Peacock

    Center for International Development and Conflict Management       •       College of Behavioral and Social Sciences       •       University of Maryland

Programs and Projects

Under its new incumbent, Dr. John Grayzel, the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace is initiating a series of new programs, each sustaining one or more related projects. The Chair defines a program as a collection of strategically grouped activities that center on a common theme or purpose.

In the Chair’s usage, a project is an activity characterized by a more sharply defined intellectual focus, a specified time frame, and an expected product, from publications to the on-the-ground improvement of a specific social condition. In line with resources, such efforts need to remain strategically focused, limited in number, and, as possible, mutually supportive.

Moral Education and Youth Socialization

The Right to Learn the Exercise of Moral Responsibilities The Chair has among its priority activities research and engagement focused on the critical role of education and socialization of youth. This includes the inculcation and exercise of positive moral character and the development in each individual of appropriate skills and capacities to exercise moral behavior in their daily life.

The Chair’s activities have a strong international focus because of the particular crisis that faces the conflict and poverty ridden nations of the world. In many of these societies traditional institutions for socialization and for the establishment of moral character have been shattered. Present circumstances inhibit the full development of acceptable alternatives. Social and scientific research has amply demonstrated how and why the years of early adolescence are particularly critical for forming adult character. Unfortunately, most formal education fails in its obligation to fully address this need. Too often responsible parties and institutions cede this vital task to other groups who are motivated by interests other than the those of the healthy development of youth or the proper functioning of society.

The Chair sees the problem as largely one of will and capacity on the part of otherwise responsible persons and institutions. The Chair will activity engage in efforts for both the study and real world implementation of ways to remedy these circumstances.

Unity of Conscience

Transforming conflict into accord The Baha’i Chair premises its activities on the idea that the achievement of unity of purpose and intention is central to the transformation of discordant and conflictive situations into mutually supportive circumstances.

Prevailing models of interpersonal and inter-group conflict resolution generally stress the existence of divergent and often competing interests. These models seek agreement and cooperation through negotiated processes that ”settle” conflicting concerns. In contrast, Baha’i models generally adhere to an alternative approach. They stress a process of consultation that promotes shared understandings and cooperative undertakings based on a convergence of commitment and the harmonization of interests without sacrificing individual or group integrity. Ultimately, accord is achieved through the development of a consonance of beliefs concerning the existence of fundamental moral and ethic standards of right and wrong and their expression and application through just and equitable policies and actions. The Chair describes the resulting state of affairs as a ”unity of conscience.”

Through its program on “unity of conscience” the Chair seeks to advance understandings of the role this concept can play within and between groups in a variety of forums, including: associations of citizens, businesses, and communities. Unity of conscience can also help reformulate group identities and reconstruct social and political entities [not clear how this sentence is different from the previous one?]. Through the study of past and ongoing experiments, and through its own engagement in mitigating conflict, the Chair promotes both deeper understandings of, and more proficient processes for, the reduction of discord and the promotion of peace.

Sovereignty

Redefining Sovereignty to Advance Global Peace In pursuit of its objectives to advance global peace, the Chair is beginning an activity focused on the critical role of our understanding of the concept of sovereignty. Sovereignty is a concept that plays a pivotal role in the framing of behaviors and responses on international, national, and local levels.

Those who are acknowledged as "sovereign" are given power and deference by others and frame their actions and expectations accordingly. But the sovereignty to exercise final responsibility and authority over various domains, such as geographic areas, processes, and people, is presently based on an increasingly outdated concept of a nation protected from the outside by its army and recognized as the sovereign within by its monopoly over compelling force. Today sovereign states have roles that are international as well as national. Groups within sovereign states and across the boundaries of nations are increasingly making claims for shared sovereignty over situations that affect their lives.

Complementary to its efforts to assist in the mitigation of conflicts and failures in the good governance across a spectrum of domains, the Chair is developing a program for increased open reflection and the consideration of the creation of "standards of sovereignty" as a means to tie recognition of sovereign status to minimally adequate capacity and willingness to exercise good governance. That recognition of sovereignty on all levels and for all purposes would be dependent upon the exercise of this weighty station with appropriate responsibility.

Spiritual Indicators for Development

Empirically Assessing the Association of Responsible Behaviors to Non-Materialistic Understandings and Beliefs on the Implications of Human Activity In pursuit of its commitment for the advancement of justice and efficacious international development, the Chair supports activities to better understand and bring to bear concepts and solutions for addressing the need for responsible international, national, and local behaviors in ways that go beyond simplistic theories based on selfishness and solely individual benefit. By spirituality is meant the belief that humankind exists not just for the moment but as part of a larger purpose, the understanding of which should have direct bearing on the conduct of nations, institutions, and individuals as they engage in reconstituting our societies in pursuit of a just world.

Today there is pervasive modern skepticism as to this assertion from many quarters, and often a direct hostility to them because of the way they have often been misappropriated and applied in the name of the intolerant and sometimes even nefarious religiosity and ideologies. However, in doing so they fail to recognize the role such beliefs play in the motivation of much of humanity and in the structuring of many societies. Such neglect and the failure or inability to engage those who so believe dooms, from the outset, hopes of developing positive mutual understanding and harmonious relationships and collaborations. As a result in the quest for solutions indispensable spiritual needs are often neglected and spiritual solutions left unexplored. The Chair, therefore, is pursuing activities designed to begin the investigation of the role of spiritual awareness in the promotion of Peace and Justice.

The first proposed phase of this activity is the development of a series of indicators of spiritual awareness and responsiveness in international development activities. However, for spiritual aspects to take their proper place at the table of academia and development understandings, there must be credible demonstrations of how they truly manifest themselves in positive ways for the achievement of desired ends, viable explanations of the process by which this is occurring, and confidence in a capacity to replicate results. Therefore, the Chair seeks to develop, in collaboration with others, a proposed set of spiritual indicators sufficient for ascertaining correlations and associations between their presence and application and actual behavioral and social outcomes. The Chair, subject to funding, seeks to engage in opportunities for rigorous, prolonged research on this issue within the context of applied field activities.