Smart Peace Blog

There is a question I often get when I’m out talking about war prevention in Macedonia. It goes something like this: “Sure, war was prevented this one time, but how can we prevent war consistently, when we never know when the next one is going to break out?”

I’ll concede, it’s true that some elements of war are unpredictable. There are crises, like natural disasters, conflicts in neighboring lands, or sudden transfers of population, which can come out of nowhere (or at least seem to) and push a country over the brink to war.

However, as we show in Macedonia: What Does it Take to Stop a War?, the most important question is not whether people or states will be confronted with unexpected shocks such as these. It is whether they are prepared to handle those shocks peacefully.

That’s why I spent so much time in Macedonia talking to people who were working to reform the country’s police force and courts to make them more responsive, and its education system and government to make them more inclusive and less corrupt. These are the very systems that can make or break the country’s ability to handle conflict peacefully.

Along the same lines, I want to bring your attention to a fantastic resource that has come out recenty, which seeks to assess which states are most lacking in what it takes to weather conflict non-violently. It’s the annual Failed States Index!

This project, conducted jointly by Foreign Policy Magazine (a favorite of mine) and the Fund for Peace, measures the ability of a state to keep peace by looking at indicators like corruption, legitimacy of the government in the eyes of its citizenry, and institutionalized discrimination.

In other words, it’s a map that shows which states are the most likely to collapse into war and violence, should they be faced with an unexpected shock.

Of course, the question remains whether this study, which is part of a larger system we call “early warning” will also translate into “early action” on the part of what we call the International Community. Closing this gap has proved problematic, for a number of reasons that I go into in the book, and which I’m happy to talk about in future entries.

But for now, have a look at the Failed States Index yourself. I think you’ll come to agree. War is SO predictable!

(Stay Tuned.)

Hi there, it’s me again, Heather Roberson, co-author and protagonist of the graphic novel Macedonia: What does it Take to Stop a War?

I’d like to take a moment to address the several comments and e-mails I have received recently that resemble this one that landed in my email box a couple days ago:ethnic Macedonians??

is this a joke?

i come from greece

the northi part of greece
which is called macedonia
particularly i was born in serres town
my parents was born also there too
am i only greek or i am macedonian also?

I expect such comments. However, I did not expect the following incident:

A couple months ago, I was at the University of Chicago giving a lecture. There I visited a photography exhibit of Macedonian places of worship, taken by the historical preservationist, Pance Velkov.

I found the exhibit defaced. The introductory plaque, which originally read, “Pance Velkov, a Macedonian,” was scratched out and over it written, “Pance Velkov, a Slav.“ Where had been written “Republic of Macedonia,” was scratched out and, in its place, “F.Y.R.O.M.“ My friend sighed, “We have a lot of problems with Greek harassment here.”

A little background:

When Macedonia declared independence in the early 1990s, it named itself “Republic of Macedonia.” This was natural, considering that most of the people living there consider themselves to be Macedonians, had been living in the Republic of Macedonia as part of Yugoslavia, and had been engaged in a national struggle as Macedonians long before that.

However, the very idea of a “Republic of Macedonia” agitated Greece, which claimed that this represented an attempt to take over the historic region of Macedonia, much of which exists in modern-day Greece. (It remains unclear how Macedonia could pose a threat to Greece, with its robust military and its EU/NATO membership, but xenophobia is rarely based on logic, I find.)

There were also disputes over pan-Macedonian symbols that the new Republic of Macedonia seemed to be co-opting for its own exclusive use.

For instance, their first flag looked like this:

The Greeks argued that this flag, showing the Star of Vergina, which had been placed on the coffin of Philip the Macedon, was an affront to all things Hellenic and so held up EU recognition of Macedonia, saddled Macedonia with the unwieldy “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” moniker that is currently used at the UN, and even levied, in 1994, a devastating economic blockade on Macedonia.

It lifted the blockade the next year, after Macedonia changed its flag to look like this:

But the arguing over Macedonia’s name continues, with Greece now offering up alternate names like “Republic of Upper Macedonia.”

And just as importantly, Greece has continually denied the existence and rights of its own Macedonian minority. If you are interested in this, you can read the Human Rights Watch report on the subject, entitled, “Denying Ethnic Identity: The Macedonians of Greece.”

Now, while that’s probably too much or not enough background, we can all see that we (meaning, me) have stepped into a heated identity conflict. So let me address the question at hand: Do ethnic Macedonians exist?

I would argue that they do exist, just as much as any ethnicity exists. And how do I know? Have I tested their DNA? Time-traveled centuries back to canvass the region?

I obviously haven’t. And I don’t need to.

Ethnicity isn’t about shared DNA, or about how people were referred to 500 years ago. It is about a shared sense of identity and culture. The Macedonians certainly have that. The fact that they say they have that means they have that.

Furthermore, isn’t it a little disrespectful to tell people that they are wrong about who they are?

In my humble opinion, the first step towards Peace lies in trusting people to decide who and what they are. The only time an outsider should get involved in defining someone else’s identity is when that identity brings harm to someone or something else. (For a brilliant article on such negotiations, click here.)

And now, to answer the last part of the writer’s question:

am i only greek or i am macedonian also?

Honestly? I would say that, if you are a person living in a region with a long history of armies and peoples tromping across it, you could be a lot of things. You could be a lot of things, all at once, and not even know it. You could think you are one thing and be another entirely.

But it’s not nice to tell people who they are and it’s especially not nice to tell people they are wrong about who they are. So, whatever you say is fine with me.

(Stay Tuned.)

Hi everyone, it’s me again, Heather Roberson, co-author and main character of Macedonia: What does it Take to Stop a War?

Well, it has been awhile since I last checked in. Things have been pretty busy around here at HR HQ. I have been touring pretty much constantly in California, Chicago, Missouri, and New York (all places where I have family and friends who will let me sleep on their couches). The book has gotten a great and sometimes overwhelming response.

There is a second reason for my absence from the blogosphere. That is, I am one of those writers who likes to have everything exactly as I want it before I let anyone see it. I know that things can’t be perfect, but I do tend to overwork thoughts and writing for a long, long time.

Especially when I am writing about Macedonia. Why? Because it is a complicated place where passions run high in regards to politics. It is also a place where, incidentally, people may be sensitive to the idea of a relative stranger writing about them.

However, I arrived in Macedonia’s capital city of Skopje the day before yesterday and was told that there has been a lot of local interest in the blog.

Wow. People in Macedonia are reading my blog? Really? Well, hello there!

I do hear a lot from the Macedonian community in the US and from lots of other people as well, but very rarely from Macedonians within Macedonia. I expect that you have much to say to me. Please do e-mail and I am going to try to post more often in the coming days.

I will also try to explain more about what is in the book, for those of you who haven’t gotten around to seeing it and who may never get around to seeing it.

But not all at once. And certainly not perfectly.

And by the way, for those of you who have never been to Macedonia, this is a photo of the town’s central square, which is one of my favorite places to walk around:

I show you this, because I met someone last night who said that when his family visited him from abroad, they were surprised that he was advanced enough to have a refrigerator. He said, “People think we are so primitive!”

Primitive is not a word I would use to describe this country. Macedonia is a country positively filled to the brim with people who care about good ideas, good books, and good fun. And its capital city of Skopje is a mighty fine place to live, work, and visit. Ask anyone!

(Stay tuned.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi, it’s me again. Heather Roberson, co-author and lead character of the book, Macedonia. Thanks for tuning in.

As I mentioned in the first entry, the purpose of the Smart Peace blog is to show that Peace is not some dreamy ideal, but that it is actually a smart strategy for resolving conflicts and for satisfying the human needs for security, stability, prosperity, and freedom.

However, I’ve noticed a central obstacle to this goal: That is, when conflicts are resolved peacefully — as they were in Macedonia — few people seem to notice. On the other hand, when conflicts escalate into war, people notice little else.

All of this has got me thinking: Are people hard-wired to care about War and not about Peace? Are we doomed to be seduced by stories of death and destruction, rather than diplomacy and cooperation? Or, is it more about the way that War and Peace are portrayed? Is it possible that Peace is suffering from an image problem?

And so, I decided to do a little experiment. I went to Google and conducted a couple of image searches. The first was for “War.”

I pulled up lots of pictures like this one from the American Civil War:

And this one from World War I:

The images of War fascinated me. I pored over them, clicking on them to find out more. I thought, “What’s that guy doing? Where’s that group going?”

Next, I conducted an image search for “Peace.”

I found a lot of images like this:

And a lot like this:

The images of Peace did not fascinate me. I did not pore over them. I did not click on them to learn more. That’s pretty sad, considering that I am already interested in Peace. So, why did the images of War draw me in, while the images of Peace left me cold?

Here’s one theory:

The images of War tend to be images of people engaged in exciting activities. The images of Peace, on the other hand, tend to be images of images. And the images themselves look like something that would only come to you in a dream.

It all adds up to make War look like reality and Peace look like fantasy.

But the fact is, Peace is not made up of images and symbols. It is made up of people. It is made up of very impressive people, in fact, who can take apart the most intractable conflicts and somehow come up with ways to resolve them in a forthright, honorable manner. I look at people like that and think, “Wow, you’re so cool!”

So, if the goal is to show that Peace is not just something people dream, but is in fact something people do, then perhaps the next logical step is to show some of the people who are doing it.

Next week, the first installment of, “Meet the Peacemakers.”

(Stay Tuned.)

Hi, I’m Heather Roberson, the co-author and the main character of Macedonia, the book. Welcome to my blog.

I wrote about Macedonia, because I had heard about this country in the Balkans that kept almost going to war, but which, each time, managed to come back from the brink. I thought, Wow, that seems worth looking into. What do those people know that the rest of us don’t?

Well, I did some digging and found this remarkable story about people who had every reason and every temptation to go to war – aggressive neighbors, unstable region, plenty of guns – and yet chose to work out their problems peacefully and constructively.

I also found a story in which the International Community responded to a conflict in a truly atypical way. It acted quickly and cooperatively – launching the UN’s first-ever preventive peacekeeping mission, no less. The best part was that the whole effort was so successful. War was cut off at the pass! Nipped it in the bud!

Weird thing was, no one seemed to care. Here’s me in the bookstore looking for a book on why Macedonia didn’t go to war:

I don’t know why I was surprised. War is just so easy to report on. It’s eventful. When a war is happening, all eyes are on it. Everything else disappears.

On the other hand, Peace is just… life. Which means that Macedonia’s big fat reward for being so successful was…to be ignored! Congratulations, no one cares!

Clearly, in the marketplace of ideas, War is giving Peace a real beating.

Therein lies the reason for this blog.

As I found in Macedonia, and as I intend to show here, Peace is more than a dreamy ideal. In fact, Peace is a better, more cost-effective, all-around smarter way to get to what everyone wants: security, stability, prosperity, freedom.

That’s why I’m calling this blog Smart Peace.

(Stay Tuned.)