Peace is indeed harder than war

In a speech in Northern Ireland, President Obama encouraged young people to live for peace:

Ultimately, peace is just not about politics.  It’s about attitudes; about a sense of empathy; about breaking down the  divisions that we create for ourselves in our own minds and our own hearts that don’t exist in any objective reality, but that we carry with us generation after generation. ...

It's within your power to bring about change.  Whether you are a good neighbor to someone from the other side of past battles -- that’s up to you.  Whether you treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve -- that’s up to you.  Whether you let your kids play with kids who attend a different church -– that’s your decision.  Whether you take a stand against violence and hatred, and tell extremists on both sides that no matter how many times they attack the peace, they will not succeed –- that is in your hands.  And whether you reach your own outstretched hand across dividing lines, across peace walls, to build trust in a spirit of respect –- that’s up to you.  The terms of peace may be negotiated by political leaders, but the fate of peace is up to each of us. ...

When those who took a chance on peace got started, they didn’t have a successful model to emulate.  They didn’t know how it would work.  But they took a chance.  And so far, it has succeeded.  And the first steps are the hardest and requires the most courage.  The rest, now, is up to you.
 
“Peace is indeed harder than war,” the Irish author Colum McCann recently wrote.  “And its constant fragility is part of its beauty.  A bullet need happen only once, but for peace to work we need to be reminded of its existence again and again and again.”

Children of Syria need peace

World Vision: Children of Syria need peace, not war

World Vision has been consistently calling on the international community to prevent further militarization of the conflict and work with all parties to bring an end to violence.

"Pouring petrol on a fire does not put it out. All of the efforts of the international community must be directed at halting hostilities that have already destroyed the lives of one third of Syria's people." - Conny Lenneberg, World Vision director in the Middle East

Purpose of this blog

In the summer of 2005, I was given the opportunity to work with a program in Croatia called Renewing Our Minds (ROM), that focused on teaching leadership and peacebuilding skills. This was my introduction to the concept of peacebuilding, and it radically changed the course of my life and career. The following winter, I studied for a term in Cape Town, South Africa, learning about the post-Apartheid process there. I came away from these two experiences with a deep desire to learn more about conflict resolution processes for the purpose of sharing what I learned with those trying to do this important work.

My senior thesis project for my B.A. in Comparative History of Ideas was a study of the approaches of several peacebuilding non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that I encountered in Croatia and South Africa (ROM, as well as Hands For a Bridge, the Institute for Healing of Memories, and the Direct Action Center for Peace and Memory). Now, as a graduate student in Northwest University's ICCD program, I plan to continue my research into the approaches various organizations and practitioners take as they work to build peace in their various contexts. My hope is that the information I gather can be compiled into a resource highlighting best practices, which can make peacebuilding work even more effective and efficient as practitioners learn from each other's work.

I will be posting on this blog as I conduct my research this summer, and hope that you will feel free to comment, share ideas, and ask questions. I understand that this topic may have controversial components, and ask that all posts be respectful.

Here's hoping that together we can build a more peaceful world.

~Hillary