Do Not Give Peace a Chance

In a Wall Street Journal editorial this week (Peace Processes Never Work∗), Bret Stephens argues that many if not most high profile peace efforts fail. The facts cited in the article seem imply or even prove that peacemaking is a mostly futile endeavor.

Conflict resolution professionals and serious peacemakers would be wise to study the argument closely, as we need to constantly evaluate whether or not we are whistling in the wind and delivering false hope.

One fact jumps from the pages of the editorial: the peace efforts chronicled were not for the most part undertaken by professionals trained in conflict resolution. The negotiators were primarily men and women associated with or connected to political power.

Diplomats, including famous would-be peace brokers, may not possess the birds-eye view of human nature (or the view of a saint) that allows them to assume the role of an impartial, creative agent of transformative change.

A similar divide exists among mediators operating in the courts: there are dealmakers and then there are transformative mediators who seek to engage human nature to bring about real and lasting change.

The good news is that conflict resolution specialists may be more successful than the political brokers Stephens cites. The bad news is they are not the people typically sent to address major conflict. Rather, people with political connections but lacking in spiritually transcendent views that inspire creative solutions are dispatched to trouble spots.

Bret Stephens’ editorial motivates us to consider what the future of peacemaking should look like.

∗If you have trouble with the article link, try searching the article’s name in your favorite search engine.

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