In my childhood, December was a time that typically included eight nights of visits from the “Hanukkah Fairy.” After lighting candles on our menorah and singing a few prayers in the living room, someone would say “Oh! What’s that I hear upstairs?! It must be the Hanukkah Fairy!” And then my sister and I would scramble up the stairs to see what thoughtful gift might be awaiting us that night.
This year — with millions of refugees fleeing genocidal wars, and inter-religious and interracial tensions and violence erupting in our own country, and when nearly every conversation about these topics can easily turn vitriolic — it seems like there is something so lacking in our human family that material gifts can ring hollow when that thing is so lacking — that thing is peace, and it can be cultivated, and it can be built.
It is often tempting to think of some conflict as intractable — that some people are eternal enemies, and cannot be reasoned with or appeased — but groundwork of trust and empathy can be laid, to get ahead of these vicious cycles of antipathy and violence. In fact there are professional international peacebuilders who are adept at this work, and have been doing it on a relative shoestring budget. It’s time for us to ramp up this capacity.
There is a bill about to be introduced in Congress that would solidify recent gains in this field, and strengthen our national ability to avoid the next refugee crisis, the next terrorist threat, and the next ethnic or religious conflagration. This bill is the Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, which will be introduced by Senator Ben Cardin, D-Md., ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
This bill would do four basic things:
1. Authorize* The Atrocities Prevention Board. The primary purpose of the interagency APB is “to coordinate a whole-of-government approach to preventing mass atrocities and genocide,” as it is credited with doing in Burundi over the past two years. The cooperative and comprehensive prevention efforts of the APB helped forestall another round of interethnic violence in Burundi, a country already wracked by genocidal conflict.
2. Authorize* The Complex Crises Fund (along with an increase in funding from $50 million – $100 million). In 2013, CCF allocated resources for the swift and effective stopping of mass violence in the Central African Republic through effective multi-stakeholder peacebuilding practices. CCF has also been effective in dozens of other countries, including Yemen, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, Cote D’Ivoire and Tunisia.
3. Require conflict prevention and peacebuilding training for all State Department Foreign Service officers.
4. Affirm Atrocities Prevention as a U.S. policy priority.* (These two powerful new entities were created by executive order, so congressional “authorization” would give them more permanence and stability).
The world can be a complicated and daunting place, but when we have demonstrated skills and success in international peacebuilding, for humanity’s sake let’s build on these successes — let’s enhance those skills — let’s pass this bill and keep doing what it takes in international relations to reduce violence, transform conflict, and enhance cooperation. It should be among our highest priorities to supplant bombs and guns with conversation, understanding, and connection.
I commend Senator Cardin for this forward-thinking bill, and as a Maryland voter I call on Senator Mikulski to give it her full support — and also ask Congressman Van Hollen to give his support to the House version when it is introduced. The power to build peace is a power to be proud of.
I’m not expecting to “hear the Hanukkah Fairy” upstairs this December, but I do dare to believe that our country and our world can take steps together toward a more peaceful future. This year, let’s give each other the most kind and thoughtful gift of all — let’s give each other and ourselves the gift of peace.
Dan Kahn is national field director of The Peace Alliance www.peacealliance.org. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
