Select or elect a team of volunteers from each group who want to be trained as mediators, facilitators, and trainers

6. Form cross-cultural teams of volunteer mediators and facilitators to work in communities, schools, workplaces, and government offices

7. Train volunteer facilitators in techniques for processing grief and loss, reducing prejudice, facilitating public dialogue, organizing Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, and similar efforts to build collaborative relationships and improve trust

8. Train teams to facilitate public dialogues, arbitrate disputes, encourage forgiveness and reconciliation, and conduct conflict audits

9. Form cross-cultural teams to train trainers in these techniques throughout civil society

10. Develop case studies revealing successes and failures, and build on-going popular, financial, and institutional support for resolution programs

11. Conduct periodic feedback, evaluations, audits, and course corrections to improve the capacity of volunteers and identify where future support may be required

12. Redesign conflict resolution systems in civil society, economic organizations, political parties, and government agencies to increase opportunities for early intervention, dialogue, mediation, and negotiation between adversaries

1. To develop and assist people around the world, including the US, in improving their capacity to resolve conflicts within and between their communities;

2. To increase our awareness, understanding, and willingness, as mediators and conflict resolvers, to act as global citizens and work collaboratively to prevent and reduce chronic conflicts;

3. To encourage the development of alternative approaches to expressing, negotiating, resolving, and transcending social, economic, political, ethnic, religious, and cultural differences;

4. To partner with other organizations in mobilizing volunteer mediators and conflict resolution professionals, and assist them in contributing, in whatever ways we can, to improve conflict resolution skills and understanding, promote forgiveness and reconciliation, and integrate peace with justice.

MBB’s Goals

Personal Choices in

Social Change

Whether to speak out or suffer in silence

Whether to become an outsider or vie for power within the system

Whether to be a supporter or a critic of change efforts

Whether to become a leader or a follower of others

Whether to oppose lesser errors or unite to pursue a larger purpose

Whether to accept compromises or hold out for deeper changes

Whether to focus on obtaining systemic improvements, or on changing the way people think, feel, and behave

Whether to use immoral means to achieve moral purposes, or remain morally intact but less effective

Whether to use existing forms of power to reach one’s goals or oppose, undermine, and transform them, risking possible failure

Whether to stop and consolidate gains or continue striving for more

Lessons Regarding Change

Change is inevitable, improvement is optional. Change generates opposition and unity. The

deeper the change, the more powerful and committed the opposition and the greater the conflict.

Opposition can be expressed negatively or positively.

Negative opposition recreates what it opposes. Positive opposition leads to improvement, learning, and deeper unity.

Even small changes can trigger unpredictability and chaos.

Higher levels of order emerge out of chaos. Incremental changes may lead to

transformational changes. The more complex and transformational the

change the less it can be forced. Changing part of a system changes the system

as a whole. Changing the people doesn’t necessarily change

the system. Transformational change is two steps forward,

one step back. Radical changes occur only when people are

dissatisfied with the old ways and have a positive vision of the future.

Real change requires changes in actual human behaviors.

12 Ways Systems Resist Change

1. Marginalization: Making ideas, people, perspectives, or insights that could threaten the system appear unimportant, irrelevant, irrational, or impossible to achieve.

2. Negative Framing: Using language that frames new ideas and critics negatively so that nothing that threatens the system can be thought or communicated successfully.

3. Exaggeration: Stereotyping or exaggerating one part of an idea in order to discredit the other parts and the whole.

4. Personalization: Reducing ideas to individual people, then discrediting or lionizing them.

5. Sentimentalization: Using sentimental occasions, ideas, emotions, and language to enforce conformity and silence criticism.

6. Seduction: Describing the potential of the existing system in ways that unrealistically promise to fulfill people’s deepest dreams and desires and blame the failure to achieve them on others.

7. Alignment: Communicating that in order to exist, succeed, be happy, or achieve influence, it is necessary to conform to the system regardless of its faults.

8. Legitimation: Considering only existing practices as legitimate and all others as illegitimate.

9. Simplification: Reducing disparate, complex, subtle, multi-faceted ideas to uniform, simplistic, superficial, emotionally charged beliefs.

10. False Polarization: Limiting people’s ability to choose by falsely characterizing issues as good or evil, right or wrong, either/or.

11. Selective Repression: Selecting individual critics as examples, bullying them for disagreeing or failing to conform, and ostracizing them.

12. Double Binds : Creating double standards that require people to live divided lives, or make it difficult for them to act with integrity.

1. from being reactive and responsive to being

proactive and preventative

2. from focusing on problems to focusing on

vision

3. from tactical to strategic thinking

4. from routine to continuous improvements

5. from individual to team decision making and

responsibility

6. from management and control to leadership

and empowerment

7. from assistance and affiliation to partnership

and alliance

8. from focusing on quantity to focusing on

quality

9. from apathy and cynicism to engagement and

commitment

10. from compromise to collaboration

11. from private defiance to public dialogue

12. from judgment to evaluation

Paradigm Shifts in Collaborative Change

Advice for Change Agents

Walk your talk Don’t drink the water Fix systems, not people Changing yourself automatically

changes others There is no such thing as neutral

observation Look with peripheral vision Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee Search for preventive opportunities Take a little longer to make it right Think of conflicts as opportunities Change me vs. them into us vs. it Don’t stand between an addict and

their dope Be optimistic and realistic Let go. Give up your expectations Not everything works for everybody Change always takes longer than

planned Learn from each other Don’t control the process - leave

room for others There are no magic wands Don’t be afraid of success

How to Change the

Way We Change

Create a context of ethics, values and integrity

Bring in people who don't know how it should be done

Increase awareness, especially of hidden rules and habits

Speak the "unspeakable” Listen closely to critics and dissidents Ask “silly,” "ridiculous" or “stupid”

questions Give and accept genuine, honest

feedback Change how measurement, evaluation

and assessment take place Alter the ways people succeed or fail Shift work to teams, networks, and

webs of association Include people or groups that have

not been included before Engage in small acts of love and

kindness Change ourselves first Model what we want from others

30 Things You Can Do

(1)

1. Join MBB or similar organizations, and help publicize their work. To contact MBB, visit the website at www.mediatorsbeyondborders.org, or email mediatorsbeyondborders@gmail.com

2. Send a donation to MBB or similar organizations, and assist them in locating potential funders and making media contacts in your area

3. If you have expertise in a particular region, country, language, or conflict, and would like to help, or become a member of a project team and work in that country for a period of several years, contact MBB and specify your interest

4. If you have training materials in communication, dialogue, problem solving, negotiation, mediation, prejudice reduction, conflict resolution, and similar topics that might be useful to people in conflict areas, especially if they are in other languages, send them to the MBB Library

5. If you have useful information regarding a country or region where conflicts are occurring, contact MBB and share or coordinate your information with others

6. Select a country or region where conflicts are occurring, form a small group of like-minded people, or create a local chapter of MBB to study, think about, and discuss what is happening there

7. Go online to see what has already been written about the conflict and synthesize it into a briefing paper others can supplement online or read before traveling there

8. Prepare a summary of the history of a conflict, or description of the dominant political forces and constituencies, economic factors, or environmental concerns that impact it; or list the main sources of impasse and similar information that might be useful in briefing groups or project teams working there

9. Adopt one or more “pen pals” in an area you select, and wherever possible add correspondents from the opposing side

10. Once you make contact, ask questions to expand your knowledge and understanding of what is taking place there, then pass it on

30 Things You Can Do

(2)

11. Find out what is needed or desired by way of assistance and let MBB or similar organizations know

12. Identify important cultural “dos and don’ts” and publicize them

13. Prepare a list of useful quotations from indigenous authors, including poetry, stories, folklore, novels, religious tracts, and political ideas and send them to the MBB Library

14. Develop a list of stereotypes used by each group against their opponents and send it to MBB

15. Start a local area blog, or send information and ideas to MBB’s blogsite at www.mwoborders.blogspot.com

16. Collect important news articles from media in and around the area, translate them, and forward them to others

17. Create a list with useful descriptions and contact information identifying mediators, facilitators, trainers, and allied professionals in the country or region who might be willing to assist

18. List other potentially useful contacts, such as leaders in government and hostile organizations for use by groups or project teams in the area

19. Identify institutions and organizations already contributing to peace, including descriptions and contact information

20. Organize a public dialogue in your community to discuss global conflicts, pass resolutions supporting conflict resolution, and publicize facts and stories that raise people’s awareness

30 Things You Can Do

(3)

21. Send “pen pals” information about MBB and other organizations, and assist them in forming chapters or supporting conflict resolution activities in their area

22. Send useful books, training materials, and articles to conflict resolvers in other areas

23. Assist in preparing or revising training materials targeted to areas you select

24. Contact media to increase awareness of conflict resolution, write letters to the editor, or op-ed pieces advocating meditative approaches to conflict

25. Contact political representatives to encourage support for conflict resolution

26. Write to the United Nations, especially country representatives, and encourage use of conflict resolution

27. Contact schools, religious gatherings, etc. and ask to speak about conflict resolution and conflicted areas

28. Invite friends from ethnically diverse communities to dinner, ask them to bring cultural food, artifacts, and materials to share, discuss conflicts in the area, and agree on ways you can help

29. Travel to an area to gather information first-hand, but do not intervene in conflicts without adequate training, preparation, support, and assistance

30. Make copies of this list and pass it on. If these ideas don’t succeed, invent others. Don’t give up. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step

“What are we

waiting for? A

woman? Two

trees? Three

flags? Nothing.

What are we

waiting for?”

Andre Breton