UC Irvine CID Report Title Center for Innovative Diplomacy Report - May/June 1985 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6194d50z Journal Center for Innovative Diplomacy Report, 2(3) Author Center for Innovative Diplomacy Publication Date 1985-05-01 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California tfieClD. One Percentfor Peace ' study the local economic impacts of particularly with the Soviet Union and military spending; China; CID Begins ' lobby Congress to restore vital social • draft, debate, and pass "sense of the programs like revenue sharing that city"resolutions on foreign affairs; and, have been cut to support the military • help educate Palo Altans on the requi Campaign for a budget; sites for long-term peace and interna enhance the role of Palo Alto in inter tional security through curriculum Palo Alto Peace national trade and cultural exchange. continuedonpage3 /imagineCouncilpeace becoming alocal pri ority,taking its place in the citybud get as well as in city hall, right alongside parks, sidewalk repairs, and police services. Imagine listening to a dozen candidates debating what the appropriate municipal foreign policies might be and then voting your favorites into office. And imagine these elected council members overseeing a dozen well-paid, highly qualified staff mem bers, equipped with modern office and printing facilities.Now stop imagining— and start believing. Welcome to the Palo Alto Peace Council! This summer, CID Special Project Di rectors Bethjacklin and Betsy Randolph are launching an unprecedented effort to create a "Peace Council" within the Palo Alto city government. If established this new institution would launch some of the following activities: • hold local hearings on foreign affairs Detente in Bits andBytes The spread ofcomputers and computernetworks in theSoviet Union, fostered by citizen diplomats, offers superpower relations new hope. ....page 4 The CID Report actually behave like other human beings... have sent a contribution to become a charter Since I am 72 years old, I may not be here supporter. ... Nothing is more important to long enough to see how all of this turns out, assure survival of humanity in the nuclear age but it might make a great deal of difference to than promoting people-to-people involve my children and my grandchildren. ment. When enough people agree, govern L. D. Ginger ments had betterget out of theirway,.saidIke, Crawfordsville, Indiana so that dependence on military force can be overcome, and world peace established. ... A FRiE.ND OF mine . just wrote about your We send best wishes for success of the CID work and what you call "citizen diplomacy." program. ... One of the committees of our Peace Milton Lowenthal LETTERS Commission has been making a study of the Union ofAmerican andJapanese I AGREE WITH vou that average citizens are our problems on nuclear issues that decision ProfessionalsAgainst Nuclear only hope. We need to find ways of persuad makers face and the theological and ethical Omnicide ing them that they will have to work together response to them. Important as that is, Chair, Central Pennsylvania to save themselves because our current eco what is more important—to get to the grass Chapter nomic and political leaders aren't going to do roots and stir people to action. While we Harrisburg, Pennsylvania it. It was their type of thinking which created need to be more informed, we also need to this situation in the first place. But how can act.... we reach these average citizenswith our mes Charles Martin sage? I have come to believe that this is the Headmaster Emeritus biggest problem we face. ... In my opinion, St. Alhans School you are on the right track in trying to con Canon, Washington Cathedral vince Americans that Russians are people. In Chairman, Commission on Peace my area, most citizens have allowed the gov for the EspiscopalDiocese OD ernment to make them believe that Russia is ofWashington DC CENTER FOR inhabited by demons, who will cast a spell on us if we don't kill them first. This mindset I HAVE READ Withgreat interest the circular of INNOVATIVE would fallapart ifthey couldsee that Russians the Center for Innovative Diplomacy, and DIPLOMACY 644 Emerson St., Suite 30 Palo Alto, CA 94301 (415)323-0474 President Michael Shuman Executive Vice President Dwight Cocke Project Directors Hal Harvey Eric Horvitz Office Manager Lynn Squires BethJacklin The Peace Council's Dynamic Duo Betsy Randolph BethJacklin (left),a BayArea native,will enter her senior year this autumn at Design and Graphics OccidentalCollegein Los Angeles, studying international relationsand philos MarianneAckerman ophy. A year ago, she began studying in Spain with a "Spanish anarchist Board of Directors philosopher." She then went to Washington, D.C., where she worked for the John Barton Council for a Livable World, a prominent arms control lobby. With a strong David Caulkins background in international and national politics, and a strong commitment llan Chabay "to living in a world free of nuclear weapons," Jacklin brings a wealth of Anne Ehrlich experience to CID. Hal Harvey MargueriteHeydt Betsy Randolph (right) left "the land-o-lakes, wild rice, and Guindon"— Eric Horvitz otherwise known as Minnesota—at the age of 15 to attend the Phillips Exeter Michael Shuman Academy, where she co-founded and directed the school's Committee on Nuclear Awareness. She then enrolled at Stanford University "site unseen," The Center for Innovative Diplomacy is a where she became active in the Stanford International Development Organiza non-profit, non-partisan research tion. Now a sophomore studying English, Randolph will spend next year organization striving to prevent nuclear and studying in Paris. Her summer positionat CID wasmade possibleby a public conventional war by increasing citizen servicegrant awarded her by StanfordPresidentDonald Kennedy. participation in foreign affairs. May/June 1985 continuedfrompage 1 by a half dozen enthusiastic volunteers, guides, pamphlets, newsletters, bill have spent most of their time defining boards, and parades. what exactly the city government and Your Role While other cities like Boulder, local organizations are—and are not— Cambridge, and Washington, D.C. have doing. Among their preliminary find f you're interested in helping cnit created municipally run institutions for ings: vith the Palo Alto Peace Council, peace, the PaloAltoPeace Council would • Even though military contracting may )lease call us. We especialK' need be the hrst institution run by a directly account for as much as one-quarter of lelp with a large fundraising event elected council. Moreover, the Palo Alto the local economy, no serious study of veil be holding on the California effort would be the first institution re economic impacts of military spending xiast this coming October. ceiving substantial municipal financial has ever been undertaken. If you're interested in establish- support. The current plan is to spend • While Palo Alto has an active "sister ng a peace council in your own one percent of the city budget—or three cities" program with cities in Mexico, ommunity, drop us a letter and quarters of a million dollars. Hence the Holland, and the Philippines, few ve'll send you a copy of our "Pros- campaign slogan: "One Percent for efforts have been made to connect Palo tectus' to help you get started. Peace." Altans with people in the Soviet Union If Jacklin and Randolph succeed, the or China. Palo Alto Peace Council will also be the first institution ofits kind established in a politically moderate community. In potential as building blocks for interna deed, Palo Alto has a rather unpredict "We're giving tional structures." able political landscape; with successful The Peace Council also incorporates Silicon Valleyentrepreneurs living side- citizens a pragmatic CID's citizen diplomacy theme. It will by-side with, zi ford University students alternative to give Palo Altans new opportunities to and staff,the communityoftenvotes for a reduce global tensions and prejudice Republican congressman while support indifference." through business and cultural ex ing radical city programs for energycon changes abroad. SaysJacklin," 'People to servation and recycling. "Byestablishing people' contact promoted by the Peace the Peace Council in Palo Alto," saysjack- Council will help to eliminate fears, lin, "we'll have a better chance ofserving • And while both the Soviet Union and biases, and stereotypes—and thus re as a model for other communities. If China have expressed increasing inter duce the likelihood ofwar." Berkeley established a Peace Council, est in purchasing locally produced Most importantly, the Peace Council people would say 'so what else is new.' "high technology" (see "Citizen Diplo will provide Palo Altans with a "munici But if we succeed in Palo Alto, then peo macy" column in this issue), no one in pal megaphone" for participating more ple might say, 'hey, maybe we can do that the local Chamber of Commerce has actively in all foreign affairs. Working here, too.'" much interest—let alone expertise—in through their own city hall, Palo Altans promoting trade with these countries. will be able to discover, discuss, and A Worthy Long-Sbot As Jacklin and Randolph now com modify thevarious connections between plete the "Prospectus," they are already international and local affairs. "The Jacklin and Randolph realize they face an developing a number of important com Peace Council," Randolph claims, "is an uphill battle. While the Palo Alto City munity allies—including high-level Palo upbeat, hopeful answerto the anxietywe Council has supported the nuclear Alto officials and some local peacegroup all feel about the danger of nuclear war. freeze and "Jobs With Peace" resolu leaders. "The response so far is terrific," Political participation needs to find a way tions, a number of council members said Randolph. "The proposed Peace back into American idiom and practice.