Against Stabilization | Roger Mac Ginty

Against Stabilization | Roger Mac Ginty

Roger Mac Ginty is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) and the Department of Politics. His main research interests are in international peace-support interventions and local reactions to these interventions.

"This is a polemic against the concept and practice of stabilization as practiced by leading states from the global north in peace support interventions. It is not an argument against stability. Instead, it depicts stabilization as an essentially conservative doctrine that runs counter to its stated aims of enhancing local participation and legitimacy. It is an agenda of control that privileges notions of assimilation with international (western) standards and mainstreams the military into peace-support operations. As a result, the value of peace is undercut."

How popular is the term?

A google search for ‘stabilization in Afghanistan’ brought up 2,460,000 results in .28 seconds.  It is a concrete example of how the term has come to define modern wars and intervention.

*****

His key points distilled.

Stabilization – as a concept and practice – lowers the horizons of peace and peace interventions. It moves us away from the realm of emancipation towards the realm of control.

Mainstreaming of stabilization has resulted in a hollowing out of peace in international approaches to intervention.

The concept of stabilization further normalizes the role of the military and aligned security agencies into peacebuilding. As seen by both the US and UK, stabilization is about harnessing civilian and military know-how, and institutionalizing the working relationships between the two sectors.

Read the article here.

No One Hears the Poor | Kathy Kelly in Kabul

Mostly men from an extended family that fled to a Kabul displacement camp after a bombardment. They are originally from Helmand.

No One Hears the Poor

"One hospital in Kabul, the Emergency Surgical Center for Civilian War Victims, serves people free of charge. Emanuele Nannini, the chief logistician for the hospital, reminded us, the previous day, that the U.S. spends one million dollars, per year, for each soldier it deploys in Afghanistan. “Just let six of them go home,” he said, “and with that six million we could meet our total annual operating budget for the 33 existing clinics and hospitals we have in Afghanistan. With 60 less soldiers, the money saved could mean running 330 clinics.”

Just before leaving Chicago, while the NATO summit was convening, Amnesty International announced its intention to campaign for NATO to protect the rights of Afghan women and children. Amnesty International should talk with the Afghan Peace Volunteers and the Emergency hospital network about caring, practically and wisely, for women and children in Afghanistan.

Surrounded by fierce warlords, cunning war profiteers, and foreign armies with menacing arsenals and wild spending habits, it’s hard for the mothers who visited us today to imagine that the situation can ever change. And yet, before leaving us, they smiled broadly. “For us,” said Nuria, “the possibility of a bright future is over, but at least for our children there is a chance.”"

- Kathy Kelly writing from Kabul

Profiles of Nonviolent Resistance | Maya Evans

In December Maya Evans was part of a peace delegation to Afghanistan. Below is a profile she had published in Peace News. Peace News is a grassroots peace and justice movement building magazine in the UK.

Forgiving the Taliban

In the morning we were visited by one of the female members of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, Lena, a young, intelligent, outspoken Afghan woman who has just qualified as a teacher and has already taught in various schools inside Kabul.

Lena was very much anti-NATO intervention and felt that foreign involvement in Afghanistan was only bringing further violence and unrest. She also emphasised the importance of free state education for all, explaining that she could earn a very good wage working for private schools, but she preferred to work in government schools, educating the people of Afghanistan. She felt that providing she had food for lunch and dinner that was good enough for her.

We were then visited by Feda Mohammed, a former official in the ministry of education and now an education consultant. Over lunch, Feda, a slim, tall, middle-aged family man, dressed in a neat suit and tie, put across the opposing view to Lena. He was very much in favour of NATO and foreign intervention, his analysis was very black-and-white: Afghanistan could have either foreign occupation or the Taliban (a horrible prospect to most in Afghanistan, especially those who had experienced their previous reign). He viewed the killing of civilians by NATO as “collateral damage”, a necessary part of eradicating the Taliban, even if those deaths included his three sons.

There was a stony silence in the room.

AYPV Abduli, a 16-year-old Hazara boy from Bamiyan, whose father had been killed by the Taliban, was asked for his opinion. One of the most moving moments of my life then took place.

Abduli was silent for a while and then he quietly said: “If a Talib was in this room now, I know there is only one way forward to resolve the situation… forgiveness”.

The room fell silent.

I looked down and wept quietly. I wept for his pain and I wept for his strength and wisdom. I was astounded that such a young person, who had experienced one of the worst things a child could endure, had chosen the hardest path to walk. Without a doubt that moment will stay with me forever and whenever I weaken in my conviction to walk the path of nonviolence and forgiveness I will think of Abduli.

Click here for more stories about the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.

Maya also participated in a recent delegation to India with members of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers to India. Visit their inspiring travelogue here.

What would Gandhi say to Afghan youth today?

Ali, Faiz and Abdulai at the Gandhi Memorial in New Delhi, India


Too often the ’story’ about Afghan men is centered on violence. The $10 dollar Talib, warlord armies, government militias, armed private contractors, joining the foreign forces. It is an incomplete picture.

The steps being taken by young men - and women - to resist these forms of violence is one of the great stories of Afghanistan.

One group among many practicing nonviolent resistance to transform their society, is the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.

Click here to follow their visit to India and efforts to learn more about the practice and power of nonviolence. Here is the first entry, a teaser.

Indian, Afghan and Human Poverty

"Faiz, Abdulai, Ali and I are traveling in India to learn from Gandhian practitioners in Ekta Parishad. We wish to learn how to mobilize people from the villages to protest non-violently.

Immediately, we’re encountering our own poverty.

Thanks and love,
Hakim, Faiz, Abdulai, Ali and all"

Global Day of Listening | Occupy Your Heart

Global Day of Listening
21 December 2011

Talk with ordinary people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Yemen, and others. Check the schedule for times (4-5 hours).

Begins 7:30 PM Afghanistan time
10 AM Eastern | 7 AM Pacific (US)

LiveStream



Inspired by

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers,
Afghans For Peace, and the
Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project.

The last call was 21 September.

GLOBAL DAY of LISTENING | Friday 21 October

6:30 pm Afghanistan time (10 am Eastern, 7 am Pacific).
Will continue for 4 hours.

Click here for details

Click here for news.

The Goal

Every month people from around the world listen together to ordinary people living in war-torn countries. It is a way of letting them know that someone is listening; and a way for us to learn what the realities of war and hope look like.

The meetings began with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers and spread to include conflict and war zones around the world.

Join Us.

Details on last meeting here.

Write to GlobalDaysOfListening@gmail.com to request a time to talk.

Global Day of Listening | 21 September

Global Day of Listening
21 September 2011

Talk with ordinary people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Yemen, and other countries. 24 hour project

Begins 4:30 am Afghanistan time
September 20 at 8 pm Eastern | 5 pm Pacific (US)
From 12:00 am to 11:59 pm Greenwich Time

LiveStream


Some highlights for Tuesday 21 September

Noam Chomsky (10:30 am Eastern US 9/21)
Kabul-based Afghan Peace Volunteers (9:30 am Eastern US 9/21)

Global Nonviolent Direct Action Database

George Lakey and a group of Swarthmore College students have created the new Global Nonviolent Action Database.

This unique database has hundreds of cases cataloging nonviolent campaigns on a wide range of issues from human rights, economic justice, democracy, national and ethnic identity, environmental sustainability, to peace.

It is a free and well researched resource.

Prepare to be inspired….

Global Day of Listening | 18-19 June 2011

Global Day of Listening
June 18-19*, 2011
(* 8:00 pm June 18 - 8:00 pm June 19 Eastern USA time)


Make time this weekend to be a part of the next global listening project. The last one was held in March. The schedule is open and dynamic. Designed for you to join for hours or stay for minutes.

It’s an opportunity engage with ordinary people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Yemen, and other countries.

To hear their stories.

Don’t be intimidated. The vision is to bring people together in order to strengthen our strategies for nonviolent social change.

The home page has the schedule of activities and the call-in numbers to join this inspiring community.

Here is the schedule by themes, speakers, and times.

Here is how you can get connected.

You will hear testimonies from Iraqis working with the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, Afghans sharing their experiences of community building and nonviolent resistance, Palestinians testifying to strategies to end the occupation, and Egyptians working to build a brighter future. There will also be updates from peace activists from around the world seeking to end their government’s roles in the violence.

These stories, these testimonies, and these lives are why we work to end the wars.

Make time this weekend to be inspired.

Here are some links to the incredible groups that will be featured.

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (blog)
Afghans for Peace (Facebook)
Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project

Nonviolent Direct Action

On Saturday I had a chance to visit the new International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro (North Carolina). It is a dramatic space built around one of the nation’s most powerful statements against racial segregation and the bold actions of four young men from North Carolina A&T University. Locals call it the sit-in museum.

It is a sweeping exhibit. Documenting how the civil rights movement used mass nonviolent action to change the face of the South. Inspiring.

I was pleased to discover at the end of the tour – along a moving portrait wall and iconic images from Tiananmen Square and Berlin – that there was a looping video clip affirming modern nonviolent movements and direct action.

The clip features only one person and a crowd she was inspiring in Afghanistan.

The woman was Malalai Joya.

The Greensboro Chronology

In the fall of 1959, four young men (Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. and David Richmond) enrolled as freshmen at North Carolina A&T University. The four young men quickly became a close-knit group and met every evening in their dorm rooms for "bull sessions". It was during these nightly discussions that they considered challenging the institution of segregation.

The breaking point for the group came after Christmas vacation when Joseph McNeil was returning to N.C. A&T after spending the holidays at home in New York. McNeil was denied service at a Greyhound bus station in Greensboro. McNeil’s frustrating experience was shared by the group, and they were willing to make the necessary sacrifices - even if it meant their own lives - to provoke change in society.

On that final night in January 1960 in Scott Hall, the four friends challenged each other to stop talking and take action. They didn't realize the journey they would take the next day would ignite a movement, change a nation and inspire a world.

FEBRUARY 1960

MONDAY, FEB. 1, 1960

Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. and David Richmond (The Greensboro Four) entered the F.W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, N.C., around 4:30 p.m. and purchased merchandise at several counters. They sat down at the store's "whites only" lunch counter and ordered coffee, and were denied service, ignored and then asked to leave. They remained seated at the counter until the store closed early at 5 p.m. The four friends immediately returned to campus and recruited others for the cause.

Additional Resource: History of Nonviolence Direct Action (ACT UP)

Conscience Speaks - King's Legacy

Watch a provocative animation from Sharif Ezzat.


Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968

To learn more about the extraordinary legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visit the Tavis Smiley archive.

Here is the text of the message delivered on April 4th, 1967 at the Riverside Church in New York.

Silence is Betrayal

A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on.

Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, for those it calls "enemy," for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities over the pursuit of war.

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, clan, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate.

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves in the long and bitter, but beautiful struggle for a new world. If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

May our country, on the brink of war, take to heart the final refrain of "America, the Beautiful": "America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law."

NATO Airstrike Kills Seven Civilians

A statement issued by the Helmand provincial governor's office said seven people — two men, two women and three children — were killed when coalition forces fired on the suspects. Those killed were in another vehicle traveling near the targeted ones.

The use of force could not stand in greater contrast to the video call by the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers who planted 55 trees - for peace - at a school in Kabul. The ceremony was to usher in the Afghan New Year, and call attention to their hopes for a new way of living, a non-violent way of rebuilding the country

Additional Resource:

“We believe that it is morally unacceptable to allow military tactics to lead our response to human crises. The current foreign military assault on Libya is a step in the wrong direction, one that may lead the country to further instability, human suffering, and protracted violent conflict.“

The Frontier Gandhi: A Torch for Peace

Twenty-one years in the making, The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, A Torch for Peace launches into orbit the epic story of a remarkable Muslim peacemaker born into Pashtun warrior society of the strategic North-West Frontier Province of the Indian subcontinent — now Pakistan’s frontier region Kyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Pronounced “a miracle” by Mahatma Gandhi, Badshah Khan (1890-1988) raised a 100,000 strong nonviolent army of men, women, and young people — the Khudai Khidmatgars, or servants of God — drawn from the multi-ethnic traditions of Afghanistan and India. This movement united diverse tribes for an astounding 17 years to end British colonial rule. They were Muslims, as well as Hindus, Christians, Parsees, Sikhs, and Buddhists came together in the cause of peace, social justice, religious tolerance, and human dignity for all.

“In our fight for freedom, women stood shoulder to shoulder with the men in the Khudai Khidmatgar movement. We tended to the wounded. And we did whatever else we could to support the cause of nonviolence.”
–Lady Husn Afroza, A Khudai Khidmatgar (servant of God, soldier of peace), Pakistan

Filmed in Afghanistan, Khyber Pass, Pakistan, India, United States, and Canada, the film includes rare historical footage, surprisingly candid interviews with world leaders, testimony from 63 of Badshah Khan’s nonviolent warriors — most beyond the age of 100 years — and a score by acclaimed world music pioneer David Amram. Legendary Indian actor, Om Puri, brings alive the thoughts and writings of Badshah Khan.

Nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, Badshah Khan’s improbable life and legacy remain little known. He died in 1988 at the age of 98 having spent nearly 35 years in solitary confinement for his efforts to humanize humanity.


Additional Resources:

For a in-depth review of events in Afghanistan at the time of his death in 1988 look at this article from Eqbal Ahmad and Richard J. Barnet

Bloody Games (The New Yorker Magazine | April 1988)

To understand the legacy he left in Pakistan read Missing Badshan Khan