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HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES Violence and Peacemaking Eyed by Program on Negotiation
The Program on Negotiation (PON) at the Law School will host a public symposium on new insights into the human capacity for violence and peacemaking. The event, to be held Friday, Oct. 1, will feature three prominent social scientists – primatologist Frans de Waal, anthropologist of war Brian Fergusen, and conflict resolution specialist William Ury, who will anchor the discussion. How can we translate new scientific findings into ways to resolve conflict in our homes, communities, and nations? The PON symposium on the implications of this new research will take place from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in Langdell Hall North at the Law School. PON invites all members of the community to att this meeting on a topic of growing interest to everyone seeking alternatives to violence in conflict resolution. Intractable and – to many of us – inexplicable wars such as the conflict in Kosovo and the mass murder of teenagers by fellow students at Columbine High School spur us to think again about fundamental issues of human behavior. "Nature" is often invoked in political deliberation and popular discourse to explain brutal violence and why so little can be done to prevent it. From Hobbes to Freud to modern-day sociobiology, a dominant explanatory narrative has revolved around the idea that human nature is, indelibly, "red in tooth and claw." Yet recent investigations in the fields of anthropology, primatology, and conflict resolution suggests a radically different picture. New insights into human evolution have profound implications for how we can prevent violence and wars today. The meeting will bring together three converging strands of thinking that contribute to our emerging understanding of human nature, peaceable and violent. Frans de Waal of Emory University has extensively studied conflict resolution in nonhuman primates. He received the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Peacemaking among Primates (1989) a popularized account 15 years of research on this topic. Brian Ferguson of Rutgers University is one of the leading anthropologists of war. He is the editor, with Neil Whitehead, of War in the Tribal Zone: Expanding States and Indigenous Warfare (1992) and author of Yanomami Warfare: A Political History (1995). William Ury is co-author of the best-selling Getting to YES and author of Getting Past No. His latest book is Getting to Peace: Transforming Conflict at Home, at Work, and in the World (1999). Ury is director of the Project on Preventing War and a member of the Steering Committee at PON.
Copyright 1999 President and Fellows of Harvard College |