September 11, Crisis Resolution

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"Peace Requires More than Moral Outrage, But that's Not a Bad Beginning"

Dennis Sandole
Prof. of Conflict Resolution and International Relations

Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post Magazine:

In Peter Perl's article, "Crash Course" (Washington Post Magazine, June 22), it is clear that the waging of a preemptive "war of choice" by the world's surviving superpower on the "cradle of civilization" has unleashed a torrent of bipolar emotion on the campus of American University, with some passionately against the U.S.-Iraq war versus those passionately defending America's crusade to eliminate Saddam Hussein's brutal regime and WMD.

Regrettably, the article did not say too much about AU's Iinternational studies program ["the largest ... in the nation"], with peace and conflict resolution its fastest-growing concentration."

It would have been useful to reveal how, for instance, in select peace and conflict resolution classes, AU's committed students can apply their passions to uncovering the multiple origins of deadly conflict plus designing measures for dealing with them short of the lethal adventure still playing itself out in Iraq nearly two months after President Bush announced the end of major combat operations.

Deeply felt emotions can be a salutary learning experience, but Perl's otherwise compelling
article stopped short of outlining AU's opportunities for using affect as a basis for dealing
with the problems that give rise to it.