The Long-term View of Post 9/11 World from the Lenses of Peacebuilding

In preparation for this panel we have been asked to reflect, from our various areas of expertise and professions, on the challenges of the long-term Post 9/11 World, with particular focus on the development of U.S. policies in response. My area of expertise is that of on-the-ground peacebuilding in settings of deep-rooted, protracted conflict. I work in places like Northern Ireland and the Basque Country, Somalia, Colombia, the Philippines, and Nepal. My travels have carried me in and out of those places over the past twenty years, dating back to when I was a Ph.D. student here at this university.

The practice and study of peacebuilding is founded on a commitment to engage people in understanding why cycles of destructive conflict exist and continue. It promotes a patient but insistent effort to find creative ways to end violence and build new relationships based on respect, dialogue, and justice. These are not easy ideals or practices to carry forward but they have a single unwavering and compulsory premise: To meet, engage, and build relationships with people involved in destructive conflict, nasty or wonderful as they may be, in order to find, encourage, invent, and promote nonviolent processes and solutions to human conflict…