John Paul
Lederach
So here I am, a
week late arriving home, stuck between Colombia, Guatemala and Harrisonburg
when our world changed. The images flash even in my sleep. The heart of America ripped. Though natural,
the cry for revenge and the call for the unleashing of the first war of this
century, prolonged or not, seems more connected to social and psychological
processes of finding a way to release deep emotional anguish, a sense of
powerlessness, and our collective loss than it does as a plan of action seeking
to redress the injustice, promote change and prevent it from ever happening
again.
I am stuck from
airport to airport as I write this, the reality of a global system that has
suspended even the most basic trust. My Duracell batteries and finger nail
clippers were taken from me today and it gave me pause for thought. I had a lot
of pauses in the last few days. Life has not been the same. I share these
thoughts as an initial reaction recognizing that it is always easy to take
pot-shots at our leaders from the sidelines, and to have the insights they are
missing when we are not in the middle of very difficult decisions. On the other
hand, having worked for nearly 20 years as a mediator and proponent of nonviolent
change in situations around the globe where cycles of deep violence seem
hell-bent on perpetuating themselves, and having interacted with people and
movements who at the core of their identity find ways of justifying their part
in the cycle, I feel responsible to try to bring ideas to the search for
solutions. With this in mind I should like to pen several observations about
what I have learned from my experiences and what they might suggest about the
current situation. I believe this starts by naming several key challenges and
then asking what is the nature of a creative response that takes these
seriously in the pursuit of genuine, durable, and peaceful change.
Some Lessons about the Nature of our
Challenge
1. Always seek to understand the root of the anger - The first and
most important question to pose ourselves is relatively simple though not easy
to answer: How do people reach this level of anger, hatred and frustration? By
my experience explanations that they are brainwashed by a perverted leader who
holds some kind of magical power over them is an escapist simplification and
will inevitably lead us to very wrong-headed responses. Anger of this sort,
what we could call generational, identity-based anger, is constructed
over time through
a combination of historical events, a deep sense of threat to identify, and
direct experiences of sustained exclusion. This is very important to
understand, because, as I will say again and again, our response to the
immediate events have everything to do with whether we reinforce and provide
the soil, seeds, and nutrients for future cycles of revenge and violence. Or
whether it changes. We should be careful to pursue one and only one thing as
the strategic guidepost of our response: Avoid doing what they expect. What
they expect from us is the lashing out of the giant against the weak, the many
against the few. This will reinforce their capacity to perpetrate the myth they
carefully seek to sustain: That they are under threat, fighting an irrational
and mad system that has never taken them seriously and wishes to destroy them
and their people. What we need to destroy is their myth not their people.
2. Always seek to understand the nature of the organization - Over
the years of working to promote durable peace in situations of deep, sustained
violence I have discovered one consistent purpose about the nature of movements
and organizations who use violence: Sustain thyself. This is done through a
number of approaches, but generally it is through decentralization of power and
structure, secrecy, autonomy of action through units, and
refusal to pursue
the conflict on the terms of the strength and capacities of the enemy.
One of the most
intriguing metaphors I have heard used in the last few days is that this enemy
of the United States will be found in their holes, smoked out, and when they
run and are visible, destroyed. This may well work for groundhogs, trench and
maybe even guerilla warfare, but it is not a useful metaphor for this
situation. And neither is the image that we will need to destroy the village to
save it, by which the population that gives refuge to our enemies is guilty by
association and therefore a legitimate target. In both instances the metaphor
that guides our action misleads us because it is not connected to the reality.
In more specific terms, this is not a struggle to be conceived of in geographic
terms, in terms of physical spaces and places, that if located can be
destroyed, thereby ridding us of the problem.
Quite frankly our biggest and most visible weapon systems are mostly
useless.
We need a new
metaphor, and though I generally do not like medical metaphors to describe
conflict, the image of a virus comes to mind because of its ability to enter
unperceived, flow with a system, and harm it from within. This is the genius of people like Osama Ben
Laden. He understood the power of a free and open system, and has used it to
his benefit. The enemy is not located in a territory. It has entered our system.
And you do not fight this kind of enemy by shooting at it. You respond by
strengthening the capacity of the system to prevent the virus and strengthen
its immunity. It is an ironic fact that our greatest threat is not in
Afghanistan, but in our own backyard. We surely are not going to bomb Travelocity,
Hertz Rental Car, or an Airline training school in Florida. We must change
metaphors and move beyond the reaction that we can duke it out with the bad
guy, or we run the very serious risk of creating the environment that sustains
and reproduces the virus we wish to prevent.
3. Always remember that realities are constructed - Conflict is,
among other things, the process of building and sustaining very different
perceptions and interpretations of reality. This means that we have at the same
time multiple realities defined as such by those in conflict. In the aftermath
of such horrific and unmerited violence that we have just experienced this may
sound esoteric. But we must remember that this fundamental process is how we
end up referring to people as fanatics, madmen, and irrational. In the
process of
name-calling we lose the critical capacity to understand that from within the
ways they construct their views, it is not mad lunacy or fanaticism. All things
fall together and make sense. When this is connected to a long string of actual
experiences wherein their views of the facts are reinforced (for example, years
of superpower struggle that used or excluded them, encroaching Western values
of what is considered immoral by their religious interpretation, or the
construction of an enemy-image who is overwhelmingly powerful and uses that
power in bombing campaigns and always appears to win) then it is not a
difficult process to construct a rational world view of heroic struggle against
evil. Just as we do it, so do they.
Listen to the words we use to justify our actions and responses. And
then listen to words they use. The way to break such a process is not through a
frame of reference of who will win or who is stronger. In fact the inverse is
true. Whoever loses, whether tactical battles or the "war" itself,
finds intrinsic in the loss the seeds that give birth to the justification for
renewed battle. The way to break such a cycle of justified violence is to step
outside of it. This starts with understanding that TV sound bites about madmen
and evil are not good sources of policy. The most significant impact that we
could make on their ability to sustain their view of us as evil is to change
their perception of who we are by choosing to strategically respond in
unexpected ways. This will take enormous courage and courageous leadership
capable of envisioning a horizon of change.
4. Always understand the capacity for recruitment -- The greatest
power that terror has is the ability to regenerate itself. What we most need to
understand about the nature of this conflict and the change process toward a
more peaceful world is how recruitment into these activities happens. In all my
experiences in deep-rooted conflict what stands out most are the ways in which
political leaders wishing to end the violence believed they could achieve it by
overpowering and getting rid of the perpetrator of the violence. That may have
been the lesson of multiple centuries that preceded us. But it is not the
lesson from that past 30 years. The lesson is simple. When people feel a deep sense of threat, exclusion and
generational experiences of direct violence, their greatest effort is placed on
survival. Time and again in these
movements, there has been an extraordinary capacity for the regeneration of
chosen myths and renewed struggle.
One aspect of
current U.S. leadership that coherently matches with the lessons of the past 30
years of protracted conflict settings is the statement that this will be a long
struggle. What is missed is that the emphasis should be placed on removing the
channels, justifications, and sources that attract and sustain recruitment into
the activities. What I
find
extraordinary about the recent events is that none of the perpetrators was much
older than 40 and many were half that age.
This is the
reality we face: Recruitment happens on a sustained basis. It will not stop
with the use of military force, in fact, open warfare will create the soils in
which it is fed and grows. Military action to destroy terror, particularly as
it affects significant and already vulnerable civilian populations will be like
hitting a fully mature dandelion with a
golf club. We
will participate in making sure the myth of why we are evil is sustained and we
will assure yet another generation of recruits.
5. Recognize complexity, but always understand the power of
simplicity - Finally, we must understand the principle of simplicity. I talk a
lot with my students about the need to look carefully at complexity, which is
equally true (and which in the earlier points I start to explore). However, the
key in our current situation that we have failed to fully comprehend is
simplicity. From the standpoint of the perpetrators, the effectiveness of their
actions was in finding simple ways to use the system to undo it. I believe our
greatest task is to find equally creative and simple tools on the other side.
Suggestions
In keeping with
the last point, let me try to be simple. I believe three things are possible to
do and will have a much greater impact on these challenges than seeking
accountability through revenge.
1. Energetically pursue a sustainable peace process to the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Do it now. The United States has much it can do
to support and make this process work. It can bring the weight of persuasion,
the weight of nudging people on all sides to move toward mutual recognition and
stopping the recent and devastating pattern of violent
escalation, and
the weight of including and balancing the process to address historic fears and
basic needs of those involved. If we would bring the same energy to building an
international coalition for peace in this conflict that we have pursued in
building international coalitions for war, particularly in the Middle East, if
we lent significant financial, moral, and balanced support to all sides that we
gave to the Irish conflict in
earlier years, I
believe the moment is right and the stage is set to take a new and qualitative
step forward.
Sound like an odd
diversion to our current situation of terror? I believe the opposite is true.
This type of action is precisely the kind of thing needed to create whole new
views of who we are and what we stand for as a nation. Rather than fighting
terror with force, we enter their system and take away one of their most
coveted elements: The soils of generational conflict perceived as injustice
used to perpetrate hatred and recruitment. I
believe that
monumental times like these create conditions for monumental change. This
approach would solidify our relationships with a broad array of Middle
Easterners and Central Asians, allies and enemies alike, and would be a blow to
the rank and file of terror. The biggest blow we can serve terror is to make it
irrelevant. The worst thing we could do is to feed it unintentionally by making
it and its leaders the center stage of what we do. Let's choose democracy and reconciliation over revenge and
destruction. Let's to do exactly what they
do not expect, and show them it can work.
2. Invest financially in development, education, and a broad social
agenda in the countries surrounding Afghanistan rather than attempting to
destroy the Taliban in a search for Ben Laden. The single greatest pressure
that could ever be put on Ben Laden is to remove the source of his justifications
and alliances. Countries like Pakistan, Tajikistan, and yes, Iran and Syria
should be put on the radar of the West and the United States with a question of
strategic importance: How can we help you meet the fundamental needs of your
people? The strategic approach to changing the nature of how terror of the kind
we have witnessed this week reproduces itself lies in the quality of
relationships we develop with whole regions, peoples, and world views. If we
strengthen the web of those relationships, we weaken and eventually eliminate
the soil where terror is born. A vigorous investment, taking advantage of the
current opening given the horror of this week shared by even those who we
traditionally claimed as state enemies, is immediately available, possible and
pregnant with historic possibilities. Let's do the unexpected. Let's create a
new set of strategic alliances never before thought possible.
3. Pursue a quiet diplomatic but dynamic and vital support of the
Arab League to begin an internal exploration of how to address the root causes
of discontent in numerous regions. This should be coupled with energetic
ecumenical engagement, not just of key symbolic leaders, but of a practical and
direct exploration of how to create a web of ethics for a new millennium that
builds from the heart and soul of all traditions but that creates a capacity
for each to engage the roots of violence that are found within their own
traditions. Our challenge, as I see it, is not that of convincing others that
our way of life, our religion, or our structure of governance is better or
closer to Truth and human dignity. It is to be honest about the sources of
violence in our own house and invite others to do the same. Our global
challenge is how to generate and sustain genuine engagement that encourages
people from within their traditions to seek that which assures the preciousness
and respect for life that every religion sees as an inherent right and gift
from the Divine, and how to build organized political and social life that is
responsive to fundamental human needs.
Such a web cannot be created except through genuine and sustained
dialogue and the building of authentic relationships, at religious and
political spheres of interaction, and at all levels of society. Why not do the
unexpected and show that life-giving ethics are rooted in the core of all
peoples by engaging a strategy of genuine dialogue and relationship? Such a web
of ethics, political and religious, will have an impact on the roots of terror
far greater in the generation of our children's children than any amount of
military action can possibly muster. The current situation poses an
unprecedented opportunity for this to happen, more so than we have seen at any
time before in our global community.
A Call for the Unexpected
Let me conclude
with simple ideas. To face the reality of well organized, decentralized,
self-perpetuating sources of terror, we need to think differently about the
challenges. If indeed this is a new war it will not be won with a traditional
military plan. The key does not lie in finding and destroying territories,
camps, and certainly not the civilian populations that supposedly house them.
Paradoxically that will only feed the phenomenon and assure that it lives into
a new generation. The key is to think about how a small virus in a system
affects the whole and how to improve the immunity of the system. We should take
extreme care not to provide the movements we deplore with gratuitous fuel for
self-regeneration. Let us not fulfill their prophecy by providing them with
martyrs and justifications. The power
of their action is the simplicity with which they pursue the fight with global
power. They have understood the power of the powerless. They have understood
that melding and meshing with the enemy creates a base from within. They have
not faced down the enemy with a bigger stick. They did the
more powerful
thing: They changed the game. They entered our lives, our homes and turned our
own tools into our demise.
We will not win
this struggle for justice, peace and human dignity with the traditional weapons
of war. We need to change the game again.
Let us take up the practical challenges of this reality perhaps
best described in the Cure of Troy an
epic poem by Seamus Heaney no foreigner to grip of the cycles of terror. Let us
give birth to the unexpected.
So hope for a
great sea-change
On the far side
of revenge.
Believe that a
farther shore
Is reachable from
here.
Believe in
miracles
And cures and
healing wells.
John Paul
Lederach
September 16,
2001
_____________________
John Paul
Lederach, Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Conflict Studies and
Resolution at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.