Blessed Are the Peacemakers

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Both Duncan and Hartsough stress the importance of nonpartisan civilian peace teams specifically trained in pacifist strategies. Looking to career soldiers with a combat mentality and itchy trigger fingers, they warn, would be a mistake. As Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan and Thomas Weber wryly state in their book Nonviolent Intervention Across Borders: A Recurrent Vision (University of Hawaii Press, 2000), "A peace force which has been engaged in military operations will find it difficult to talk to the party it has been shooting at."

GNPF will intervene only when it is invited by local peace activists who feel threatened in their work, says Duncan. Beyond monitoring violence, peace teams will act as unarmed bodyguards, providing protective accompaniment to endangered members of local grassroots organizations. They will also teach nonviolent tactics, so locals can carry on peacebuilding once the internationals have left. After all, the goal of GNPF is not simply to reduce levels of violence, but also to create a space for local activists to work without getting killed—"a political space where people can reconstruct a civil society," according to Duncan.

Two decades of peace-team development, the rise of global communications, and the emergence of the International Criminal Court all seem to set the stage for GNPF. Nobel Peace Prize laureates the Dalai Lama and Oscar Arias head an impressive list of leaders who endorse the organization, and momentum is building with GNPF opening offices in San Francisco, Ottawa, London, and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Duncan nevertheless admits to some healthy skepticism about GNPF's chances for success, but he looks forward to facing his doubts. "We live in a time where we must confront these questions," he says.

For further information or to get involved, contact Mel Duncan at mel@nonviolentpeaceforce.org or David Hartsough at peaceworkers@icg.org.

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