Peacemaking Case

Abstract

Peacemaking is a skill and a talent. There are many who have accomplished great peacemaking through a variety of means. The great contemporary peacemakers such as President Jimmy Carter, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

The recognized influential leader Mohandas Gandhi’s peacemaking strategy avoided making violent strategies as oppose to the oppression movement, the other side and that holding non-violent acts can set an example to the violent movement. “Gandhi’s major claim to fame was that he, almost alone among the freedom leaders in the entire colonized world, had sought and developed policies and strategies rooted in native culture rather than borrowed from Western models” (Koenraad). A leader must settle a dispute between two parties or keep a kind of barrier from conflict. For example, President Jimmy Carter would prepare his peacemaking solution between him and the two parties. He would identify lessons of his peacemaking experience such as communicating with both parties; public announcements on the negotiation process should be joint, and confidential, with a time limit, with an agreement reached.

“He identified several conflict causes: ethnic hatred, human rights abuses by an oppressor, and deterioration of living standards. President Carter appealed to conflict resolution practioners to publicize their work, to make more people aware of the resources available to them in constructive management” (National Institute for Dispute Resolution. 1992, 11p). Carter has been involved in international public policy, conflict resolution, human rights and charitable causes. His center the Carter Center advances human rights. His international peacemaking efforts in Ireland, when he spoke at the annual Human Rights Forum at Croke Park and visiting South Africa joining Nelson Mandela in a humanitarian organization called the Elders.

His successful accomplishment was the Camp David Accords, a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. After leaving office, Carter founded an institute to promote global health, democracy and human rights. He has traveled extensively to other countries to monitor international elections, conducted peace negotiations and establish relief efforts. He is also known for his work as a figure in Habitat for Humanity. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to change the treatments of blacks, segregation, and the Vietnam War. Therefore, wanting to do the same thing in America as Gandhi done in India. After having made a trip to India and returned to the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. believed that love, not violence was the most powerful weapon. As a growing national hero and civil rights figure he helped communities organize their own protest against discrimination. “It is impossible to think of the movement unfolding as it did without him at its helm. He was, as the cliché has it, the right man at the right time” (White, 1998, pg. 1).

Quaker Emily Green Balch, the leader of the Women’s International League for Peace made peace proposals for warring nations and to stop World War I by persuading statesman of both neutral and belligerent states to agree. She tried to prevent American intervention in the conflict and continued her opposition after the United States entered the war. She pointed out the dangers of nationalism but advocated no world government. She participated in movements for women’s suffrage, racial justice, and child labor for better wages and work conditions. In the 1930’s, she sought ways to help the victims of Nazi persecutions.

In 1950, Dalai Lama the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people assumed a full political position after the invasion of China in Tibet in 1949. He journeyed to Beijing for peace talks with other Chinese leaders as well on his travels he has spoken strongly for better understanding and respect among the different faiths of the world. In 1963, Dalai Lama constitutes a democratic draft for Tibet along with a number of reforms. The Charter of Tibetans in Exile ensured freedom of speech, belief, assembly and movement. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for opposition to violence and looking for solutions of international conflicts, human rights issues and global environment problems.

In 1992, he issued guidelines for the constitution of a future, free Tibet. He proposed the Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet as the first step toward a peaceful solution that the whole of Tibet will become a zone of peace. That will allow respect for the Tibetan people’s fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms. Restoration and protection of Tibet’s natural environment that will not be used as China’s source for reproducing nuclear weapons and discarding nuclear waste. Compromised negotiations on Tibet’s future and status between the Tibetan and Chinese people. He has set up educational, cultural and religious institutions to preserve the Tibetan identity and heritage. Dalai Lama continues to be the spiritual leader, conducting schedules, administrative meetings, private audiences, and religious teachings and ceremonies.

Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa became a symbol of freedom, equality, and a driving force in the anti-apartheid. He was a leader of the multiracial political movement the African National Congress (ANC). That helped bring out political change in South Africa of white minority government and racial separation. After his retirement as president he continued to advocate for social and human rights organizations. Like Nelson Mandela,

Archbishop Desmond Tutu wanted to form a society without racial divisions and equal civil rights for all. As a South African cleric and activist he rose to worldwide fame as an opponent of apartheid. He was elected as the first black South African Anglican Archbishop and committed to stopping global AIDS. When he taught at the Johannesburg Bantu High School and at Munsirville High School in Pietermaritzburg, regarding the Bantu Education Act became in protest of the poor educational prospects for black South Africans. He denounced South Africa’s white government in order to emphasize peace, social justice and reconciliation.

Tutu has earned well over 100 honorary doctorates from universities all over the world. He places great value on religious inclusiveness and interfaith dialogue. Tutu held several teaching positions and theological work in South Africa. In 1996, he was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe gross human rights violations during apartheid. Eli Wiesel has spoken out against violence, repression, and racism. He has become a popular speaker and a political activist for many causes such as Soviet and Ethiopian Jews that were victims of apartheid in South Africa and Bosnian victims of genocide in Yugoslavia. He voiced support for intervention in Darfur, Sudan. He conducted the International Communism for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania and the involvement of the Romanian wartime regime atrocities. A devoted supporter of Israel and defender of the cause of the Nicaragua’s Miskito Indians, Argentina’s Desparecidos, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of famine and genocide in Africa.

Peacemaking is a tool used by successful leaders to bring fighters to a cease. If successful, the fighting will stop. Therefore, until the effect takes transition there is a chance the fighter returns to a peaceful state. Making conscious and strategic choices can forward disputes into the right direction. You have to work to accommodate “relationship” between two diverse individuals on problems, communication, and understanding each feelings of frustrations in order to avoid conflict. Included in these traits are ambition, suspicion, and aptitude. You possess a great deal of generosity, sociability, and are artistically inclined. You alleviate suffering to those who are in turmoil. A peacemaker is the limelight to those to be shared with the masses and lives humbly and modestly. An empathetic individual who wants to see a peaceful end to a difficult dispute. You also possess the strong diplomatic skills that benefits many around you. You are not too amused a leadership role and at times under estimate your skills and talents.

You accept changes, challenges, and different approaches. That lets you become a deep thinker and a fast learner and serving others by giving them advice. A duty to bring harmony into the environment for the good of those around you. A good leader is strong characters that expresses themselves through writings and words, and are loyal and reliable persons that come with high moral standards. You are liberated and very independent that seeks respect and freedom. True leaders are peacemakers that bring hostile parties to an agreement through peaceful means. It is the effort intended to move a violent conflict into a non-violent conflict, where the differences are settled. Peacemaking is necessary in cases of war crimes and human devastation. It is to restore peace between warning states. “The objective of peacemaking is thus to end the violence between the contending parties. Peacemaking can be done through negotiation, mediation, conciliation and arbitration” (John Hopkins University 2006).

References

National Institute for Dispute Resolution. A Conversation On Peacemaking with Jimmy Carter. Washington DC: National Institute for Dispute Resolution, 1992. 11p.

White, Jack. Martin Luther King. 1998. Pg 1.

http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/king.html.

“Peacemaking – Overview” Conflict Management Toolkit. (John Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, Conflict Management Program). Accessed on 15 Feb. 2006.

http://www.sais-jhu.edu/cmtoolkit/approaches/peacemaking/.

Koenraad, Elst. A Tale of Two Murders: Yitzhak Rabin and Mahatma Ghandi.