Congressman Moran Urges ICAR Graduates to Engage, Not Stand Idle

On May 19, 2007, delivering the commencement address for the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR), U.S. Representative James Moran (D-VA) implored graduates to engage in a range of domestic and foreign policy conflicts rather than sit idle on the sidelines. Presenting for a packed Harris Theatre on George Mason University’s Fairfax campus, Moran began by first heralding ICAR as “an academic program whose unique focus on peace through understanding and reconciliation may be the most important academic curriculum in the country,” then lauding the graduates as “far better than virtually anyone to make a profound difference in the direction of world affairs.”

Outlining some of the United States’ most pressing conflicts, Moran called for graduates to help forge positive solutions on the salient issues of the day, e.g. immigration, Guantanamo, and the nation’s growing economic disparity. The foreign policy solicitation was no less vigorous, listing Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, climate change, and Palestine/Israel as conflicts in grave need of the type of assistance ICAR graduates can offer. Conflicts like these were precisely the types of situations that cried out for people of ICAR insight and intellect.

Stressing the timeliness of involvement, “I hope some of you will be able to facilitate a different approach to such seemingly intractable conflicts before it’s too late,” said Moran.

Moran was firm about the consequences of non engagement, stating that “If you choose, instead, to stay on the sidelines…choosing to observe rather than to determine our planet’s fate, then those who are too easily succumbed to the purist appeal of fundamentalist doctrine, or the simplistic approach of military violence to resolve differences among nations, or the manipulation of the truth to achieve partisan political goals, they will in fact prevail.”

Closing with a reference to Elie Wiesel’s work, Moran reiterated his overarching challenge to the ICAR graduates. “The most tragic times in human history,” said Moran quoting Wiesel, “were brought about not as much by the propagandists or the killers or the dogmatists, but because they were times of transition and too many good people chose personal security or existential non-engagement and left it to others to determine the course of history.” A message with a profound lesson, no doubt, for the field of conflict analysis and resolution.