Peacebuilding in a Fractious World

On Hoping against All Hope

Richard Penaskovic, Mustafa Sahin, Penaskovic, Sahin

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781532616488
• eBook ISBN: 9781498240291
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

In January 2017 Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, said that it looks as if the world is preparing for war. And Pope Francis noted that war is already being fought piecemeal around the world. In this book we argue that since violence begets violence, we must privilege soft power over military might, if we are to have peace on earth. Gandhi used soft power in India overcame British military might, and King used it to bring about integration in the 1960s. Soft power brought about the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, the Kyoto climate agreement, and Iran's agreement to refrain from making nuclear weapons. Soft power involves both dialogue between world leaders and conflict resolution, and privileges diplomacy over war. As General James Mattis said in 2013, "If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition."

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Introduction

Richard Penaskovic and Mustafa Şahin

This volume has three outstanding features that distinguish it from other books on peacebuilding. First, it approaches the theme of peacebuilding from both a macro and a micro perspective. The macro point of view is featured prominently, for example, in chapter 2, in which Dr. Carbaugh shows how the method of “cultural discourse analysis” sheds a bright light on peacebuilding among cultures and nations. The micro perspective may be seen most clearly in chapter 8 where Dr. Allen reflects on the symbolic power for peace in the encounter between St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan Al-Kamil in the thirteenth century.

Second, we address the theme of peacebuilding from an interdisciplinary perspective. Why so? Peacebuilding should be approached from different perspectives, just as a diamond must be viewed from many angles to see its full beauty. Peacebuilding involves questions dealing with history, communication theory, politics, society, religion, and social conditions. In sum, to do justice to the topic, complex questions like peacebuilding must be examined from many viewpoints, as we have done in this volume.

Third, the various contributors to this book have endeavored to transcend vague theories and generalities. Instead, they believe that their reflections have application to, and can solve, problems in the real world. For example, in chapter 6, Daisaku Ikeda, a Buddhist, argues that all nations must downsize their stockpile of nuclear weapons if we are to avoid a nuclear catastrophe.

This introduction consists of three parts. Part I outlines the many problem areas where war may break out suddenly and sets the context for this volume. Part II gives a rationale for the subtitle of our book, “On Hoping against All Hope.” In other words, this part of our introduction shows why we have reason to be hopeful, despite the quandary we face in working for a peaceful world. The final section summarizes the various chapters of this volume.

The Problem

We live in a time of uncertainty with numerous hotspots around the world in which war can break out with the drop of a hat. Mikhail Gorbachev said, “It all looks as if the world is preparing for war.”1 He noted that the United States is sending more troops to Europe, thus sending a clear message to Russia that we are there to protect our NATO allies and the countries in the Baltics. Meanwhile, NATO and Russian forces that were ordinarily “deployed at a distance” are now closer together, “as if to shoot point blank.”2

In Europe, we have Vladimir Putin’s takeover of the Crimean region of the Ukraine with little resistance from Western powers. In the Middle East, ISIS has occupied areas of Syria and Iraq, thus forcing millions of Syrians to other European countries like Germany, Turkey, and Greece. Presently, there are over sixty-five million refugees worldwide, the largest number of them since WWII.3

The situation in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is a powder keg ready to explode. Israel has allowed Israeli settlers to take over land in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, in clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, made in 2016. If the Republicans under President Trump move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, this would set off a crisis between Israel and the Palestinians. Jerusalem would become a huge magnet for violence and terrorism, and US embassies, including their personnel, would be greatly threatened.4

President Erdoğan in Turkey has killed 2,000 of his own citizens and displaced 355,000 others in the southeastern part of Turkey. He has declared martial law to throw in jail all who dare oppose him, particularly academics and journalists, to the extent that Turkey is, effectively, no longer a true democracy.5 The UN Human Rights Office noted that in Turkey as many as half a million people were displaced from July 2015 to December 2016, amid large scale destruction of residential neighborhoods in the Kurdish southeastern part of Turkey.6 These are, indeed, difficult times for those who endeavor to bring about peace on earth.

Moreover, on March 7, 2017, North Korea, under its supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, fired five ballistic missiles, four of which landed in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Japan about 620 miles from the launch site in Tongchang-ri.7 Additionally, North Korea threatens to test an intercontinental ballistic missile later this year, one that could potentially reach California. Per R. James Woolsey (Director of the CIA from 1993–95) and Peter Vincent Pry (who worked in the House Armed Services Committee and in the CIA) North Korea’s nuclear weapons are probably more sophisticated and dangerous than many experts think. They argue that testing “is not necessary to develop nuclear weapons.”8 Many nations that have a nuclear arsenal, like the United States, France, Israel, South Africa, India, and Pakistan, have developed nuclear weapons without testing them.9

What is more worrisome about North Korea is this: The EMP Commission of Congress has concluded that North Korea may have “Super-EMP” weapons, that is, low-yield warheads that produce “gamma rays” rather than a big explosion. One of these warheads released over North America could kill 90 percent of the population by causing “starvation and societal collapse.”10

Another bone of contention concerns the dispute over territory in the East and South China Sea that pits countries like the Philippines, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam against a superpower, namely, China. The area under dispute stretches from the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands on the east of China to hundreds of islets in the archipelagos in the South China Sea. This area has an abundance of both natural gas and hydrocarbons, and global trade flows through the nearby seas to the tune of trillions of dollars. China has recently dredged and claimed for itself thousands of lands in the South China Sea, built artificial islands, and constructed loading piers, runways, and satellite communication antennas.11

China’s neighbors also claim some of this land and wonder if China wants this land for civilian...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Three Dimensions for Reflective Dialogue
• Chapter 3: Ethics and the Problem of Interpretation in Sacred Scriptures
• Chapter 4: The Importance of Interreligious Dialogue for Peacebuilding
• Chapter 5: “Whirling Diversions” in Turkey
• Chapter 6: Peacebuilding according to Daisaku Ikeda and Sōka Gakkai International
• Chapter 7: The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, the United Nations, and Nongovernmental Organizations
• Chapter 8: The Symbolic Power for Peace in the Encounter between Saint Francis and Sultan Al-Kamil
• Chapter 9: Roger Williams, Religious Freedom, and the Path to Peace
• Chapter 10: In the Steps of Pope John XXIII, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., and Archbishop Oscar Romero
• Chapter 11: Reflections on Refugee and Asylum Policy in the United States and Germany
• Contributors