Overview of the Opportunities and Challenges of Rotary Peace Work

Peter Kyle, Fergal McCarthy and Rebecca Crall shared complementary perspectives on the historical and existing Rotary peace engagement and ecosystem. Rotary has been in the “peace business” for over 100 years. Notable peace influencing relationships are those with the UN, UNESCO, UNOCE, Peace Fellows, Mediators Beyond Borders, Institute for Economics and Peace, etc. Despite these macro level relationships, Rotary’s culture is that of a bottom-up organization where all projects begin at the club level and work their way up. Moreover, not all Rotarians are interested in broader peace issues, but in service in their local community.

Rotary International is at a point where the organization’s peace activities are organized, and it is now a good time to consider bigger actions. Global grants through The Rotary Foundation have supported community-based peacebuilding projects.

Opportunities and questions for Rotary/Rotarian engagement:

Opportunities and questions for Rotary/Rotarian engagement:

• Small scale Rotarian projects could be increased in number and in nature if they are focused, targeted, and achievable; the Carter School could help identify such high impact initiatives.

• Small scale Rotarian projects could be increased in number and in nature if they are focused, targeted, and achievable; the Carter School could help identify such high impact initiatives.

• It would be a good idea to have a Rotary representative involved directly with the Carter School

• It would be a good idea to have a Rotary representative involved directly with the Carter School

• It is necessary to build a stronger narrative around peace within the entire Rotary network

• It is necessary to build a stronger narrative around peace within the entire Rotary network

• Water conflict management in Aral Sea Basin facilitated by Global Grant

• Water conflict management in Aral Sea Basin facilitated by Global Grant

• Water conflict and diplomacy could be an area of cohesion between Rotary and Carter School

• Water conflict and diplomacy could be an area of cohesion between Rotary and Carter School

• Peacebuilder perspective: need for a rapid reaction approach with work with Rotary

• Peacebuilder perspective: need for a rapid reaction approach with work with Rotary

Additional resources for this session:

• Rotary Peace Programs - https://warpreventioninitiative.org/wpcontent/uploads/2022/12/RotaryPeacePrograms-.pdf

• Aral Sea neighbors come together to resolve conflicts over a scarce resourcehttps://www.rotary.org/en/aral-sea-neighbors-resolve-conflicts-over-water

Reflections on Meaningful Engagement for Peace

Dr. Patrick Hiller shared insights from a decade of previous work through the War Prevention Initiative of engaging Rotarians for meaningful peace engagement. Four main lessons were:

1. There is a Rotary peace ecosystem that has organizational support through the peace area of focus - the existing ecosystem must be nourished, but with an understanding of the many facets of peace and peacebuilding and what we know from the work of people done in the peace and conflict resolution field and by centering the voices of those affected by violent conflicts.

2. Many Rotarians are very eager to act for peace – we should not stifle this eagerness, but we must let people most affected by violence and injustices determine their pathways forward. Otherwise, we run the risk of pushing initiatives that are not aligned with the needs of vulnerable or marginalized people, are ineffective, wasteful in their use of resources, or reinforce systems of oppression.

3. Confronting militarism and militarized security, at least recognizing its pervasiveness is key to any involvement in peace work - that means rattling the cage, that means being political. If Rotary and Rotarians want to become serious actors for peace on a more global level and seen as such, they must find out a way to overcome the “too political” barrier.

4. Positive peace - that is peace with justice - needs to be emphasized above neutrality or avoiding politics. Rotarians are by nature of their membership in the organization among those who benefit from the way our social systems are organized. That means, knowingly or unknowingly, they contribute to different forms of structural and physical violence. One of the tasks for everyone benefiting from these social orders is to get out of self-imposed positions of neutrality by developing and acting upon a critical consciousness regarding their own role in upholding these forms of violence.

Opportunities and questions for Rotary/Rotarian engagement:

• Carter School creativity can “push the envelope” for Rotary

• Addressing political vs. partisan difference - find language to challenge all Rotarians to recognize that we can be political without being partisan

• Narratives and mindfulness of language - finding effective language to engage Rotary

• Peace Science Digest as an educational, practice-oriented resource for Rotarians.

Additional resources for this session:

• Peace Science Digest - https://warpreventioninitiative.org/peace-science-digest/

Networks for Peace

Professor Susan Allen discussed how “networks for peace” as a framework can guide the POV process. Networks work when they have common interests and goals, they have cycles where they grow, where they transform, then contract again. As the context changes, adaptation and changes in the networks are required.

The key questions guiding the discussion were: What can we accomplish together that we cannot do apart? How can we engage the Carter School and Rotary strengths for impact?

4 C’s:

• Communication (joint strategy development)

• Coordination (sharing resources, aligning information, increase synergy)

• Cooperation (partnership roles defined)

• Collaboration (working together)

Added in discussion

Change Coalition(structure-based)

Opportunities and questions for Rotary/Rotarian engagement:

• Are the Rotary peace programs in the peace ecosystem interconnected? How?

• Rotarians have access to power, capacity, and resources

• Good initiatives can be scaled up, but cross-jurisdictions can be a huge problem in scaling from the bottom up

• Scaling requires entrepreneurialism and large commitment among grassroots efforts; leadership will follow, rather than lead

• Difficult to organize and mobilize Rotary peacebuilding family, because there are many different interests among members

• Self-reflection phase of peace engagement activities might be something that Carter School could help Rotary with

• Depth of peacebuilding needs to be more developed; bring subset of Rotarians interested in peace together more effectively and strategically to change the peace efforts from being very shallow (e.g., peace poles) to something deeper

Additional resources for this session:

• Interactive Peacemaking. A People-Centered Approach by Susan H. Allenhttps://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003189008/interactivepeacemaking-susan-allen (Open Access to full book)

Peacebuilding actors

Dr. Seth Kaplan introduced the model of middle-tier peacebuilding actors who are part of Brain Trusts in the context of engagements by the Institute for Integrated Transitions. What would be considered rather “upper-middle-tier” peacebuilding actors are well networked individuals who are not in government positions but who are very influential in working with all levels of society.

Go-Between Leaders as Ethical Exemplars

It is important for middle-tier leaders to maintain credibility at both the national and community levels by expressing clearly their core values and motivations. Local communities and key groups in society often view with suspicion the national level and by extension the go-between leaders who participate in that arena. As such, middle-tier leaders must embody values of transparency, respect, and inclusivity in order to gain the trust of a country’s diverse communities, avoiding the competitive forms of leadership that often persist among national elites and fuel conflicts, and modeling alternatives that alter the terrain on which peace is constructed.

https://warpreventioninitiative.org/peace-sciencedigest/building-peace-from-the-middle-the-critical-work-of-national-brain-trusts/

By Mark Freeman and Phil Clark -

Opportunities and questions for Rotary/Rotarian engagement:

• Conduct meetings with 15-18 people (best number for real cohesion and ideas) to effectively bridge networks and parts of society, to come up with priorities for resolving conflicts – this could be a role of Rotary in peacebuilding

• Convene social covenants to build/create institutional reform that will make the systems of a country work better

Additional resources for this session:

• Building Peace from the Middle - The Critical Work of National Brain Trustshttps://warpreventioninitiative.org/peace-science-digest/building-peace-from-the-middle-thecritical-work-of-national-brain-trusts/

Where are the gaps?

Criteria for Selecting Specific Cases (for collaboration):

• Rotary network

• Carter School/Rotary experience in the region

• Possibility for systemic change/scale-up

• Centering around the needs of the community