Can Peace Be a Profession?
Peace as a profession is extremely broad, but all fields that encompass peace have the common goal of teaching, obtaining, or practicing what peace should look like in the society we live in. Despite this, I believe that peace can be a profession, based on my preview interview with Dr. Smith.
I found my interview with Dr. Smith to be extremely informative as to how peace can be a profession. Looking at mediation as a field, the goal is to communicate and find a solution where both parties can get what they want, without the need for either physical or verbal violence. During my interview with her, she believed that peace was a profession to understand all different types of conflict, such as historical, cultural, interpersonal, and psychological. By looking into the roots of conflict at a small level, such as interpersonal, one can infer that the process is communicating with the goal of a win-win situation, or one where someone has to give up something they may want in hopes of satisfying the other party.
Looking at achieving peace on an international scale, however, is much more difficult. While peace on the international level is ideal, especially with the current war taking place against Gazans, the goal is some sort of resolution between both Hamas and the Israeli state, but international law makers and international actors have called for a ceasefire with continuous violence. Peace as a profession on the international level is one that exists, but is very difficult to achieve, especially as a mediator.
In my Introduction to Peace Studies course with Dr. Ulas, we learned of both the Rwandan and Srebrenica massacres. The Srebrenica massacres had a Tribunal held at the Hague, where Milosevic and leader Momcilo Krajisnik were found guilty of enabling and committing genocide. While these cases were not cases where mediation is involved, I find that the teaching of conflicts allows for others to understand the reasons as to why there should be peace in society, and that citizens should not fall victim to the state’s goals oftentimes pursued by selfish interests. Another reason why teaching peace is a profession is learning how peace can be achieved internationally and legally. With the introduction of international law to the world in 1945, the field is constantly evolving and being introduced to new violations of different human rights doctrines that are held highly within the international law framework. Providing insight on this as a professor allows students to understand how peace is being protected as well as the expansion of the rights of protecting minorities. One relatively recent tribunal formed was the International Rights of Nature Tribunal. The goal of this tribunal is to protect the rights of the Earth and prevent any more ecological harm done to the environment that could eventually lead to even bigger concerns, such as ecocide. All these attempts at peace are why I believe that peace can and should be considered a profession.
Through my interview with Dr. Smith as well as the past classes I’ve taken and the content I’ve learned through them, peace is a profession that should be taught for the very reason that there can be a multitude of solutions to solving issues, regardless of how large or small scale the concerns are. Peace on an international scale is the goal for countries to get along with one another, but it also starts at an individual level, where people learn to resolve misunderstandings between themselves and move forward without a feeling of resentment.
