Careers in Conflict Transformation and professional peaceworking: Mediators in the streets and the suites

 Mediators in the streets and the suites

The role of the mediator is to transform destructive conflict into constructive conflict. The levels at which this can be accomplished are essentially infinite; conflict is one natural, ubiquitous human phenomenon and it frequently becomes destructive because it is often rooted in disrespect or the perception of such. At our core, we crave dignity, the positive regard that any human relies upon in our social being makeup. When conflict is actually an expression of contempt it can lead many humans into suspecting such disrespect in all conflicts, even when they are founded in simple disagreement, not emotional dismissal of the other.

When a person can be perceived as a neutral party who cares equally about the well-being of all parties to a conflict, that person can act as a mediator in seeking a workable, acceptable solutionary outcome. Usually, the outcome that is transformative is not a permanent resolution to a conflict but rather a commitment by all the parties to treat each other as being honest, respectful agents in the search for collaborative paths to progress. 

Learning to help others reduce defensiveness is as important as learning to help others reduce actual practices based in disrespect for others. All this requires some understanding of and mastery of aspects of psychology; from the Rogerian "unconditional positive regard" to a trauma-informed approach to hearing from each party, the stance of the mediator is what Kwame Christian calls "compassionate curiosity," listening more, talking less, helping uncover the painful past and the unfortunate assumptions we carry into our human interactions. 

Careers in Conflict Transformation and professional peaceworking: An alternative to what?

Eventually, after studying war so long, we "advanced," arriving at waging war so horrifically that now the end of life on earth only awaits the decision of one of a set of powerful warlords--perhaps Xi Jinping, or Vladimir Putin, or Donald Trump--to launch thermonuclear Armageddon, the "successful" culmination of studying war for thousands of years.

Peace was regarded as so unattainable that it was essentially only associated with religious and philosophical yearning until Mohandas Gandhi began discovering the available secrets of the strategic power of nonviolence early in the 20th century. He discovered that he could coerce even the greatest armed force the world had ever seen at that time--the British empire--and that started the slow growth of the study of peace moving from its cloister in religion and philosophy departments and into sociology, psychology, and eventually political science and security studies. 

Indeed, one goal of conflict transformation and peace science is to proliferate the knowledge that war is obsolete if enough skill and effort is applied to developing the power of civil society to do so much more than simply cast a ballot every few years. The latent power of civil society is proven again and again and is finally researched empirically beginning in 2008--a century after Gandhi began his strategic practice and theorizing. So, 11,000 years of studying war and 100 years of studying peace and the race is on to save the world from war, even with its 11,000-year head start.

Careers? How many careers are there in armed warfare? Armed law enforcement? Weapons manufacturing and sales? How about in other purely adversarial, zero-sum, winner-takes-all-and-crushes-the-loser jobs? A degree in conflict transformation and peace studies is the beginning of preparing to fill positions created to be the alternative to the old hurtful, destructive model. While it may look like that destructive model rules the world, it is possible and necessary to prepare to fill the needs people have by other means.

Mediators instead of gunfights.

Trained unarmed emergency first responders to threats of violence from someone in a mental health crisis instead of armed agents of the state whose last resort is to hurt or kill someone.

Mediators instead of adversarial lawyers.

Civilian-based defense instead of armies.

Peace journalists who foreground the work of nonviolent action and showcase the potential of civil resistance instead of simple if-it-bleeds-it-leads reportage.

Content creators of novels, screenplays, and all manner of art to explore the possibilities of this new world of transforming looming disaster into a win-win outcome.

The best undergraduate conflict transformation and peace studies degree program can and should prepare students to enter this professional world at a place they wish, even though it would be more of an entry level position. The most dysfunctional peace and conflict undergraduate programs might produce philosophically erudite graduates who are effectively qualified to drive cabs or be baristas. This is the challenge.

Careers in Conflict Transformation and professional peaceworking: Why study this body of knowledge?

 Why?

Why do people study conflict transformation and peace? That is a question with two major parts. 

One, what prompted the origins of this field of study, a field that is itself transforming into a discipline?

Two, why do students study all this today?

The first broad question about the emergent genesis of this field has a few strands. 

War has been studied for more than 11,000 years, itself erupting in all likelihood out of the development of agriculture. When foraging was the normal practice, little food storage was possible, with some minor but important exceptions. Storage of food for long periods turned nomadic peoples, not quite so much "owning" any particular land with clear boundaries, into more stationary people, with grain storage in larger and larger amounts, hedging against starvation in bad years of crop failure, but also presenting larger and more valuable--literally tasty--target to acquire. The long history of small raiding parties out to steal a horse or a bride from another tribal band--a long history that did not include grand armies marching against each other--transmogrified into a world of war that slowly produced the heavily armed, legally bounded nation-state system we have all inherited. In that former world, it was bands of tribal folk as dots of human influence in a vast, bountiful sea of Mother Nature's wilderness without any need or temptation to fight en masse for a piece of land. In our world that has been emerging since the dawn of storable agricultural products, we've thus been pondering war--how to defend against armies marching to seize walled cities and the surrounding productive lands and how to organize armies that can conquer neighbors and take those cities and the farms that support them.

Thus, as wars have become destructive enough to present existential threats to life itself, the question has been called: who will study peace? Who will learn how to transform conflict?

Why do students study this today?

Because, as an examination of news, history, and academic research reports inform us, there are far wiser methods than threatening to blow up others. This new understanding is opening a new vista into careers of practitioners at every level of all manner of conflict who can show us how to get more gain with less pain. This is true at the interpersonal, the community, the governmental, and international levels, cracking open an entirely new line of specialists from the individual family to the global human family. It is quite complex and will take a great deal of exploration to understand the width and depth of what can be transformed by these new specialists graduating with degrees in conflict transformation and peace studies.

Careers in Conflict Transformation and professional peaceworking: Envisioning

What?

Years ago I was fortunate enough to travel with two workmates to a Quaker retreat center, Stonybrook, in rural New York, to take part in a week-long seminar in Envisioning a World Without Weapons. It was transformative. 

It was led by a protege of Elise Boulding, Warren Zeigler, and it was a process that 20 of us were guided through, a step-by-step project that was theory and simulation. Not so incidentally, the participants were 18 women and just two of us men. I bunked with the only other guy, who was almost exactly 50 years older than I. It was a week of opening to a new way to think about creating a future, individually and personally. 

Had I not been in that workshop, I am convinced that I would never have written books, earned advanced degrees, or become a professor. Everything that flowed out of that seminar for me synthesized my ideals, my groundtruthed experience, and turned my fantasies into dreams, then into visions.

And so, when I advise students, the first thing I ask them is, "In your hopes, if they were reality, describe yourself in 10 years. What do you do for a living? What are you achieving?"

There is often hesitation, which I completely get. The envisioning workshop featured much of that amongst the 20 participants; we had some skills, we had ideals, but we somehow had internalized a paralyzing trait from our culture of modesty and humility--we consciously or unconsciously seemed to believe that daring to even formulate a vision was an act of hubris. 

When students get to think this over and some form of fantasy emerges, it is often blocky, unclear, and seemingly unrealistic, but it gives me something to work with, to help them choose classes that can serve their formulating educational and career goals. They actually do the work; I simply try to facilitate. I'm sure some would say I am not so effective and some might say it helped, but the seeds of envisioning frequently lead to their personal focus and progress. That focus might lead them to want to learn very specific competencies that can open doors to the path toward their vision. 

Example: A student realizes that working for a nonprofit with the goal of transforming a town into a far greener, more sustainable place to live means they should learn how nonprofits work, how to message to various target audiences, how to help formulate public policy that can work upon implementation, how to encourage pilot civil society initiatives that can model the necessary steps on a small, doable scale, how to raise funds to make it happen, and more. They may find courses across campus in other departments that offer some of the competencies they need, and they come to me to see if those courses can be used toward their degree. I look over the course description, ask them to obtain a syllabus from a previous section, and if it is clear that the course will help round out the skills they need to gain employment in conflict transformation-related work, I arrange for the course to count as an elective. 

So the "what" students learn as they earn their degree in conflict transformation and peace studies can vary as widely as the arc of careers that relate to the degree, and that are is wide indeed.

Careers in Conflict Transformation and professional peaceworking

Who?

Who studies conflict transformation and peace studies? Generally, these students seek some career in the helping professions, with a higher premium on making a difference in the lives of those who might be disadvantaged in some fashion--historically marginalized, impoverished, disabled, targets of aggression, etc. 

These students aim not for the most financially lucrative careers, but they want work that can pay the rent, provide health care coverage, and generally offer reasonable benefits. They do not often study conflict transformation or peace studies without some semblance of a vision of themselves doing work professionally that they regard as fulfilling and meaningful. 

Some hope to dedicate themselves to seeking the structural change they know from their studies will help the most people into a sustainable future. Some hope to work in fields that are focused on much more immediate assistance to individuals in need or in pain.

Some hope to help transform international conflict; some aim to learn the skills necessary to transform more local conflict. 

Some conflict transformation students come from privileged backgrounds while others come from groups less well off, marginalized, or less advantaged in general. Many are from middle class homes, some are on scholarship, and others are amassing student loan debt.

There are many peace studies students who are determined to live out their working lives with the highest ideals and make no compromise with corporations, government, nor institutions. They want an education that gives them the capacity to achieve that and still pay the rent.