Conflict resolution: Non-violent resistance movement should be inclusive, says scholar

Dr Johan Galtung says postmodern warfare is a systematic warfare against humanity.


Our Correspondent February 28, 2014
A nonviolent resistance movement should engage with the other party in a conflict because a sense of “togetherness” is crucial to peaceful conflict resolution, said an internationally acclaimed peace studies scholar. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:


A nonviolent resistance movement should engage with the other party in a conflict because a sense of “togetherness” is crucial to peaceful conflict resolution, an internationally acclaimed peace studies scholar said on Thursday.


Dr Johan Galtung, the 83-year-old Norwegian sociologist and mathematician who is acknowledged as the founder of peace and conflict studies, was delivering a keynote address at the opening ceremony of an international conference in the capital.

The two-day conference on the “History of Nonviolent Resistance in Pakistan” is being jointly organised by the Institute of Peace and Diplomacy, the University of Warwick in Britain, the Leverhulme Trust and the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) at a local hotel.

Galtung, who is currently the founder and rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University in Switzerland, said nonviolence resistance and conflict resolution should not be seen as a “zero-sum game.”

“It should not be a position of one party winning and the other losing; it should be about both advancing,” the 83 years old scholar said.

Professor Galtung, who has mediated around 30 international conflicts, said one truth about most nonviolent movements is that they tend to succeed. But success is not immediate and it depends upon the amount of sacrifices poured in to the movement.

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“It took 100 years of nonviolent movement against ‘Jim Crow’ [racial segregation] laws for Blacks [in the US] to get their civil rights,” said Galtung, before pointing out that an important symbol of the 1960s US civil rights movement was Blacks and Whites walking together.

They were exposed to police brutality but still had the courage to be together.

“It was the togetherness [that prevailed],” Galtung said. “Any nonviolent movement should try and be with the other party.”

He even suggested that if the Tahrir Square resistance forces in Egypt would have invited their main target, President Hosni Mubarak, to join them, some things would have worked out better.

Galtung’s talk covered the breadth of nonviolence from protest movements to peaceful conflict resolution. He mentioned that postmodern warfare is a systematic warfare against humanity and that political interests mostly lead to warfare.

Speaking in the Pakistani context, he said the Pashtuns are the largest nation without a state on Earth with 40 million individuals divided through boundaries. He also made several mentions to the oppression of boundaries drawn by the British around the world especially in the subcontinent.

He said he did not wish to demonize the British but it is a fact that Pakistanis have been exposed to multiple line-drawings by the British.

Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz while speaking as chief guest said nonviolence is a relevant issue for the current Pakistani socio-political landscape.

“The topic of nonviolence is extremely relevant and effective for shaping the mindset of people in the Pakistani society towards building resistance to violence,” Aziz said.

He said the Pakistan Movement is a shining example of nonviolence as the Muslim League did not resort to violent tactics against the British, rather it peacefully gathered support for a separate country. Religions also preach nonviolence, he said.

Malik Hammad Ahmad, a PhD candidate at the Warwick University who helped organise the conference, said the aim of the conference was to bring out the forgotten history of nonviolence movements in Pakistan and discuss them in the context of the current violence in society.

He said the [left wing] student movement against General Ayub Khan, the pro-democracy movements and the recent lawyers’ movement are all great examples of nonviolent movements. But the mainstream narrative is flooded with talks of war on terror and militancy, he said.

Ahmad said the conference provides a chance for Pakistani and international scholars to share research findings with each other and with the public.

Sessions on Thursday mainly focused on the theoretical concepts and regional trend of nonviolence movements. Experts will discuss aspects of Pakistani nonviolence movements on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2014.

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