Date: 13/11/2003
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: Asmal: Farewell to Executive Director of Centre for Conflict Resolution
ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR KADER ASMAL, MP, MINISTER OF EDUCATION, AT THE FAREWELL TO LAURIE NATHAN AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION, Cape Town, 13 November 2003
It is a great pleasure for me to say a few words in honour of Laurie Nathan as we celebrate his tenure as Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution.
This is an occasion for reflecting on the progress we have made in conflict resolution, not only through the great work done by Laurie Nathan and the centre, but also in our transformation as a nation-our remarkable change from being a place of conflict to being an agent of peace-building in the world.
This transformation has happened in our lifetime. It has happened during the period from 1992 to 2003 in which Laurie Nathan has served as Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution.
Even on this ceremonial occasion, as we celebrate the contributions of Laurie Nathan, we must resist the temptation to make too much of this coincidence. Yet in so many areas - from arms control to peace education - Laurie has been instrumental in this transformation. His work has played a significant role in altering the international balance of trade in peacemaking, so that we are no longer importers but exporters of expertise in mediating and resolving conflict.
During these years, 1992-2003, we have witnessed changes that some commentators cannot help calling miraculous. In 1992 South Africa was still at war with itself, and still a destabilising force in the region, while National Party stalwart Pik Botha was Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 2003 South Africa was at peace with itself and playing a significant role in international peace building, while Pik Botha, now a member of the African National Congress (ANC), was in Baghdad on a peace mission with Laurie Nathan.
In 1992, as we recall, South Africa was on the eve of negotiations but also on the edge of violent civil war. For many of our people, that year was the most violent season. It was the year of the Boipatong massacre, on 17 June 1992, which very nearly derailed any negotiated resolution. Although FW de Klerk had declared in February 1990 that "the season of violence is over," the death-throes of the apartheid state unleashed unprecedented violence against our people. As the mainstream media reported the ravages of so-called "black-on-black violence," one publication explained the conflict in typically sensationalistic terms as "caused by some combustible combination of poverty, frustration, pride and testosterone, ignited by opportunity". Clearly, we needed a more credible and strategic analysis of conflict.
While providing that analysis, Laurie Nathan has continued a tradition of strategic thinking in conflict situations-local, national, and global-that is central to the history of the ANC.
As an illustration of this tradition of strategic thinking, I would like to recall a quotation:
"Mankind as a whole is today standing on the threshold of great events-events that at times seem to threaten its very existence."
Those words were spoken by Nelson Mandela in 1951 in an address to a meeting of the ANC in which he took up the major themes of war and peace, conflict and its resolution, which have occupied Laurie Nathan.
In his global threat analysis in 1951, Nelson Mandela identified military forces, headed by "the ruling circles in America," that were "prepared to go to war in defence of colonialism, imperialism, and their profits," but he also identified the psychological dynamics in which global forces were "determined to perpetuate a permanent atmosphere of crisis and fear in the world". Assuming that frightened people cannot think clearly, those forces were attempting, as Nelson Mandela observed, "to create conditions under which common men (and women) might be inveigled into supporting the building of more and more atomic bombs, bacteriological weapons, and other instruments of mass destruction."
Although ordinary people had become targets of this military and psychological violence, they also had the resources, as Nelson Mandela recognised, to build peace by "rising from being the object of history to becoming the subject of history-by becoming "conscious creators of their own history".
Five decades later, I believe we find these same themes taken up and put into practice in the work of Laurie Nathan.
First, the strategic analysis of conflict must be multidimensional. Although armed formations might part of the mix, the dimensions of conflict include psychological, social, and economic dynamics. All of these factors feature in what Laurie Nathan has called the "structural causes" of conflict, crisis and violence. Certainly, Laurie Nathan's sustained work on security, defence policy, and arms control has been at the forefront of our efforts to develop a multidimensional analysis of military force, a strategic analysis driven by a commitment to human rights, not only as a matter of theory, but also as a means of practical intervention. At the level of strategy, all of this has contributed to demilitarising our country and humanising our country's military.
Second, although we know that people can be disempowered by conflict, they can also find in situations of conflict the resources for becoming conscious agents in creating their own destiny. Ordinary people, as Nelson Mandela insisted, can be peace-builders. But the work of Laurie Nathan and the Centre for Conflict Resolution has shown that we can always use some help in the work of mediating, resolving, and perhaps transforming conflict.
In this respect, I want to single out for special mention the Centre's Schools Project in peace education. By designing and implementing programmes in peace education and conflict resolution for children, youth, teachers and parents, this project has made important contributions-contributions to both peace and education-by providing learners with resources for conflict mediation and providing our schools with a model for educational transformation.
Although we say farewell to Laurie tonight, we trust that the valuable work of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, which has flourished under his leadership, will continue to advance our strategic analysis and expand our human capacity for dealing with conflict.
Laurie, we understand that you will be spending some time in London, seeing if you can learn anything about civil wars, peacemaking and regional security from the London School of Economics. We suspect that they will learn something from you. We wish you well and look forward to your return.
Thank you.
Source: Department of Education (http://education.pwv.gov.za)
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: Asmal: Farewell to Executive Director of Centre for Conflict Resolution
ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR KADER ASMAL, MP, MINISTER OF EDUCATION, AT THE FAREWELL TO LAURIE NATHAN AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION, Cape Town, 13 November 2003
It is a great pleasure for me to say a few words in honour of Laurie Nathan as we celebrate his tenure as Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution.
This is an occasion for reflecting on the progress we have made in conflict resolution, not only through the great work done by Laurie Nathan and the centre, but also in our transformation as a nation-our remarkable change from being a place of conflict to being an agent of peace-building in the world.
This transformation has happened in our lifetime. It has happened during the period from 1992 to 2003 in which Laurie Nathan has served as Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution.
Even on this ceremonial occasion, as we celebrate the contributions of Laurie Nathan, we must resist the temptation to make too much of this coincidence. Yet in so many areas - from arms control to peace education - Laurie has been instrumental in this transformation. His work has played a significant role in altering the international balance of trade in peacemaking, so that we are no longer importers but exporters of expertise in mediating and resolving conflict.
During these years, 1992-2003, we have witnessed changes that some commentators cannot help calling miraculous. In 1992 South Africa was still at war with itself, and still a destabilising force in the region, while National Party stalwart Pik Botha was Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 2003 South Africa was at peace with itself and playing a significant role in international peace building, while Pik Botha, now a member of the African National Congress (ANC), was in Baghdad on a peace mission with Laurie Nathan.
In 1992, as we recall, South Africa was on the eve of negotiations but also on the edge of violent civil war. For many of our people, that year was the most violent season. It was the year of the Boipatong massacre, on 17 June 1992, which very nearly derailed any negotiated resolution. Although FW de Klerk had declared in February 1990 that "the season of violence is over," the death-throes of the apartheid state unleashed unprecedented violence against our people. As the mainstream media reported the ravages of so-called "black-on-black violence," one publication explained the conflict in typically sensationalistic terms as "caused by some combustible combination of poverty, frustration, pride and testosterone, ignited by opportunity". Clearly, we needed a more credible and strategic analysis of conflict.
While providing that analysis, Laurie Nathan has continued a tradition of strategic thinking in conflict situations-local, national, and global-that is central to the history of the ANC.
As an illustration of this tradition of strategic thinking, I would like to recall a quotation:
"Mankind as a whole is today standing on the threshold of great events-events that at times seem to threaten its very existence."
Those words were spoken by Nelson Mandela in 1951 in an address to a meeting of the ANC in which he took up the major themes of war and peace, conflict and its resolution, which have occupied Laurie Nathan.
In his global threat analysis in 1951, Nelson Mandela identified military forces, headed by "the ruling circles in America," that were "prepared to go to war in defence of colonialism, imperialism, and their profits," but he also identified the psychological dynamics in which global forces were "determined to perpetuate a permanent atmosphere of crisis and fear in the world". Assuming that frightened people cannot think clearly, those forces were attempting, as Nelson Mandela observed, "to create conditions under which common men (and women) might be inveigled into supporting the building of more and more atomic bombs, bacteriological weapons, and other instruments of mass destruction."
Although ordinary people had become targets of this military and psychological violence, they also had the resources, as Nelson Mandela recognised, to build peace by "rising from being the object of history to becoming the subject of history-by becoming "conscious creators of their own history".
Five decades later, I believe we find these same themes taken up and put into practice in the work of Laurie Nathan.
First, the strategic analysis of conflict must be multidimensional. Although armed formations might part of the mix, the dimensions of conflict include psychological, social, and economic dynamics. All of these factors feature in what Laurie Nathan has called the "structural causes" of conflict, crisis and violence. Certainly, Laurie Nathan's sustained work on security, defence policy, and arms control has been at the forefront of our efforts to develop a multidimensional analysis of military force, a strategic analysis driven by a commitment to human rights, not only as a matter of theory, but also as a means of practical intervention. At the level of strategy, all of this has contributed to demilitarising our country and humanising our country's military.
Second, although we know that people can be disempowered by conflict, they can also find in situations of conflict the resources for becoming conscious agents in creating their own destiny. Ordinary people, as Nelson Mandela insisted, can be peace-builders. But the work of Laurie Nathan and the Centre for Conflict Resolution has shown that we can always use some help in the work of mediating, resolving, and perhaps transforming conflict.
In this respect, I want to single out for special mention the Centre's Schools Project in peace education. By designing and implementing programmes in peace education and conflict resolution for children, youth, teachers and parents, this project has made important contributions-contributions to both peace and education-by providing learners with resources for conflict mediation and providing our schools with a model for educational transformation.
Although we say farewell to Laurie tonight, we trust that the valuable work of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, which has flourished under his leadership, will continue to advance our strategic analysis and expand our human capacity for dealing with conflict.
Laurie, we understand that you will be spending some time in London, seeing if you can learn anything about civil wars, peacemaking and regional security from the London School of Economics. We suspect that they will learn something from you. We wish you well and look forward to your return.
Thank you.
Source: Department of Education (http://education.pwv.gov.za)
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