US Needs to Rethink Strategies and Methodology for Leading Global Peace and Democracy:

In voting to eliminate funding for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), perhaps the US House of Representatives was trying to send a message about where they want US going in terms of conflict management.
I would like to believe so; and I wish that message were this: Managing conflict is not enough!

Despite its stated goals to help prevent and resolve violent international conflicts, to promote post-conflict stability and development and to increase conflict management capacity, tools, and intellectual capital worldwide, it seems to me that the USIP has been focusing too much on conflict management, ignoring the worthier goal of prevention.

Excuse my cynicism, but, around the globe, conflict management is considered big business in that it employs thousands of people and boosts many people to positions of power. And just as businesses need to engage in business development, the business of conflict management too must, inevitably work on growing their business prospects. That basically opens up huge ethical concerns for any organization involved in managing conflict.

In contrast, those who work passionately on conflict prevention, would, if they are effective, slowly drive themselves out of business, out of their own choice. That would be what we call world peace.

What should concern the Congress, and all US citizens is this: When an organization like the USIP decides to focus excessively on conflict management to the detriment of its other stated goals, it is opening itself up to criticism. It can then stand to be accused of promoting an unhealthy and outrageous agenda, to ensure its own survival. Since many NGOs around the world engage in such practices, USIP should strive to keep its name untainted and to stay above suspicion.

There is no denying that defunding USIP is a bad idea. However, with due respect to its various achievements described in an opinion piece on the New York Times, I believe that everyone, including the USIP needs to take a fresh look at the role US can play in bringing about global peace and democracy. Do we believe that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? If so, shouldn’t we, as a nation, be focusing primarily on conflict prevention in the global arena, as opposed to merely managing it?

In an article in the Washington Post titled The U.S. can't turn its back on peace, Mr. Ted Hesburgh, co-chair of the United States Institute of Peace National Campaign for Peacemaking states that "we need the tools of diplomacy and peacebuilding to stop international conflict before it starts and to manage its aftermath".

Yes, but could we be starting out with the wrong premise, thinking that we alone have tools of diplomacy and peacebuilding? Peacebuilding cannot succeed as a top down process; it needs to slowly grow from the bottom up.

Any peacebuilder worth his or her salt knows that peace starts on the backs of regular citizens around the world; in their relationships at home.

International conflict, like conflict in the home, is a breakdown in understanding. If the US wishes to play a meaningful role in fostering peace and democracy, we need to deploy methodologies that promote understanding. The understanding between peoples is their relationship. This relationship is what the US needs to build. And in order to build better relationships, we also need a new language to convey our intentions.

And, as a nation, we need to work on building trust. Trust is about respecting others in their point of view. It is about working with them to come up with joint solutions. Trust means understanding that builds relationships beyond the dimension of merely acknowledging one another. As Einstein said, "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

As its foundations a relationship needs good communication recognition and trust. Caring sharing and loving take relationships between individuals to the next level. And everything we do in a relationship either builds it up breaks it down.

The way we craft relationships applies equally to diplomatic relationships, even though the latter can appear to thrive even within a context of cynical distrust. But, if we in the US genuinely want the world to come to know us and trust us, to follow us in a quest for global peace, we need to earn that trust. We need to change. We need to consider how our actions make others feel. We need to rethink our approach.

Some of us can look back and feel there is no hope for the US to be a global leader in peace and democracy. But the fact of President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize demonstrates the faith of the rest of the world is placing in the potential role the United States could play in this arena. The role the US could play provided we take a completely fresh look at the world of peace and resolving conflict. I’m reminded of Einstein’s words: "We cannot solve the significant problems we face the same level we were at when we created them". This is why we need to change. Otherwise no one will follow us.

And with its lofty goals, the USIP should be leading the way in this positive change. Rather than a singular focus on conflict management, leaders of USIP need to open their minds to new approaches. They need to spend just a little on research to discover how true peace can be built, one relationship at a time, with constructive communication. Unless we consciously retool our communications, we will never really lead the way to meaningful understanding, and therefore, relationships. Unless we change first, we can never really become global leaders in peace and conflict resolution.

Stanley Posthumus is a conflict resolution specialist and researcher in private practice who has resolved family conflicts as a social worker, as a family lawyer and as a specialist mediator for the past 25 years. Stan discovered a technology within language that brings understanding by resolving the conflict of different perspectives - in the same way that communication between your left and the right eye resolves the ongoing conflict between their different two-dimensional perspectives by bringing three-dimensional understanding. This "resolutionry" ‘language technology’ is so successful that eight out of 10 couples who come and see him as a mediator to Divorce Reconciliation.

To know more, Kindly visit: http://www.beyondwinwin.com/