Stories


In a Warring World

It started as a conversation involving professors and peace activists. Norwegian sociologist Terje Rod Larsen and his wife, Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul, set up a series of direct unofficial secret peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians in Norway. The first Israeli representatives were two scholarly peaceniks, Yair Hirschfeld and Ron Pundik, with links to the Israeli leadership. Representing the Palestine Liberation Organization were economist Abu Alaa and two aides, Hassan Asfour and Maher el Kurd. The talks eventually ended up becoming official and produced the ...

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Third Side Skills

No matter what Third Side role you favor or take within a conflict there are 3S skills that are useful to any thirdsider. There are three key sets of skills: Seeing from the Thirdside, Listening from the Third Side and Speaking from the Third Side. See from the Third Side When we take the 3S we are often trying to influence the situation. The truth is, we can't even hope to influence other people unless we can influence ourselves. The first challenge we face is to gain perspective. Listen from the Third Side We tend to view ourselves as "in the right" when ...

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Isn’t “War” Human Nature?

Coexistence for 99% of our past? Underlying our hopelessness is the story we commonly tell ourselves and our children about our past. People have been warring with each other since the beginning of time. Scratch the veneer of civilization and you will get a Kosovo or Rwanda. For the last ten thousand years - during the last one percent of human evolution - there exists clear and often abundant evidence of organized violence and warfare. It takes the form of bones with spearheads or arrowheads embedded in them, mass graves, remains of fortifications, settlements ...

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Is War Our Biological Destiny?

New York Times November 11, 2003 By NATALIE ANGIER In these days of hidebound militarism and round-robin carnage, when even that beloved ambassador of peace, the Dalai Lama, says it may be necessary to counter terrorism with violence, it's fair to ask: Is humanity doomed? Are we born for the battlefield - congenitally, hormonally incapable of putting war behind us? Is there no alternative to the bullet-riddled trapdoor, short of mass sedation or a Marshall Plan for our DNA? Was Plato right that "Only the dead have seen the end of war"? In the heartening if ...

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