by a "Personal Reflection" by Jacopo De Marinis

“Don’t destroy what you want to inherit.” This insightful advice is from Ebrahim Rasool, former South African ambassador to the United States and prominent anti-apartheid activist and peacebuilder. These wise words got me thinking about the kind of America, the kind of world, that we, and our children and grandchildren, want to inherit.

As we head into the 2024 presidential election, what is the post- November 5th America that we want to inherit? One permanently scarred by political polarization, social division and mistrust, and even political violence? Or one defined by a shared faith in our democratic values and a commitment to bridging the political divide, reducing tensions, and promoting political and racial reconciliation? Regardless of who wins the election, we have got our work cut out if we are to begin healing this country.

How can we go about building a more united, peaceful country for our children to inherit? There are three, key steps that I feel will be necessary in our quest to create a sustainable future for our country.

Promote a Widespread Culture of Peace Through Peace Education

I believe that sustainable change comes from within, from adopting a new mindset and embracing a new way of resolving conflict. This much-needed perspective can be provided by peace education, a critical course of study that provides students, from a young age, with the tools needed to constructively handle conflict by communicating constructively and empathetically with others. “Nonviolent communication,” a groundbreaking, peace-oriented approach to communication pioneered by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, is a key element of peace education. Peace education also educates students about topics that are relevant to peace like human rights, democracy, and justice, helping students better understand and positively engage as citizens with the world around them.

Furthermore, I believe that peacebuilding concepts should be fully integrated into the entire curriculum. For example, why not teach political science undergrads how politics and diplomacy, rather than sowing discord and divisiveness, can help build a more peaceful society? The same for economics; economics students could take econ courses in “peace economics,” a subfield championed by the Institute for Economics and Peace, which explores the costs of war, the economic causes of conflict, and how economic policies can help advance sustainable development. Peacebuilding can be built into courses in a range of other disciplines, like journalism, science, and psychology!

If equipped with an understanding of the connection between their disciplines and peacebuilding, the next generation of American leaders will be able to advocate for mindsets and policies that advance, rather than hinder, peace.

So, education: the first piece of the puzzle! Healing and uniting America starts with embracing a peace-oriented mindset and incorporating this key perspective into school curricula at the elementary, high school, and college levels. Once a “culture of peace” and appreciation for peacebuilding- in particular, finding common ground- is inculcated in our young, the next step will be infinitely easier to achieve.

Launch a Massive, Collective Peacebuilding Effort

This next step, “Massively Parallel Peacebuilding,” or MPP, is a concept introduced by acclaimed peace scholars and sociologists Heidi and Guy Burgess. MPP refers to a holistic, all-hands-on-deck approach to peacebuilding that requires many people to advance peacebuilding within their areas of expertise. For example, journalists could promote peace by practicing “peace journalism,” which advances conflict resolution by accurately representing all sides of a conflict, shedding light on underrepresented voices, and opposing sensationalism and misinformation. Politicians, such as those from the National Governors Association, who recently launched their “Disagree Better” initiative, could collectively oppose fear mongering and embrace rhetoric to unify our country. Our scientists, appreciating how climate change, nuclear weapons, and emerging technologies like AI threaten peace and heighten conflict, could embrace a science of peace, important work organizations like the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists are currently engaged in.

With so many people involved in this collective peacebuilding effort, how might we coordinate it? Heidi and Guy Burgess of Beyond Intractability offer a solid roadmap, consisting of 10 clear steps/challenges. I’ve listed these challenges below, along with some of the Burgess’ key suggestions for addressing each challenge and my personal suggestions where applicable. I’ve also included some professions that are applicable to each challenge (like politicians, economists, psychologists, etc.) An exhaustive list of the Burgesses’ advice regarding each challenge can be viewed on their website:

Challenge 1: Deal with Scale and Complexity – the Biggest Source of Intractability – small group conflict handling and peacebuilding processes need to be adapted to better work at the full scale and complexity of modern society.

• Burgess’ Suggestion 1: Scale up More Constructive Ways of Handling Conflict: Large-scale, mass communication-oriented processes are needed to involve the many millions of people who collectively, through their individual actions, determine the course of society-wide conflict. This will require figuring out how to reproduce the kind of transformative experiences that now commonly occur around the proverbial "table" at a societal level.
   
• Professions Involved: Activists, journalists, politicians, filmmakers, writers, actors, artists, social media influencers, educators

Challenge 2: Develop a Broadly-Shared, 21st Century Democratic Vision that will be seen as wisely and equitably addressing past conflicts and moving forward toward a broadly-supported vision of the future.

• Personal Suggestion 1: Addressing past and present conflict is crucial if we are to co-create a prosperous future for our country. One compelling proposal, suggested by US Representative Barbara Lee, is to create a Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation, which could also address rampant mistrust and political polarization. Such a commission should encourage broad participation within our society, not just reserved for politicians.
• Personal Suggestion 2: Looking to the future now. Such a shared democratic vision can be created through promoting peace education, which will inculcate a sense of civic responsibility in our youth, and by organizing a national conversation similar to the “Our Singapore Conversation” initiative launched by the Singaporean government in 2012.

Challenge 3: Resist “Divide-and-Conquer” Politics?  and block those who, for selfish reasons, want democracy to fail so they can profit and dominate.

• Burgess’ Suggestion 1: Resist Enemy Images – “Thinking about adversaries as enemies undeserving of sympathy, who must simply be defeated, is certain to drive the escalation spiral. Treating people with respect (even when they don't seem to deserve it) is disarming and opens opportunities for dialogue, compromise, and, if that fails, constructive (rather than destructive) confrontation.”
• Burgess’ Suggestion 2: Establish and Protect the Rule of Law – A critical aspect of democracy is rule of law and its fair application. Law enforcement must not serve any one group or individual’s interests, and there must be checks and balances in place to ensure no single person or group enjoys unbridled political power.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 3: Contend Nonviolently –  Respond to injustice nonviolently.
  • Personal Suggestion 1: Consult nonviolent action research. Gene Sharp’s “198 methods of nonviolent action” list, including tactics such as boycotts, strikes, and sit-ins, many of which were used during the Civil Rights movement.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 4: Resist Divide-and-Conquer Provocateurs: Resist efforts of authoritarian leaders and demagogues who attempt to use fear mongering and other divisive tactics to divide people into “in groups” and “out groups.” Even if there are real differences between you and another group of people, there are also key similarities that unite all human beings. Focus on these similarities as well and oppose efforts to augment the differences.
   
• Professions involved: Politicians, lawyers, psychologists, mediators, sociologists, educators.

Challenge 4: Constructively Framing Conflicts and Relationships in ways that limit hostility, foster collaboration, and promote respect and empathy.

• Burgess’ Suggestion 1: Limit "Us Vs. Them" Language and Thinking: Don’t dehumanize the “other” and focus on the common ground you share and what can be accomplished working together.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 2: Expose the False Promise of Decisive Victory: Seeking to immediately and permanently change the “other side’s” opinions can be extremely hard. Managing conflict involves accommodating and respecting other viewpoints.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 3: Focus on the Real Enemy: Destructive Conflict Dynamics: These dynamics include political polarization in the United States and many countries around the world. Rather than viewing the Republicans/Democrats as the “enemy,” Democrats/Republicans should view political extremism and polarization as the real adversary and work together to lower the temperature.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 4: Identify Unmet Human Needs: Unmet human needs are a prominent cause of social conflict. By promoting inclusive solutions to fulfill those unmet needs for all people, policymakers can reduce the prominence of polarized, identity-based groups in conflict, and pave the way for unity.
   
• Professions Involved: Sociologists, psychologists, community activists, teachers, politicians, violence interrupters, actors.

Challenge 5: Correct Misunderstandings and Improve Communication about one another's actions and motives. These include misunderstandings attributable to honest, simple mistakes and those due to poor communication, deliberate disinformation, and cognitive biases.

• Burgess’ Suggestion 1: Open Communication Channels: By encouraging open, honest communication with your adversary, you might come to realize that there is more space for common ground than previously thought.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 2: Get Out of our Bubbles: Resist the peer pressure to conform and just consume the same news and interact with people from “our group.” By exposing yourself to diverse viewpoints, you can gain a greater understanding of the “other side” and break down negative stereotypes.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 3: Empathically Listen to the Other Side: Actively and empathically listening is a sign of respect and has the capacity to heal turbulent relationships by allowing each side to better understand how they have contributed to the conflict.
   
• Professions Involved: Journalists, sociologists, psychologists, activists, teachers, mediators

Challenge 6:  Limiting and Reversing the Escalation Spiral that commonly intensifies and polarizes conflict in ways that make substantive problem-solving impossible, intensifies intergroup hostility, and makes violence more likely.

• Burgess’ Suggestion 1: Promote Escalation Awareness: Make sure people are informed about the dangers of conflict escalation and are committed to working to avoid polarization and escalation whenever possible.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 2: Use the Power Strategy Mix to Limit Escalation Power: Rather than relying on coercion to force your adversary to change their position on an issue, try persuading them or incentivizing them to adjust their perspective. Force should be relied on as little as possible to avoid escalating the conflict.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 3: Treat Opponents (and Allies) with Respect: When people are being respected, they are less likely to escalate the conflict.
   
• Professions Involved: Conflict analysts, mediators, politicians, community activists, journalists.

Challenge 7:  Obtaining and Effectively Using "Real Facts" by clearly distinguishing between facts, values, and opinions, and using widely-trusted processes for distinguishing true facts from "fake facts."

• Burgess’ Suggestion 1: Disentangle Facts and Values: Facts and values are not the same, and it is important to not confuse the two. Understanding objective reality, free from any assumptions about morality or values, is a critical part of the decision-making process. The Burgesses suggest setting up a “bipartisan fact checking” system to assuage doubts about “fake facts.”
• Burgess’ Suggestion 2: Promote Resistance to Propaganda and Disinformation: Building public awareness about the dangers of disinformation and strengthening peoples’ ability to identify disinformation is a critical aspect of preventing conflicts from spiraling out of control and anchoring conflicts in objective reality.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 3: Re-establish the University/Community (Town/Gown) Partnership: Fostering mutual trust between the higher education community and the wider community and launching joint projects can help bring academic research to the practical realm, allowing the whole society to benefit from academic research.
   
• Professions Involved: Journalists, politicians, university administrators, community leaders, activists, teachers

Challenge 8: Pursuing Collaboration and the Power of Working Together By identifying common interests and goals, we can gain much by working with the other side(s) even when conflict remains over other issues.

• Burgess’ Suggestion 1: Find Common Ground Amidst Differences: By focusing on areas of common ground and similarities between parties in conflict, they can pave the way for eventual agreement on how to address the core cause(s) of the conflict.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 2: Manage Distrust (and Build Trust): Since distrust is a key factor that drives conflicts, it’s important to engage in trust building whenever and wherever possible to de-escalate conflict and foster the potential for proactive engagement between the parties in conflict.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 3: Think “Win-Win” not “Win-Lose”: Adopting “win-lose,” zero-sum mentality can easily escalate conflicts by threatening the other side with total defeat. On the other hand, encouraging a “win-win” mindset can transform a conflict by encouraging all sides to view their goals as interconnected where one’s victory does not entail the other’s defeat.
   
• Professions Involved: Mediators, politicians, psychologists, sociologists, journalists, negotiators, etc.

Challenge 9: Promoting Good Governance with institutions that wisely and equitably make the tough decisions to determine the course of the society and the fate of individuals within that society.

• Burgess’ Suggestion 1: Strengthen Civic Education: Encouraging full participation in democratic institutions is a critical part of maintaining a healthy society that is less likely to experience violent conflict. Yet people can only participate in democracy if they are educated.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 2: Provide Conflict Resolution and Peace Education: This is the first step in the three-stage strategy I am suggesting! Inculcating a culture of peace and appreciation for conflict resolution in kids from a young age is an effective way to build peaceful societies.
• Burgess’ Suggestion 3: Assure Transparent, Ethical Government: Since corruption can be an enormous strain on a society’s resources and can degrade public trust in the government, promoting a transparent, ethical government is critical.
• Personal Suggestion 1: Create a U.S. Department of Peacebuilding: To promote a more peaceful society, it might be a good idea to create a Department of Peacebuilding (DoP) to help coordinate local peacebuilding strategies, implement a national peacebuilding and reconciliation program, and promote a more peaceful and just foreign policy. Grassroot organizations like the Peace Alliance are currently pushing for a DoP in the United States.
   
• Professions Involved: Politicians, teachers, activists, university administrators, civil servants, lawyers, peacebuilders, etc.

Challenge 10: Develop a Positive Sum, Win-Win Economy

• Burgess’ Suggestion 1: Provide Quality Goods and Services to the Economically Disadvantaged
• Burgess’ Suggestion 2: Require Business to Take Responsibility for their Public Harms (for example, by paying the cost of cleaning up their air pollution)
• Personal Suggestion 1: Strengthen mutual aid networks within communities to address issues like food insecurity, domestic violence, and unemployment that are not always addressed by the formal economy and government. (For example, my mom’s organization, Anne’s Haven, ran a food and baby formula bank during the pandemic to meet this critical need in the community
• Personal Suggestion 2: Address persistent inequality of opportunity in the economy caused by generations of racism and underinvestment in underserved communities, including underprivileged neighborhoods in cities and rural America. For example, a past professor of mine and I are currently in the process of publishing a paper analyzing an overlooked topic: racial inequality in farm and land ownership in this country. For generations, Black farmers and other minority farmers have been denied the opportunity to own farmland and the wealth-building opportunities afforded through landownership. Creating a fair, win-win economy also means addressing these structural inequalities that haunt us to this day.
   
• Professions involved: economists, community organizers, government officials, business leaders, community members, economics professors

You’ll notice that, given how comprehensive this list is, covering a wide range of disciplines and activities, everyone will play an indispensable role in building a more peaceful future.

What could this vision look like?

Ebrahim Rasool offers a 7-step path toward reconciliation, which I believe must be taken into account when creating this shared vision for peace and democracy:

1. Understand that "the other is here to stay”- the “other side” won’t go away, whether you’re talking about people of a different political background, ethnicity, religion, etc. This is a critical first step to a peaceful coexistence.
    
2. Start with the end- As the Burgesses stress in their Massively Parallel Peacebuilding checklist, it’s important to envision the future you want to build and then work backward to determine how you want to create it.
    
3. Don't destroy what you want to inherit- Seek to effect change through peaceful means always- creating change violently is unsustainable and will lead to much more harm than good.
    
4. Isolate the extremes, but unite the middle ground- Extremism of any kind is a key cause of polarization, yet the majority of people have more moderate perspectives. Foster unity by appealing to people’s common humanity and the many similarities between diverse groups.
    
5. Ideologies should always have a "human lens," that humanize the other- Dehumanization is counterproductive and downright dangerous. Despite how strong the disagreement might be, always humanize people who think differently.
    
6. There is "no easy redemption. You have to confront the truth."- For true reconciliation to occur, the truth of past and current injustices and the cause of the conflict can’t be ignored. Recognizing the truth of the conflict and fostering accountability for one’s actions is critical to reconciliation. The problem is the truth is contested by different groups.
    
7. Find the intersection between justice and peace- Being only concerned about justice can make building sustainable peace impossible, just as sacrificing justice for the sake of peace will prevent reconciliation. John Paul Lederach, a prominent peacebuilder and scholar, also believes that “truth” and “mercy” must be balanced with peace and justice.

All these ideas are key to consider when promoting reconciliation. How can we make sure that the truth comes out and justice is served, while promoting a peaceful and merciful society? This 7-point checklist offers some key values and priorities that should guide our nationwide peacebuilding journey and mirrors some of the peacebuilding challenges listed above.

And these are all points to consider as we build a 21st century democratic vision of America, an America that is not characterized by polarization, injustice, and even violence, but unity, justice and peace. And it all starts with fostering a culture of peace in our schools. Civics classes focused on issues like politics, democracy, and human rights should challenge students to challenge this status quo of discord and divisiveness and use their imagination and critical thinking skills to imagine a more just and peaceful America. And their teachers, parents, and political representatives should actively encourage this and engage in this process themselves, modeling good behavior.

Invest in and Create “Infrastructure for Peace”: Institutions to Manage and Coordinate Peacebuilding

So, we’ve got a culture of peace, promoted by peace education, and our massively parallel peacebuilding strategy, guided by our grand vision of what America could be. This peacebuilding process will rely on and give rise to institutions that can coordinate efforts to achieve our peacebuilding goals. For example, Departments of Peacebuilding (DoPs) at all levels- city, state, and national- may be necessary to help in framing concepts more productively, pushing back against “divide and conquer politics,” and coordinating peacebuilding efforts (promoting social justice, truth and reconciliation, etc.) Certainly, DoPs could be a critical step in meeting “Challenge #9”: promoting good governance!

Another institution, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, may be the key to promoting lasting racial and political reconciliation in the United States, just as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa helped put an end to apartheid by encouraging truth telling and accountability about the human rights violations committed during the apartheid era. Coincidentally, proposals for a DoP and Truth and Reconciliation Commission have been put forth by peace-oriented politicians like Barbara Lee. Peace organizations like The Peace Alliance, co-founded by 2024 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, are currently championing the effort to create a US DoP and promote truth and reconciliation. Now, it’s a matter of mustering up the political will to establish these institutions that can complement and work with civil society organizations that serve as Infrastructure for Peace (I4P) in their own right at the grassroots level.

And that’s one key point regarding establishing institutions, or infrastructure, for peace. While they might be at the city, state, national, or international levels, they must constantly be informed by and respond to activity from the local level. They must not impose a separate vision of peacebuilding on people from above, but collaborate and coordinate with local peacebuilders and civil society organizations to drive lasting change.

How Do We Get There?

This brings us to a critical question—where do we start promoting peace education, the Massively Parallel Peacebuilding (MPP) Strategy, and I4P to coordinate our collective effort?  (I’m not referring to Rasool’s advice to “start with the end”!) Well, the first critical point is that this whole national process will take time- generations, even. But, if we plant the seeds of a sustainable culture of peace now and engage in some of the most urgent MPP tasks now- like pushing back against divisive/extremist political rhetoric and starting to build common ground with our “adversaries”- we’ll soon realize that building a united USA is feasible.

Second, while certain politicians like Representative Barbara Lee and presidential candidate Marianne Williamson are steadfast proponents of this holistic vision of peacebuilding, there are not enough politicians who truly prioritize peace, as of right now. Which means it’s our responsibility to demand it. We must unite to actively advocate for peace education and a shift in how our society and its institutions engage in peacebuilding. Key to this is allocating money from the national budget to peace efforts; as Dr. King said, budgets are “moral documents.”

Social movements, which galvanize thousands and even millions of people into action toward a common goal, will be particularly crucial in this respect. Rather than just pushing for social and economic justice- important goals in their own right- social movements should start to protest against polarization of all kinds and call for policies and institutions that prioritize peacebuilding, starting with peace education. Specifically, grassroots civil society organizations and social movements- which will form the foundation of this 3-fold national peacebuilding strategy- could create a campaign pushing for the creation and incorporation of peace curricula in school. They could actively disseminate the Massively Parallel Peacebuilding list (which I imagine will evolve as more people weigh in) to their members and via social media to engage people outside of the peace movement as well. Finally, they could advocate for the creation of inclusive grassroots and governmental I4P like DoPs, mutual aid organizations, and truth and reconciliation programs, even though I imagine this will happen more later on as more people get involved in the peacebuilding movement and a culture of peace is strengthened.

How social movements are conducted can touch the hearts and minds of the whole American public and effect lasting change, as the Civil Rights movement did. This brings me to my last key point, stressed by conflict expert Amanda Ripley: the vital role relationships play in driving change toward peace. Social movements that “shred” relationships and intentionally or even inadvertently sow division in society must adjust their tactics to strive to appeal to a broader audience.

As we embark on a mass peace movement to unify our country, let’s make sure we preserve and strengthen relationships between diverse groups, even when they seem to have conflicting interests. Doing this will ensure that, as we emerge from the 2024 election and start our work healing our country, we do not destroy what our children and grandchildren will inherit.