With my articles and interviews, I try to highlight the root causes underlying local, national, and international conflicts and prescribe nonviolent methods of preventing, managing, transforming and resolving violent conflict.
It is possible to prevent violence, but we have to be resourceful and resilient in our pursuit of prevention. Unmet basic human needs often lie at the root of conflict and, if left unattended, can lead to violent conflict. Another way to view this is through a justice lens. Unless we have social justice, economic justice, and environmental justice, we will never see peace.
Society’s response to violent conflict, however, usually falls short in addressing these basic human needs or addressing the injustices. Our response often perpetuates more violence and more injustice. We cannot end violence, structural or physical, with more violence.
That is what this space is for. To analyze global conflicts through a principled and nonviolent lens — with a courage to be incisive, cutting through the commonplace solutions that merely continue violent conflict rather than reduce it.
Michael