The PANGAEA Initiative - be inspired!

By Tina Monberg (tm@mediationcenter.dk)

“I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.” (Mother Teresa)

At the beginning of time, the world’s land mass was fused into a Pangaea. The Continents drifted apart, long before humanity, and we populated a geography of separateness. This natural phenomenon has become a metaphor for our divided world, one characterised by tension and conflict, intolerance to diversity, trade wars, destructive forms of competition, blame cultures, unpredictable man-made risk and widespread litigation. People seem to have lost the instinct to resolve conflict without physical or psychological violence and have become accustomed to positional argument, force, striving to prevail and the quest for domination.

In a Manifesto from 9th July 1955 issued in London, Albert Einstein and other leading scientists urged humanity to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters based on new ways of thinking. Fifty years have passed. Have we on a global scale done anything to wage peace and create that new mindset? Or have we dismissed the challenge as too ambitious? We wage war, litigate and threaten as “normality”; negotiated resolution, collaboration and communication have been labelled as “alternative” ways of resolving differences.

Our present win-lose approach

Even though the cold war is over, the world’s 243 nations perpetuate power struggles and rights-based competition rather than seek solutions that serve all nations’ interests and needs. As a result people, organisations and companies are exposed to no other visible approach or infrastructure and fail to envisage a better approach to the avoidance and resolution of conflict.

The UN Security Council has apparently never seen fit to use a mediator to help governments forge Resolutions, resulting in time-consuming arguments over drafting subtleties while people’s lives are put at risk. The structure of UN has simply not embraced the use of mediation. The World Trade Organisation has likewise never used a mediator to help resolve destructive trade wars.

Political leaders do not generally influence mindsets to resolve conflict through interest-based negotiation. They “negotiate” through the exertion of power. There is a vital need to re-establish a global Pangaea mindset, an environment where conflicts are naturally and instinctively resolved through dialogue and mediation rather than by argument and force. One where litigation and force become the alternative. The application of those old methods, such as power, positional threats and rights-based litigation is an old paradigm that now needs changing. The old methods only result in a win-lose outcome; they have their place in the spectrum of dispute resolution, and Courts are needed when all else fails, but these old methods prevent the exploration of win-win solutions that are more sustainable and that can restore productive relations for present and future generations.

Inspiring Change

The goal is to achieve greater stability and sustainability in relationships by developing the mindset, across cultures, that the natural way to resolve conflicts, at all levels – conflicts among nations, businesses and individuals – is through dialogue and interest-based negotiation aided by neutral mediators. Each level will be inspired to change their attitudinal paradigm by the others.

Mediation works by enabling parties in a conflict to re-base their negotiation from one based on positions to a discussion focused on mutual interests. It is the presence and skill of the mediator, which enables this vital paradigm change to happen. At all times the parties remain in control – the mediator is not an arbitrator. This process was used by President Carter in Camp David to solve the conflict between Israel and Egypt about the Sinai Peninsula and by Matti Ahtisaari to help resolve the conflict between the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian Government in 2005.

Mediation has been implemented in some countries, especially in family and business conflicts, where success rates typically exceed 80%. But its use remains at a low level in most countries.

The Concept built on… inspiration

Visibility, openness, inspiring trust.
Thinking global, acting local, inspiring worldwide acceptance and execution.
A concept built on sustainability in relations, inspiring solutions meeting interests and needs.
A concept built on oneness, inspiring a physical building containing all the vital facilities for inspired peaceful settlement that can be replicated worldwide.
A concept built on easy access to peaceful conflict resolution, inspiring infrastructures using Internet and other technology combined with visible structures.
A concept built on evolution of peaceful settlement, inspiring idea incubation laboratories in each Pangaea building and in technology media.
A concept built on inclusion of all people cultures and traditions, inspiring multiple mediators and cross-cultural, trans-national resolutions.
A concept built on the existing and new skills, inspiring the use of mediators trained to help in conflicts among nations, businesses and individuals.

Implementation Pyramid

A Universal Paradigm Shift, engaging societal representatives, professionals and academic thought leadership, Governments and NGOs, dispute resolvers, businesses, advisors and judiciaries.
Strong promotional effort for inspirational new ways to operate (e.g. using mediators to help negotiators make better, interest-based deals), new conflict resolution techniques, new technologies for connecting people and convincing evidence that the new Paradigm really works.
Inventive resources to aid acceptance, including new procedures and materials
Ensuring that mediators with the highest professional standards and capabilities lead the strategy and its implementation.

From Concept to Implementation

There is a considerable talent pool already in place around the world comprising diverse people who have made mediation work with astonishing success, though on a micro-level. They are not organised in a way which would leverage their collective strength, energy and wisdom for the benefit of the wider community. They are consequently not well-recognised and appreciated.

A critical part of this initiative will be the task of selecting the right talent from around the world and to co-ordinate their efforts in a coherent and impactful strategy.

That detailed strategy needs to be articulated using the best contributions from a small group of visionaries. Once agreed, an operating plan needs to be prepared indicating how the objectives will be achieved, based on what sequence of events, indicating what milestones will determine real progress, and how the costs will be deployed over time.

It is envisaged that this would be a non-profit initiative, its payback being the achievement of its goals on a sustainable, long-term basis. Any income – for example from consulting services and supplemental grants from governments and others – would be re-invested in goal achievement.

Not-for-profit initiatives do, however, need to be run on business principles with clear and regular goals, assessments, values and cost controls. To develop this strategy, and its operating plan, requires seed investment, estimated at €300,000.

Conclusion

This Initiative would provoke positive fundamental changes. It is a big initiative, but not too ambitious. It would not only profoundly change the attitudes of people to their daily interface with others, but would also inspire gradual mindset shifts which would vastly improve the ways in which the world works and the inter-relationships between people. It will become a human ecosystem. It requires a global visionary to take the three vital steps to wage peace successfully:

Create a concept for peaceful settlement that can be implemented all over the world.
Design a building containing all the facilities for peaceful settlement that can be constructed locally all over the world.
An outstanding web-based infrastructure for peaceful settlement that can reach the world.