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  • Religion and Power Moving Forward into the Twenty-First Century: Responding to Religion and World Order

    By Marc Gopin

    Tom Banchoff’s essay raises important insights and deepens the discussion about the historical relations between organized religion now and in the future with secular forms of power, governance, and authority structures. Banchoff rightly warns that ignoring these trends is a grave mistake in assessing the future, in tracking what kind of balance and shift in balance of powers may be taking place. There is no question that political Islam has had an enormous impact on contemporary history, even though it is too early to say where this will lead.

    I want to focus my thoughts and response on two aspects of religion that are often not distinguished sufficiently in terms of our subjects of power and religion as well as secular and religious sources of authority in history and going forward.

    There are two essentially different elements of religion as a human phenomenon that often have little …

  • Making Nonviolent Statecraft into a Self-Evident Truth (originally published on Tikkun.org)

    Nonviolent statecraft is a difficult proposition because policy makers act in the national interest, which will not consider nonviolence as its priority. Nations often pursue war and embrace violent regimes as allies because the benefits economically and politically of the military/industrial complex are irresistible. As a result it is hard for peace-oriented policy makers and bureaucrats to persuade their own institutions to commit to nonviolent statecraft.

    Let’s take an example. An oil-producing regime upon which the U.S. economy depends eagerly courts the United States, promises to build free U.S. military bases, offers full cooperation militarily and in intelligence, and offers generous contracts to American companies in a wide range of congressional districts. Aligning with that regime’s interests appears advantageous, but doing so forces the United States to view the oil-producing regime’s adversaries as the adversaries of the United States.

    Military Experiments in Conflict ResolutionThat is the bad news. The

    …

  • Event Appearance at Johns Hopkins University

    This morning, I was privileged to talk at an great event of SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, as one of the speakers.
    Please check out the website and the video of this whole event.

    “IS THE WORLD FALLING APART?”
    September 16, 2014
    Conflict Prevention & Resolution Forum
    at Kennedy Auditorium, SAIS- Johns Hopkins University

     
    Screen shot 2014-09-16 at 4.00.49 PM

     …

  • Reflections on the Middle East June 2014

    Humans are using powers of reasoning and planning to make a far less violent planet than ever before in history http://tinyurl.com/lrdratd . Lets accelerate the pace.

     

    The defeat of violence is silence, for in silence there is observation, and observation yields reason, humility and compassion.

     

    Revenge and Compassion are the same. Both are crying mothers with raw hearts. But one gives birth to Hell, and the other to Heaven.

     

    When you oppose hatred with hatred you cannot win. Only hatred wins. Embrace those who hate and undermine their hatred from within. #Wisdom

     

    The only victory against hatred is love. Everything else is a defeat.

     

    Hatred is fire, and love is water. The hatred of the few burns the many who have no water, but those with water easily extinguish the fire.

     

    Policies without love cannot extinguish the fires of hatred. Policies with love are a mighty river. Human Rights …

  • The Strategic Value of Forgiveness

    A version of this essay appeared recently in the Jerusalem Report on November 21, 2011.

    The Arab Awakening is facing serious challenges, and some new strategic decisions are required that will end up being good for all the revolutionary movements afoot this year, in the Middle East, in Israel and beyond.

    The essential point is this: The Arab Street has demonstrated incredible heroism and nonviolent principles in the face of torture and death, and even Libya began as a very peaceful revolution, even if Libyans felt at some point that they had no choice but to fight. This is a paradigm shift of ethical and political values that will be remembered for generations. It may also signify a broad-based Middle Eastern democratic shift.

    The going is tough, however, because no revolution easily dislodges corrupt structures of power. The temptation is just too great for those immediately below the revolution’s chosen …

  • Get on the Right Side of History

    (A version of this essay was recently published in The Jerusalem Report.)

    Across the world in the last 40 years politically organized religious forces have played an increasingly important role in national politics. From India to Indonesia, from Lebanon to Israel, from the United States to Russia, organized religion has increased its impact on politics.

    We are also aware of the frightening rise of very violent religion, expressed through terror groups. For this reason, it is easy to misunderstand the relationship between religion on the one hand and between states and ethnic groups and their very secular interests, on the other hand.

    Precisely because so many millions of people care about religion, religion has become an essential tool of secular state and ethnic interests. Indeed, what may seem to be a religious issue often turns out to be very secular state interests. Missing this relationship, it becomes easy

    …

  • Between Exhaustion and Engagement: The Radical Choices of the Long American War in Afghanistan

    The recent news of a rogue group of American military personnel murdering Afghans for sport is a sign of America’s war fatigue. The more the war drags on without attainable goals the worse the “quality control” of American troops. American troops are exhausted and over-stretched, and we must ask, what is there to be done?

    The clear answer is deep engagement with the people of Afghanistan, engagement that wins the war through winning the people from the insurgents, and even winning over many of the insurgents. Here is how:

    Vastly Expand CERP Funds

    CERP stands for Commanders’ Emergency Response Program. These funds are being used by forward thinking commanders to reconstruct mosques and other basic construction needs. General Petreaus should significantly increase the quantity of these funds and the flexibility of their usage, particularly supporting commanders and chaplains in particular regions that have engaged the community, tribal and religious leaders …

  • Clinton Opens New Round of Mideast Peace Talks

    From Fox Five News today.  See the film clip.

    via Clinton Opens New Round of Mideast Peace Talks

    WASHINGTON – Marc Gopin from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University joined us with more.

    Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton formally opened the first direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in nearly two years on Thursday, imploring the parties to ignore the long history of failed negotiations and make needed compromises to forge an agreement.

    At a ceremony in the State Department’s ornate Benjamin Franklin room, Clinton said the Obama administration was committed to forging a settlement in a year’s time. But, she stressed that the heavy lifting must be done by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    “We will be an active and sustained partner,” she said. “But we cannot and we will not impose a solution. Only you …

  • Redefining the “Jewish” in the Jewish state

    common ground news services

    Both Marc and Aziz had articles published in the latest edition of Common Ground News Service. Read Aziz’s article here.

    States defined as religious or ethnic are almost always injurious to human rights, and injurious to the moral integrity of either religious or cultural traditions. Citizens who do not belong to the designated official religion or culture have customarily been mistreated in history. This is true of Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Hindu states.

    But the fact is that Israel has been defined as religious or ethnic, and this will not change any time soon. Therefore, a new social contract is required in order to negotiate the circumstances under which an extremely diverse population of Jews and non-Jews can coexist in both safety and equality.

    An earnest process of negotiation and compromise would include some of everyone’s interests and needs, but is particularly essential for enabling a rule of …

  • Marc Interviewed at the J Street Conference

    By Mallory Huggins

    Marc was interviewed at the first national J Street Conference, held in Washington, DC. Take a look, and be sure to read Rabbi Arthur Waskow’s comments about the conference here.

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