I agree with John Steiner, who sent me the article below. This is a powerful step in the right direction. Spread it around. -- Tom
DEAR FRIENDS:
THIS ARTICLE AND BOOK ARE WELL WORTH THE READ. I BELIEVE 'GETTING TO PEACE' IS ONE OF THE IMPORTANT BOOKS OF OUR GENERATION. BILL URY TRULY IS ONE OF OUR PLANET'S GREAT PEACEMAKERS. ANY IDEAS ANY OF YOU HAVE FOR PUBLICIZING AND MARKETING HIS BOOK (INCLUDING JUST FORWARDING TO YOUR LISTS) ARE WELCOME. BILL IS AVAILABLE FOR SPEAKING, INTERVIEWS, ETC. THE PAPERBACK IS COMING OUT SOON.
PLEASE CONTACT BILL DIRECTLY WITH ANY IDEAS. SEE BELOW. I AM SURE YOU'LL FIND THE ARTICLE AND BOOK INSPIRING, USEFUL, AND JUST GOOD READING!.THANK YOU AND VERY BEST, JOHN
The Christian Science Monitor
Copyright 2000 The Christian Science Publishing Society
January 20, 2000, Thursday 1345 words
Challenging the 'necessity' of conflict
SECTION: FEATURES; IDEAS; Pg. 15
BYLINE: Jane Lampman, Staff writer of The Christian Science
Monitor
DATELINE: CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
HIGHLIGHT:
'What if destructive conflict were preventable - and we simply
did not know it!
The words above aren't the words of an ivory-tower academic
or a naive
optimist. They come from someone who's spent years at the heart
of
conflict - from family struggles to bitter labor strikes to such
intractable wars as that in Chechnya.
William Ury, an anthropologist-turned-negotiator, has distilled
the
lessons learned from two decades at the center of many storms,
and 10
years of in-depth research, into a provocative and surprisingly
heartening
message about where the human race stands in "Getting to
Peace" (Viking,
1999). His latest book follows two international bestsellers on
negotiation: "Getting to Yes" and "Getting Past
No."
The new book is a challenge to the prevailing "myth of
human nature," to
the idea that violence and wars are inevitable, and to each of
us who
thinks we aren't in a position to do anything about it. He sets
about to
show us why we can do something - and how.
The "why" has to do both with the truth about us
and about our times.
"With all the changes taking place in the world today,"
Dr. Ury says in an
interview, "some enormous opportunities have opened for us
to begin to
take our collective fate back as a matter of choice."
We have the choice, he says, because our history is not what
we have
believed. "This myth that human beings have been killing
each other most
of the time for as long as they have existed - that it's our basic
nature
and if you scratch the veneer of civilization you get a Bosnia
or Rwanda -
is fundamentally mistaken. It is not borne out by what we know
scientifically," he adds. Ury devoted years to studying archaeological
records and visiting with tribes that most closely resemble our
ancestors.
He presents the case that for the first 99 percent of human
history, the
norm was not organized violence, but coexistence; only in the
last 1
percent did violence become the way of resolving differences.
He describes
how the change from hunter-gatherer societies to farming led from
horizontal to vertical power structures, to tension over fixed
resources,
and thence to organized violence.
"We have been maligning our ancestors," he says.
It's not that they
weren't capable of violence, but they worked hard at preventing
and
resolving conflict - and found ways to do so. The time he has
spent with
the Bushmen of the Kalahari, the Semai tribe in Malaysia, and
even tribes
in New Guinea, have convinced Ury that "if anything, we [as
a species] are
'Homo negotiator.' "
The tribes employ a conflict management system - what Ury calls
"the third
side" - that is wholly pertinent to contemporary life, he
says. That's
because our global society is in many ways becoming more like
earlier
periods in human history. With the "Knowledge Revolution,"
we are shifting
from fixed resources, such as land - long fought over - back to
an
expandable resource. Pyramidal structures of authority are breaking
down,
and self-organizing, cooperative networks of horizontal relationships
are
emerging.
While helping to train the worldwide managers of the Ford Motor
Co. in
negotiation, as part of the company's shift to a new decisionmaking
network, Ury was struck by "how often I was reminded of the
Bushmen and
other simple societies. Here were the most modern management ideas
being
put into practice, yet they were reinventions of common practices
I had
seen among hunter-gatherers."
Ury splits his time between teaching negotiation, working in
conflict
situations, and trying to capture the lessons learned in the books
he
writes. He discussed his passion for peacemaking recently after
leading a
Harvard University negotiation-program workshop on "Dealing
with Difficult
People and Difficult Situations."
It's clear from his high-energy-yet-relaxed presentation style
that he
hasn't lost any enthusiasm for the challenge. And how many people
would
relish the idea of getting involved again in negotiations over
the Chechen
conflict?
Ury - who led the first face-to-face sessions of Russian and
Chechen
leaders after a cease-fire in 1997 - would be eager to explore
a "third
side" approach to the situation, he says.
The "third side" is the alternative to coercion that
has been missing in
Western approaches to conflict resolution, Ury says. It involves
people
from "the community" using peer power to foster a process
of dialogue and
nonviolence to bring about a win-win-win situation (both sides
and the
community benefit). He offers many examples of its effectiveness,
from
Boston's reduction of teen homicides to South Africa's peaceful
transition
to majority rule.
On Chechnya, he would draw on the tradition of councils of
elders and
weave the situation into a larger context. "Instead of just
condemning
what's going on, we ought to be making a proactive effort to try
to
stimulate creation of a council of elders in the Caucasus - with
support
from Europe, the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation
in
Europe], the US, and Russia - to look at the problems of the region
and
begin a slow process of peacemaking."
Because of intractable conflicts such as Chechnya, "some
very hard lessons
are being learned today," he says. One lesson is that much
more needs to
be done to prevent them. "The war in Yugoslavia was the most
widely
predicted conflict - 'if [President Josip Broz] Tito goes, the
place
collapses'." Another lesson is that, after the bloodiest
century in
history, we are beginning to learn that we can't win through war
anymore -
both sides lose, he says. "And the realization is dawning
that maybe there
are ways both sides can benefit" instead.
In fact, in our increasingly interdependent world, he sees
"the most
promising opportunity in 10,000 years to create a co-culture of
coexistence, cooperation, and constructive conflict."
Conflict won't go away - in fact there will be more of it because
of our
interdependence, he says. And we're more vulnerable to it. But
that
vulnerability means greater motivation for pursuing nonviolent
solutions -
and mobilization of the third side.
It's beginning to happen. When he was in graduate school in
the mid-'70s,
negotiation wasn't a defined subject. Now it's being taught everywhere
-
universities, the corporate world, government. "In 10,000
schools in this
country, kids as young as 6 or 7 are learning peer mediation,"
Ury says.
Many children didn't know there were alternatives to violence
to help them
stand up for themselves or get respect. Now in the cities, "gang
leaders
often become the best mediators, and they command respect for
the
transformation they've gone through," he says.
Ury urges all of us to get involved. His book describes 10
roles we can
adopt at various times in our daily lives to contribute to a new
culture
of coexistence: As a provider, teacher, or bridge-builder, one
can help
prevent conflict; as a mediator, arbiter, equalizer, or healer,
one can
help resolve conflict; and as a witness, referee, or peacekeeper,
help
contain conflict.
Each role holds out the opportunity to do something other than
take sides
or do nothing. "What did we learn from Columbine?" Ury
asks. "That so many
people in the community knew something, but did nothing."
"Human beings have a host of emotional needs," Ury
says. "If all these
needs had to be subsumed in one word, it might be 'respect.'...
Most of
the wars in the world today revolve around identity and respect.
By
addressing young people's needs for meaning and respect, we parents,
teachers and community members can help avert violence."
Ury is optimistic because we are beginning to grasp the potential
of the
third side - "that we can apply our innovative genius not
only to devising
new computers and jet planes, but to better ways of dealing with
differences."
Given who we are, we have that choice. The critical question,
he says, is
whether we will make that choice to get involved. "The third
side is us."
(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society