The Rumi Forum presented “Citizen Diplomacy and the Future of Peaceful Religion: A Tale of Middle Eastern Peacemaking” with Dr. Marc Gopin, Director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University.
Dr. Marc Gopin spoke about the importance of citizen diplomacy in promoting peaceful relations. This unexplored term looks at how people can maximize their effectiveness by working with others. Dr. Gopin expressed that change happens because of individuals and that flexibility is key to this change. He was able to learn this through his work in Syria where he has given talks and held public forums on ways to prevent war and outbreaks of violence and promote peace in Syria.
Although Dr. Gopin noted the importance of NGOs, he stressed the need for citizen diplomacy. Since members of congress do not have the time to study every country in the Middle East, citizen diplomacy can be used to help alleviate this problem by allowing individuals to share the facts they have found through experiences and eye witness accounts regarding these places in the Middle East. Dr. Gopin ended his talk by urging citizens not to wait for organizations to allow you to make a change. We must create friendships with people from different sides in order to promote change and then see where it takes us because change is something that begins with friendships.
Dr. Marc Gopin is the James H. Laue Professor of Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, and the Director of the Center on Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Gopin has lectured on conflict resolution in Switzerland, Ireland, India, Italy, and Israel, as well as at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and numerous other academic institutions. Gopin has trained thousands of people worldwide in peacemaking strategies for complex conflicts in which religion and culture play a role. He conducts research on values dilemmas as they apply to international problems of globalization, clash of cultures, development, social justice and conflict. Gopin has engaged in back channel diplomacy with religious, political and military figures on both sides of conflicts, especially in the Arab/Israeli conflict. He has appeared on numerous media outlets, including CNN, CNN International, Court TV, The Jim Lehrer News Hour, Israel Radio, National Public Radio, The Connection, Voice of America, and the national public radios of Sweden, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. He has been published in the International Herald Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and his work has been featured in news stories of the Times of London, the Times of India, Associated Press, and Newhouse News Service, regarding issues of conflict resolution, religion and violence.
Moderator:
Dr. Nelle Temple Brown was the External Relations Officer of the World Health Organization in Washington, D.C. from 1994 until her retirement in November 2008. She was directing Washington liaison activities on behalf of the Geneva-based headquarters of WHO — the UN’s technical specialized agency for health matters — and five of the six WHO regional offices.
From 1985 to 1994 she worked in the U.S. House of Representatives, first for Rep John E. Porter and then as Minority Staff Director of the Subcommittee on International Development, Finance, Trade and Monetary Policy of the House Banking Committee. Her Congressional staff work focused primarily on international development assistance, debt relief, and food aid policies.
Dr. Brown has a Ph.D. from MIT in Political Science and a B.A. from Smith College in Economics. She taught at the University of Maine, served as Special Assistant to Mrs. Katharine Graham of The Washington Post for Chancellor Willy Brandt’s International Commission on International Development Issues in 1978-80, was Assistant Representative of The Asia Foundation in Thailand in 1983-85, and has served as a consultant to a number of U.S. Government and U.N. agencies, businesses, and non-governmental organizations.