Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict
Introduction:
Can the military be trained to create peace? It can if you understand its culture according to Mari Fitzduff, the former Executive Director of
Irish conflict resolution organization INCORE, and now a professor and the
Director of the MA Conflict and Coexistence Programme at Brandeis
University.
This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).
Peace and the Military?
Mari Fitzduff
Professor and Director of the MA Conflict and Coexistence Programme at Brandeis
University
Also understanding the cultures of organizations. For instance, the army was the
easiest. Within a year the army had actually changed the whole criteria for
success, which was not how many terrorists you'd shot or how many terrorists
you'd put into jail, but how were your relationships with communities
developing, because that was in their interest. They would get more information
about what needed to be done, etc. Finding ways, we didn't like to tell the
provost this, mind you, but finding ways in which you could use their strategic
plan and show them how they could do what they wanted to do without increasing
their divisions. The culture of the army was such that once they decided to do
it, they just put in place a program which says every soldier will now get into
trouble if we find that there's trouble at the interfaces, if they're seen as
creating riots among the young men, etc., which was a completely different
change, and they were actually able to do this. Whereas another culture, like
the civil service could take a decade to change.So understanding organizations are different and will take different times to change.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. -- John F. Kennedy
Other Resources from Beyond Intractability Interview With Mari Fitzduff A leading peacebuilder from Northern Ireland, Mari talks about her work around the world transforming religious and ethnic conflicts.
Nobel Peace Prize Winners
Sean MacBride Former President of the International Peace Bureau, former President of the Commission of Namibia, and 1974 Nobel Peace Laureate
The Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, Co-Directors and Editors c/o Conflict Information Consortium(Formerly Conflict Research Consortium), University of Colorado Campus Box 580, Boulder, CO 80309 Phone: (303) 492-1635; Fax: (303) 492-2154; Contact
