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The Peace Report, Issue #10
By Louise Diamond, Ph.D.
Welcome to The Peace Report, an occasional set of reflections on world and national affairs in these times of change and challenge, as seen through a peace lens.
The Birth of War, the Hope for Peace
We have been here before. The increasing demonization of a rogue leader. The claims of imminent nuclear weapons capacity, unsubstantiated by credible intelligence or by International Atomic Energy Agency experts. The shifting of reasons why military action is necessary. The sanctions and demands that we know will fail. The undue influence of a small group of power-wielders beating the drums for US might. The underlying goal of regime change and control of oil. The glib assumptions about outcomes that are based on ideology and wishful thinking. The unwillingness to fully engage in diplomatic processes for which, in this case at least, we have the positive example of North Korea.
My heart is saddened by all the signs that the U.S. is prepared to launch a war against Iran, perhaps using tactical nuclear weapons. More than saddened, I am dumbstruck by the insanity of it. It is true that a nuclear Iran is a great danger, but did we not learn in Iraq that when we try to fix one problem we are likely to create new, and perhaps worse ones? The ramifications of such an attack can be horrific, throwing the Middle East, the oil industry, our own security, and the lives of millions into a heightened turmoil that we can barely begin to imagine.
Yes, a nuclear Iran is a threat to Israel and to the world, but the IAEA says that is years away and not ‘a clear and present danger.’ Yes, Iran is providing training and materiel to fighters in Iraq, but our invasion and occupation opened the door for Iran to increase its influence in the region. We should have seen them as our allies, for their ultimate interest is in a stable Iraq – and perhaps we still can. Yes, President Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of Israel, but many factors, both within Iran and from outside, can mitigate this threat.
Where is the hope of peace in all this, while we’re still mired in a vicious civil war in Iraq and in chasing down Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan? Actually, there is some hope, and as I look at the whole system of players in the war/peace game I see five strategic leverage points:
- The military itself. There are rumors that some high-level parts of the US military are strongly resistant to bombing Iran, and particularly to the use of tactical nuclear weapons. They understand how stretched our forces are, and how hard it would be to open up yet another front and manage the fallout (no pun intended). Now is the time for people in the peace community to find ways to make common cause with some in the military, in a revolutionary partnership that can emerge as a new point of power in the system.
- The people. Already fed up with the war in Iraq, and the seemingly endless and senseless loss of life and treasure there, and by now understandably wary of warmongering by the administration, the citizens of the U.S. are not likely to support another pre-emptive war. Compliance has its limits, and we may be approaching ours, like the monks and the people of Burma who’ve decided enough was enough. Though we have a lame-duck administration that doesn’t really care about popular support, we do have a Congress that is no longer in alliance with the neo-conservative agenda. However, to date, Congress has not been a major force advocating against this new war plan. Active pressure on our legislators and support for grassroots organizations in the peace movement can make a difference.
- The conflict resolution experts. There now exists a well-established field of nonviolent conflict resolution. Academics, practitioners, researchers, and other experts know how to operate in the gray area between one pole and another. They know how to work behind the scenes and in formal settings to find common ground, reconciliation of opposing views, healing of historical hurts, creative solutions to seemingly intractable problems, and ways to address disparate interests for mutual gain. Ignoring these valuable resources would be criminal at this point. Now is the time for us to bring the fruits of that knowledge both into the public discourse and into the halls of government.
- The Department of Peace initiative. For some years, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich and now supported by the Peace Alliance’s national infrastructure, there is a growing grassroots movement to establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace. On top of the good work done by the existing U.S. Institute of Peace, we need a voice for peace and conflict resolution squarely placed in the heart of the U.S. government and at the table where critical decisions are made. We see how, with that voice lacking, the full range of information and skill is unavailable to those who hold the lives of millions in their hands. Accelerating this movement in these days may not directly affect the Iran situation, but it would raise awareness of other possibilities and lay the groundwork for the future.
- Prayer. Let us not discount the power of prayer and visualization. By seeing the Middle East region in peace, by invoking higher powers for help with that blessing, by joining together with others to pray and meditate on peace, we strengthen the vibration of peace in the energy field we all share, and awaken hidden possibilities in that direction.
This is not a time for sitting idle and then complaining later. We see it coming – a bombing attack on Iran leading to their response in ways that can only escalate the violence; increase the suffering; threaten our troops, our interests, and countless lives; and still, perhaps, as in Iraq, fail to achieve our objectives. This time there are things we can do to head it off. In the Peace Website section of this newsletter I have provided links to leading organizations in these areas, where you can learn more and show your support. We must each decide, in our own way and in our own time, what we will do for peace. Now is one of those moments when we are called to the action point. Now, while there is still time.
Leading for Change in ‘the Jump Time’
Jean Houston, visionary thinker and planetary teacher, calls the times we are in ‘the Jump Time.’ These next few years are described by scientists and mystics alike as a period of radical change, challenge, and opportunity, during which great shifts will occur, shifts that both require and are the result of a mass change of consciousness. How we deal with these changes will determine the shape and quality of our lives going forward.
In the last few decades we have discovered and articulated a vast range of new tools – theories, practices, and technologies both hard and soft – that will allow us to manage this shift period with great skill and compassion. I have gathered some of those tools into my new course, How to Change the World. Here you will be find such diverse resources as systems thinking and sociocracy; appreciative inquiry and chaos theory; reconciliation and synergy; power dynamics and the five-element theory of wellness; leadership skills and myth; spiritual insight from various traditions mixed with practical examples from various fields (to name a few).
If you see yourself as a leader in these times, whether your focus is on the individual or the organization, between groups or on a national or global scale, please consider how this course can assist you in your service to the world. The course is starting to fill but there is still plenty of room. I’ve extended the Early Bird discount until October 19 and am actively seeking scholarship funds to make it easier for everyone who needs to be in the program to be able to do so. (We already have one request from Nigeria!).
My friends, we are in the ‘Jump Time’ now. It is not a phenomenon that arises suddenly in 2012. When I think of ‘Jump Time’ I think of jumping rope, which I did endlessly as a child. Some of us are jumping rapidly to keep up and not be tripped by the rope. Others are turning the rope and setting the pace and the chant. If you are a pace-setter, please click here for more information and to register for How to Change the World.
Re-Membering Right Relationship
The lesson – and the challenge – of the 21st century is the recognition that all life on the planet is inter-dependent. There is only one of us, and everything we think, say, and do affects the whole.
What that means is, we are all and always in relationship. That being true, the choices we make are only and ever about the quality of relationship. In the upcoming Engaging the Other: The Power of Compassion conference in Dearborn, Michigan (October 25-28), I will be offering a one-day training institute to explore the tools for consciously choosing and creating relationships with others that foster the well-being of all parties, and indeed of ‘all our relations.’
This is an experiential workshop using a variety of modalities to explore Right Relationship. We will focus particularly on energy work, dialogue, reconciliation, and ritual, identifying success factors as well as considering how to dissolve or transform obstacles. The attention will mostly be on inter-group relations, but will touch on inter- and intra-personal as well, in all cases using the participants’ own experiences as a laboratory for shared learning. The day will range from spirit to strategy, and from inspiration to perspiration.
When we re-member, or put back together again, the truth of our connectedness, we enliven ourselves and each other and make peace possible. Come prepared to play. Click here to learn more and to register: www.cbiworld.org
Peacebuilders Hall of Fame
There are people all over the world, from many walks of life, whose names we will probably never know and whose achievements we may never hear about, who are making a profound difference for peace. This column will highlight some of these individuals, both to honor them and to inspire and educate the rest of us about what is indeed possible.
We honor Libby and Len Traubman, founders of the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogues.
What can a retired American dentist and social worker do for peace in the Middle East? Turns out, the answer is, ‘a lot!’ Libby and Len Traubman first got involved in peacemaking in 1982, when, in response the threat of global nuclear war. They were founding members of the Beyond War Movement, now Foundation for Global Community. In the 1980’s and ‘90’s, the Traubmans became strong advocates of a public peace process, which holds that private citizens are uniquely able to contribute to peacemaking through dialogue for innovative thinking and creative action. They participated in three important such initiatives during those years: Soviet and American, Armenian and Azerbaijanis, and Israelis and Palestinians (which resulted in a historic signed document, “Framework For a Public Peace Process.”)
All this experience led them, in 1992, to co-found the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group of San Mateo County, California. Bringing together American Palestinians and Jews literally in their living room, they began a series of dialogues that have spread around the country and led to a wide range of joint activities, including support for schools, hospitals, and new text books; intercultural events; Palestinian-Jewish Family Peacemaker Camps; educational films; conference presentations; radio and television programs; publications; community activities; and more – including the production of a Palestinian-Jewish cook book!
Through this work Len and Libby have touched diplomats and educators, high school students and religious leaders, families and communities around the country and in Israel and Palestine. They have also helped mainstream the principles and practices of dialogue for building trust and mutual understanding, moving from confrontation to collaboration, enhancing cross-cultural communication, and developing creative thinking that leads to concrete action.
Finally, they have demonstrated the power of how a personal long-term commitment to local action for peace can change the lives of many and have global significance. In these times when the need for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more critical than ever, what Len and Libby are doing to build bridges across an otherwise deadly divide is a stunning example of public peace-in-action.
We congratulate Libby and Len Traubman for their dedication and effectiveness as ‘living room diplomats!’
Hummingbird Recommends
The hummingbird is considered by some Native American peoples to be a messenger of The Peacemaker, the man who helped bring peace to the warring nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (the principles of which became the basis of our own constitution). As one who can show us the deep recesses where the sweet nectar of peace resides, the hummingbird is a true peace leader in these times, and I have respectfully borrowed her name for this column.
The prophecies abound. Is this the ‘End Times?’ Will we see nuclear holocaust? A shifting of the magnetic poles? New plagues that wipe out much of humanity? Will global warming destroy life as we know it? Or will we see a new humanity, a new way of being on and with this earth? A new consciousness that makes the old systems obsolete and leads to an unprecedented period of peace and harmony? The year 2012 has been identified through the Mayan Calendar as a time when big changes happen. What does this mean, and what does it have to do with peace?
The Mysteries of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies and Possibilities, published by Sounds True, is a compilation of writings on this interesting period we live in. In it, twenty-seven leading thinkers share their understandings of this shift, and what it means for us, individually and collectively.
Ervin Lazlo (eminent founder of systems philosophy and author of The Chaos Point and so much more) talks about the patterns within the chaos that can help us choose the breakdown or the breakthrough path. Corinne McLaughlin (co-author with Gordon Davidson of Spiritual Politics and Builders of the Dawn; guest faculty in the How to Change the World course), gives us concrete examples of new business models that make ethics, values, spirituality, and a commitment to social and environmental responsibility part of their core mission.
Christine Page (physician and homeopath; author of Spiritual Alchemy), leads us through an examination of myths and archetypes to understand the re-balancing of masculine/feminine energies in these times. Joanna Macy (Buddhist scholar, eco-philosopher and author of Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age), discusses this period as the Great Turning, when we move from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining society.
Tami Simon (publisher of Sounds True) starts us off with the charge to explore the mysteries of 2012 by being ‘intensely alert, responsive, and creatively engaged with the possibilities that may be unfolding around us.’ Finally, James O’Dea (president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences) has the last word by reminding us that we were ‘born for such a time as this!’
Together, these authors bring wisdom from physics and metaphysics, from business and deep ecology, from medicine and meditation, from systems thinking and anthropology and so much more to help us understand the times we live in, and how to be part of the wave that is here to birth a world of peace and well-being for all. I consider this book a must-read for anyone who wants to place their own activities for a better world in the larger context of this amazing moment of transformation that we find ourselves in.
Interesting Peace Websites
Here are some websites supporting initiatives and organizations discussed in this Peace Report.
For grassroots organizing against a pre-emptive war in Iran, go to United for Peace and Justice; www.unitedforpeace.org
For information on the activities and major players in the field of nonviolent conflict resolution and peacebuilding, go to www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org
For information and to register for the How to Change the World course, go to: www.louisediamond.com/training.html
For information and to register for the Re-Membering Right Relationship training at the Engaging the Other: The Power of Compassion Conference, go to: www.cbiworld.org
For more information on Libby and Len Traubman’s excellent work, go to: www.traubman.igc.org
For access to universal peace prayers, go to www.worldpeace.org, the website of the World Peace Prayer Society.
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