Seeds of Peace.Qxp

15 Minutes Aaron David Miller President of Seeds of Peace Stanford Social Innovation Review Spring 2005 Copyright 2005 by Leland Stanford Jr. University All Rights Reserved DO NOT COPY Stanford Social Innovation Review 518 Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305-5015 Ph: 650-725-5399. Fax: 650-723-0516 Email: [email protected], www.ssireview.com minutes 15 2/2005 of diplomacy and very careful man- Aaron David Miller agement. It’s a nonprofit where there President, Seeds of Peace are all kinds of minefields. Minefields? We brought [Israeli Labour leader] n 2003, Aaron David Miller left relationships between future leaders. Shimon Peres and [Palestinian univer- his State Department post as a sity president] Sari Nusseibeh to top Middle East peace negotiator You really believe in achieving peace Detroit, where we have a very large and adviser to six secretaries of one person – one teenager – at a and very active friends committee. state to take the helm at Seeds of time? On the part of the Arab-American Peace, a nonprofit that brings While saving the world one person at community, there were demonstra- together teenagers whose societies are in a time is not the most ideal way to tions against Peres outside the Ritz- Iconflict. Seeds attempts, over the course of proceed, it’s critical if we’re ever Carlton where this event was held. I a summer at an unusual camp in Maine going to move beyond peace as the brought Queen Noor to Orlando, and through follow-up programming in purview of diplomats to the kind of where we have another support conflict regions, to transform them into reconciliation and peacemaking that group. There was great unhappiness eventual leaders capable of seeking recon- needs to be shared by broader con- among some elements in the Jewish ciliation. Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has stituencies. Contacts and relationships community over things she had writ- developed a network of nearly 3,000 must be forged between young lead- ten in her book about her husband potential leaders from 25 nations. ers who will emerge as journalists, [King Hussein of Jordan]. So we’re attorneys, legislators, sports figures, constantly sitting on top of a political You have spent your career focused scientists. This is the stuff of which volcano. It goes off occasionally. on the most seemingly intractable relationships between nations are issues facing mankind. What have built. If there’s a sense of sharing a How do you keep you learned about the pursuit of common destiny and there are practi- the volcano from peace, and how does it help you cal ways of cooperating, people see blowing? guide your organization? they’re part of the same structure. I focus on the The Arab-Israeli conflict can be One person’s floor really is another compelling resolved. What led me to resign from person’s ceiling. nature of this the State Department was my con- work. I believe viction that it has become a genera- Can you truly be nonpolitical with that only the tional conflict. We are in great dan- so much politics involved? ger of losing an entire generation of We’re a nonpolitical organization in young Arabs, Israelis, and Palestini- the sense that we don’t take posi- ans to a kind of hopelessness and tions on discrete issues. I was despair that has characterized the sit- asked to take a position on the uation over the last four years. I left Iraq war, and I wasn’t going to the State Department not because I’d because I’ve got George Bush lost faith in what I call transactional Sr. and Bill Clinton on my advi- diplomacy, which is the business of sory committee. We need the diplomats that I did for 25 years. But support of Democrats and that is not enough. Transactional Republicans in this country. diplomacy has to be married to We need the support of something else, and that something Labour prime ministers and else is what I describe as transforma- Likud prime ministers in tional diplomacy – creating personal Israel. So it involves a degree PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CONNIE REIDER www.ssireview.com ~ FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY ~ DO NOT DISTRIBUTE ~ “Hamas is running 5,000 people through their camps. They’re not coexistence camps. We’re running 500. Those numbers don’t make any sense. Except for resources, there’s no reason Seeds couldn’t bring 5,000 each summer to two or three camps.” forces of individuals through their again or being unable to have contact. What makes for an effective leader own sense of courage and purpose of a nonprofit? What makes you can defeat the forces of history. And Specifically, what do you do to foster effective? if we abandon the field to those this change? You have to believe in it and convey impersonal forces of history, we have It happens because of the combina- that passion. And because I come abandoned the future. If Israelis and tion of the abnormal – 90 minutes from a world that is the opposite of Palestinians, 14, 15, 16 years old, who every day with facilitators who use nongovernmental organizations, it have lost friends and relatives to this all kinds of techniques – with the may well be that people pay more conflict, can make the physical and normal. We used to call them coexis- attention. I mean, why would some- psychological journey to living with tence sessions. We now call them dia- body who was an adviser to six secre- one another and developing mutual logue sessions. Coexistence implies taries of state want to work with respect – and sometimes even affec- simply allowing the other side to be. young people? The reason is that tion – for one another, it seems to me Real reconciliation is more than that. being part of something bigger than no obstacle is insurmountable, and They’re really detoxification sessions yourself, particularly on historic I’m not going to indulge myself in in which hatred and poison from issues, is an honor and a privilege. thinking otherwise. years of conflict come out. What did you learn at the bargain- What enables you to achieve success Do they really change their outlook, ing table that enables you to do this? with these teenagers? ceasing all antagonism? It’s the way I define my own life: “The We’ve created an environment which Can we claim the Israelis and Pales- perfect should not be allowed to provides four basic freedoms that tinians have resolved their conflict? become the enemy of the good.” these kids simply cannot get at home No. Can we claim that the Arabs That phrase should be emblazoned – freedom of association without and Israelis will never again think ill over the portal of every negotiating stigma, which is absolutely critical to thoughts of one another? No. But room and boardroom in the world. building any kind of trust; freedom we can claim this: For the first time The insistence on the pursuit of 100 of movement, which they do not in their lives, they hear the narrative percent in conflicts will get you noth- have at home; freedom to think criti- of the so-called other – the enemy – ing. Or worse than nothing. Life is all cally and independently, tough to do not from a rabbi or an imam or a about finding a balance between the while caught up in these conflicts; priest or a politician or a journalist real and the ideal. The negotiation of and freedom from fear of mortal or a parent. They hear the story of real peace will not be the property of harm. Their parents cannot guaran- the so-called other from a friend, a the margins; it will not be the prop- tee them 24 hours of absolute secu- peer whose humanity and decency erty of the right or left. It will be at rity. For three and a half weeks, they simply can no longer deny. One the center, where Seeds is. we can. Palestinian said to me, during the worst of the confrontation in sum- What is the biggest challenge you That creates big changes in them? mer 2002, “I come for one reason, to face? This environment sets the stage for a hear and be heard.” So with this Other than managing politics? phenomenal transformation. That transformative experience – and a Fundraising. We accept money from first night, you’ll find Israelis and decade of follow-up that we do – corporate sponsors and foundations, Palestinians who won’t sleep. Not you end up creating authentic lead- but most comes from individuals and because they are homesick, which ers who not only understand the event-driven development, which is they are, or have jet lag, which they needs and requirements of their not the most effective way to marshal do, but because they’re terrified that own constituency, but they truly resources. during the course of the night physi- appreciate the requirements of the cal harm will come to them from the other. That is the essence of conflict Why is it a challenge? Because of the other side. At the end of three and a resolution. It’s also the essence of time involved? half weeks, they are in mourning leadership. No. Because of what we try to do. over perhaps never seeing each other Hamas is running 5,000 young people 16 STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW ~ FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY ~ DO NOT DISTRIBUTE ~ www.ssireview.com 15minutes each summer through their camps. dations, corporate sponsors who want So you have to manage a transition? They’re not coexistence camps.

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