Abstract

Using violence and coercion to control and contain violent individuals, groups and nation states raises deep ethical and philosophical questions. How can one use violence while at the same time condemning violence? This moral dilemma is not a new one -- yet, humanity has thus far not achieved an effective, large-scale nonviolent conflict transformation capacity. There is a persistent idea that violent conflicts can be transformed by third parties, who help change the dynamic -- from violence and domination to mutual engagement, cooperation and dialogue. This Capstone Paper, "Building Nonviolent Intercultural Peace Teams," aims to contribute to this idea. The question I wish to pursue is: "How do we, as peace activists, bring the peace team concept to a new level of possibility?" Utilizing a literature review, an historical examination of peace team efforts made thus far, an analysis of problems which have plagued peace teams in the past, and interviews with peace team activists and theorists, I propose a model for effective and sustainable peace teams. In the first part of the paper I explore the research question in further depth. Next I review and analyze many of the efforts made towards creating nonviolent intercultural peace teams, using both a literature review and data from interviews from peace activists. Subsequent to that I propose an organizational and programmatic "blueprint" of an effective and sustainable intercultural peace team, aiming to address some of the key areas which heretofore have proved problematic in the various attempts at creating a sustainable intercultural nonviolent peace team. In the last part of the paper, I review a current proposal to create an "International Peace Force," analyzing what the current effort is doing well, what problem areas it may likely encounter, and thoughts for enhancement in this effort.

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