The 2001 Quaker Peace Roundtable:
Workshop #5: Mary Lord, FCNL, A New Campaign
for the Peaceful Prevention of Armed Conflicts and
Gross Violations of Human Rights
-- continued -- 2
potential conflicts can be categorized and the possible intervention methods
appropriate
for various stages of conflict.
Mary Lord and Joe Volk attended a meeting in London of the Quaker Conflict Prevention
Network. This group was considering how to create support for establishing an
international regime consisting of a trained body of peace activists who could move
swiftly
into potential crisis situations.
As the discussion went on it became clear that the US
would not be helpful in this. Actions such as refusing to ratify a proposed international
criminal court agreement were obstacles to peace keeping. Other nations such as Canada,
Scandanavian countries and Bangla Desh were taking more constructive stand. Joe told
the group, "Don’t count on us. Creative thinking is going to come from other
countries.
The best we can do is try to prevent our government from making the situation worse."
3. In the United States there is no
organized constituency to advocate prevention of
conflict beyond using the military option, and the military knows its limitations as a
peace
making force. We will need to pick the particular issues which are most important to
emphasize. For example we may choose:
criminal courts
mediation and arbitration resources
the arms trade (weapons going in to regions of conflict)
For the task of constituency building there have been two traditional sources,
communities
of faith and college campuses. How do we mobilize peace studies people? We haven�t
found an entry point for this issue. We also need to be in touch with colleagues in other
faiths.
4. One option for bringing our cause to the
public involves a process known as the
Quadrennial Defense Review which takes place every four years and consists of a massive
study by the armed services of the strengths and weaknesses of our military forces. The
assumption behind this study is to look at what makes us feel secure or threatened but we
can also use it to talk about the resources, or lack of resources, that the US has to
prevent
conflicts from developing.
After making these four points, Mary Lord asked her audience for feedback. Here are
excerpts from comments by various people:
Use the New Call to Peacemaking organization, "every church a peace church."
Work on language. The common use of military metaphors in other contexts.
Talking to US officials about using UN
operational systems to prevent conflict gets the
response, "It's very hard. This is the responsibility of each individual state"
(rather than
being willing to use multilateral initiatives).