Echoes Of Andrew Corsie

Within or Without?

What are the implications for working for reconciliation? We spent the day talking about mechanisms for handling conflict. These ranged on the one hand to the use of force, into adjudication, arbitration and so on to mediation and reconciliation. Those words are terms that need to be discussed and agreed in every situation as people understand them differently.That was true of our group today – and thats important because the group is one of the most diverse I have ever been in. I grew up in a diverse community, most of my life has been lived in London.As we often hear, all the world is in London. I agree, but all the world does not usually get together in one room.So this course is going to be very interesting.
Our teacher, a Professor named Hizkias Assefa, an Ethiopian is someone I will need to speak with, especially given my visit to his home country in a few weeks time.
Back to terminology, because getting it clear does help the relationship further down the line when meeting with different parties in a conflict situation. What you mean by ‘negotiation’ might be different from me and that will affect our meeting.
We all love being on ‘the top’, lording it over others, whether in more subtle areas such as being in control. However, being ‘top dog’ can be a miserable experience. You need to keep that position at all costs and any show of being willing to negotiate, offers to the other party an advantage you cannot take back. Rivalry goes all the way back Cain and Abel – and is rooted in much of our behaviour. It is a root cause of conflict.
When conflict arises humans tend to try and resolve it by means that do not have a high level of mutual participation, but invest in behaviours that reduce human contact and maintain individual dominance. Why is it there is such huge investment, and greater prestige, in military methods, high investment in legal systems and not in those activities that provide opportunity for greater human interaction and the possibility of more sustainable and enduring peace, and are less prestigious? Activities like mediation and reconciliation.
Total world spending on these differing activities, recorded a few years ago, amounted to: $1.5 trillion on the military, contrasting with $240 million on UN Mediation. It is an illustration that suggests how much the world struggles with dealing with power, rivalry and conflict.
Why is this?
What makes reconciliation a unique approach is that it tries to get to the root of problems.It invites personal investment and therefore, commitment to the longer term solutions. Before I throw up my hands in horror at the priorities of politicians and world leaders, it is worth asking myself; is there a correlation between my own level of confidence and ability to respond to conflict? The locus of the work of reconciliation begins with being reconciled myself,before I think about reconciliation with others and within the world. Wow, we have a lot to do!