Higher education has a role to play in creating world peace, according to peace and conflict studies scholars.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Institute of Peace co-hosted a discussion with NAFSA: Association of International Educators titled “The Role of Higher Education in Resolving Conflict and Its Consequences,” in honor of International Education Week. Speakers from academia and the nonprofit sector explored how universities can contribute to peacebuilding efforts around the world.
Keynote speaker Melanie Greenberg, the managing director for peacebuilding and conflict transformation at Humanity United, described universities as “crucibles for peace and social action.”
“I continue to marvel at the role universities play in teaching peace, then serving as conduits and signal amplifiers for a new generation of peacebuilders,” she said.
Greenberg sees higher education’s place in the peacebuilding process as two-fold. First, academics offer up the theoretical frameworks that drive peace work, she said, developing theories to address and prevent conflict.
She also called universities cultivators of “moral imagination,” which refers to a conflicting groups’ ability to envision a “joint future,” a term coined by University of Notre Dame Professor Dr. John Paul Lederdach. Because universities are so diverse, they naturally strengthen students’ peacebuilding skills, she said, giving them opportunities to engage with difference and find commonalities.
On campuses, “you see people and experience ideas so different from yourself,” she said. “You create cultural bridges.”
