Spring 2001
PEACE/ENEMIES EXERCISE
Purpose: (1) to explore the role of the enemy in cultivating violent conflict
(2) to examine the relationship between conceptions of peace and the images of an enemy
PART 1:
(1) Choose a conflict.
(2) Form a team with other members who share your interest in this particular conflict.
(3) Research the conflict.
(4) Interview someone who has some direct personal connection with this conflict. Your goal is to
grasp as fully as possible this person’s conception of the “enemy” and the role that he/she has
played or is playing in provoking and perpetuating hostility.
(5) From your interview, construct a profile of the “enemy.” See Enemy Debriefing for a list of
questions that may help you analyze your interview.
PART 2:
(1) Identify a person from the opposing side and ask for an interview. Your goal is to grasp as
fully as possible this person’s vision of a peaceful resolution of the conflict, the type of
relationships needed to sustain the settlement, and the difficulties that stand in the way.
(2) From your interview, construct a profile of “peace.” See Peace Debriefing for a list of
questions that may help you analyze your interview.
PART 3:
(1) From the data, analyses and profiles that you have generated, develop a profile of your “enemy”
interviewee’s vision of peace and a profile of your “peace” interviewee’s conception of an enemy.
(2) Analysize these profiles with reference to the material presented in class
(3) Prepare a written report to share with your section using the following format:
I. Introduction (one page)
(a) Briefly describe the conflict you have chosen.
(b) Give a short account of your interviews.
II. Enemy Relationships (one page)
(a) Summarize your finding regarding enemy relationships.
(b) Present your “enemy” profile.
III. Visions of Peace (one page)
(a) Summarize your finding regarding visions of peace.
(b) Present your “peace” profile.
IV. Conclusions (one page)
(a) Present your analysis and state your conclusions drawing on material presented in
class.
The page allocations are suggestions. However, your written report must be no more than
four pages. You will have to decide what is the most important material and give it priority. Note
what you have left out of your report. As the course progresses, there may be other opportunities
to discuss these items.
2
ENEMY DEBRIEFING
(a) Report to your team your general impressions and any insights that you gained.
(b) How did you feel during the interview? Did you find yourself getting angry? Why? At what point did
you feel the greatest empathy with your interviewee? At what point did you feel the most estranged?
Why?
(c) Summarize the arguments that your interviewee used to justify and legitimate his/her point of view.
How did he or she use history? Was his/her view of history objective or biased? What moral
judgments did your interviewee make concerning the conflict? What proportion of these related to the
victimizing of his/her side? At what points did he/she become most passionate? From your assigned
perspective, were his/her emotions warranted?
(d) Assess how your interviewee assigns blame for the conflict. Who was primarily responsible for causing
it? Were there secondary or contributing factors involved? Were there extenuating circumstances?
How are these attributed? Make a list of those that arise from the complexities of the situation or
mistakes in judgment and those that concern the culture, the personal characteristics, the political
inclinations the moral character, or other innate dispositions of his/her adversary. Does this list suggest
anything?
(e) How did your interviewee address the moral and political claims of his/her opponents? How would you
assess the moral and political standing that he/she granted her opponents? Does this assessment change
when you take into account your assigned perspective?
(f) Make a list of what you thought were reasonable and unreasonable opinions held by your interviewee
from your assigned perspective. How do your lists differ? Why do they differ? Are there similarities
among the lists? What do the similarities and difference tell you?
(g) Make a list of the terms that your interviewee used to describe the conflict. Compile a list of metaphors
that were used to explain his/her point of view. Did your interviewee use any proverbs or parables to
clarify the issues being contested? Do you find anything about the lists surprising? Why? Which
terms, metaphors, and proverbs/parables depict forceful and confrontational stances? Do any have a
potentially violent meaning or message? How is the violence conveyed? Do any encourage adjustment
and accommodation? How is compromise portrayed?
(h) Identify the structural aspects of the enemy relationship in your conflict. Identify the psycho-cultural
aspects of enemy relationship in your conflict. How do they interrelate? Does one seem more relevant
than the other? Why?
3
PEACE DEBRIEFING
(a) Report to your team your general impressions and any insights that you gained.
(b) How did you feel during the interview? Did you find yourself getting angry? Why? At what point did
you feel the greatest empathy with your interviewee? At what point did you feel the most estranged?
Why?
(c) Summarize the arguments that your interviewee used to justify and legitimate his/her vision of peace.
How did he or she use history? Was his/her view of history objective or biased? (Where is the
“enemy” in this version of history?) Did he/she portray his/her side as innately peace-loving? At what
points did he/she become most passionate? From your assigned perspective, were his/her emotions
warranted?
(d) Assess how your interviewee assigns guilt for destroying the peace. How did their innate passivity lead
to their victimization by the other side? What about their peacefulness made them vulnerable? What
forced them to defend themselves? From what did they defend themselves? Did your interviewee
concede any unpeacefulness on his/her side? How did he/she account for this unpeacefulness? To
what did he/she attribute their unpeacefulness?
Who was primarily responsible for causing it? Were there secondary or contributing factors
involved? Were there extenuating circumstances? How are these attributed? Make a list of those that
arise from the complexities of the situation or mistakes in judgment and those that concern the culture,
the personal characteristics, the political inclinations the moral character, or other innate dispositions of
his/her adversary. Does this list suggest anything?
(e) Did your interviewee attribute any peacefulness to the other side?
(f) How did your interviewee address the moral and political claims of his/her opponents? How would you
assess the moral and political standing that he/she granted her opponents? Does this assessment change
when you take into account your assigned perspective?
(g) Make a list of what you thought were reasonable and unreasonable opinions held by your interviewee
from your assigned perspective. How do your lists differ? Why do they differ? Are there similarities
among the lists? What do the similarities and differences tell you?
(h) Make a list of the terms that your interviewee used to describe the conflict. Compile a list of metaphors
that were used to explain his/her point of view. Did your interviewee use any proverbs or parables to
clarify the issues being contested? Do you find anything about the lists surprising? Why? Which
terms, metaphors, and proverbs/parables depict forceful and confrontational stances? Do any have a
potentially violent meaning or message? How is the violence conveyed? Do any encourage adjustment
and accommodation? How is compromise portrayed?