Peace builders from the U.S. Department of Defense visited BYU-Hawaii

Sponsored by McKay Center, guest speakers Robert Ricigliano, Director of Institute of World Affairs at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Karen Grattan, Senior operations Research analyst, introduced the practical side of peacebuilding to BYU-Hawaii Students in McKay Foyer on March 28.

        Ricigliano and Grattan are currently working together as analyst contractor at the Department of Defense (DOD) for United States government. They are not only working partners, but also friend since high school.

Grattan shared how she came to involve with peace and reconciliation. She said, “I am a social scientist and I study how cocaine causes brain injury to pregnant women and babies. There are a lot of social reasons that put these women into the attempt of drug dealing. Family conflict is one of the reasons. Through understanding how the social system affects conflict, we might able to build peace in the interpersonal level and even an organizational level.”

Building peace is possible when people start in a personal level, said Grattan. She used her team in DOD as an example, said, “Peace is a team work. You need to hold accountability as a peace builder before going out to build peace between countries. My team does conflict analysis and it is important to be reflexive and reflective. These attitudes are the keys to create harmony in a personal level.”

Agreed with Grattan, Ricigliano said, “If you know the movie Invictus, I was in South Africa during 1970 to 1985 when the conflict was so serious between black and white people.” He said he was once given the opportunity to shake hand with Magnus Malan, Chief of the South African Defence Force and Army in the 1970s. Malan was charged for murdering and torture in 1995.

Ricigliano recalled, “Malan is the evilest person in my definition. But when I shook his hand, I realized he was a sunken person. He was told he was right the whole time. He was just functioning according to the system. And when the crimes were made known to public, everyone pointed their fingers to him.”

“Peace happens when we all work together,” Ricigliano shared his personal peacebuilding motto. “Peace is about how to work and what to do. Together is the key word. None of us is as smart as all of us. I believe in collective intelligence. We need lots of people in building peace…Violence cannot fix problem. It seems stop the problem for a short time, but the problem will come back.”

Chase Buie, a peacebuilding junior from Salt Lake City, said he desired to work in the field of conflict resolution like the guest speakers. “I am here to learn how to deal with conflicts in a macro and micro level,” said Buie.

Planning to be a lawyer, Rick Plehm, a communication senior from Utah, said he also interested to be a mediator in reconciliation. He said, “I want to explore the alternative option about what I might do. This lecture reminds me of Professor Chad Compton’s organizational communication class.”

Host of the lecture, Kelsey Gonzalez, is a communication senior from Washington as well as friend with Ricigliano. She said, “Rob and Karen are experienced in international negotiation. I want students to see how building peace is possible in a practical level.” She added, “The speakers are also interested to meet Professor Chad Ford and talk about our peacebuilding program in BYU-H.”

Clover Cheng