Peace Scholar Welcomed at BRC
Peace Studies faculty members, authors, and activists met at the BRC in September to welcome David Little, who has been named the T.J. Dermot Dunphy Professor of the Practice in Religion, Ethnicity, and International Conflict at the Harvard Divinity School. Previously with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington, D.C., Dr. Little is an expert in the fields of human rights and religion as they apply to international affairs. He has authored books on the Ukraine and Sri Lanka and has been examining intolerance and human rights abuses as sources of religious conflict in Ukraine, Israel, Lebanon, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Tibet.
Following an overview of what the U. S. Institute of Peace has been doing in the areas of peace enforcement, peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding, Dr. Little noted some of the Institute's major initiatives, among them establishing a chair at the Institute for a former military official whose work is the redesigning of the military for peacekeeping. “We've done quite a bit,” he indicated, “on preventive diplomacy and multilateral, nonviolent peacekeeping.”
“I've been most active in peacebuilding with a particular focus on human rights,“ David Little explained, “and on how religious communities can become more tolerant and open to a peace culture.” He described the creation of an interreligious council in Bosnia to bring religious leaders together to undertake joint projects of various kinds, including publications. In Bosnia, the USIP also brought people together to look at hate speech and hate media as part of an effort at tolerance training. The Peace Institute is active in Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa and in Bosnia.
Asked about his vision of his new position at the Harvard Divinity School, Dr. Little indicated that Mr. Dunphy, donor of the chair, has been very clear about his desire that the focus be on religion and conflict and not solely on peace and nonviolence—a position with which the author/educator is in accord. The new T.J. Dermot Dunphy Professor will teach a course on Religion, Nationalism, and Peace. He will work with colleagues at the Weatherhead Center at Harvard's Center for International Affairs to develop conferences and projects in the areas of religion and conflict resolution and he will actively network with other peace scholars and activists because, he indicated, “This is a cooperative business.”
In the lively discussion that followed his remarks, participants stressed to Dr. Little the number of rich resources that exist in the Boston-Cambridge area, from the Peace Abbey to the Albert Einstein Institution to the variety of peace studies programs on local campuses to the significant numbers of writers, researchers, and activists who have committed themselves to the promotion of peace. Suggestions were made that Harvard has a great opportunity now to do more in the area of nonviolence and international law.
Winston Langley suggested that the interplay between human rights and belief systems must be further examined. Others, keying off of this suggestion, indicated that the religious freedom legislation that was recently passed continues to be highly debated. Dr. Langley also promoted the idea of further examining the link between justice and the ethics of care that has been explored by feminist scholars and the link between liberation theology and social justice issues.
The peace studies community, Elise Boulding offered, “needs to spend more effort on reconciliation and forgiveness.” The emerita professor went on to suggest that in this country we have not done the necessary grieving, listening, and engaging in dialogue related to Hiroshima and that we suffer the consequences of our failure to engage in necessary reconciliation efforts. She also indicated that peace researchers and activists should follow the progress of the various Year 2000 movements and should do a better job of linking issues of restorative justice and peace studies.
As the luncheon seminar moved toward its conclusion, participants underscored for Dr. Little the importance that local action is given: “In this area, we like to address local to global and back to local again.” The warmth of the dialogue and the camaraderie evident among the local peace studies community members underscored the value that each individual places on this process of coming together for the purposes of both professional exchange and the opportunity to see good friends.
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