Inaugural Citizen Diplomacy Class: A Student's Reflections on the Syrian Experience

 When I began to question why I was going to Syria -- and what my path is as a scholar/practitioner -- I picked up Lederach’s The Moral Imagination and was reminded of the web of relationships that we must cast with our fellow human beings if we want to build bridges between real or perceived enemies. Twenty of us were headed to Damascus with our own ideas about the “other” and perhaps our own expectations about how things might unfold. We had read about Syria’s political regime and we knew that former President Bush connected it to his “axis of evil,” but very few of us knew any Syrians or had experienced “being” in Syria. As citizen diplomats we had a unique opportunity to interact with Syrian students, professionals, government officials, religious leaders, and regular citizens and construct a different reality from what we had heard or read in the United States.
 

Our experiential course was the result of citizen diplomacy in action, a product of a partnership between Dr. Marc Gopin and Syrian Hind Kabawat, that continues to transcend societal divisions and barriers because it is built on a common belief and joint effort to make positive change one step at a time. At the Syrian International Academy we challenged stereotypes, learned about each other and our nations, and co-created new pathways for constructive engagement. The class really took shape when we broke out of the larger confines of the classroom into small, intimate mixed-group discussions about how we – as Syrian and American university students – understand conflict resolution and what it means to be a citizen diplomat. We understood “citizen diplomacy” as part of an age-old universal art of forming relationships across cultural, religious and national boundaries. Under the guidance of Dr. Gopin, and his innovative book To Make the Earth Whole, we also discovered how useful the concept is as a formalized practice of peace building whereby individual actors go beyond mere contact with one another to form social networks that might lead to a tipping point of transformative change (see Social Network Theory).

Throughout the week our encounters provided us with Syrian perspectives on such issues as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the difficult challenges of Iraqi refugees, and how U.S. sanctions are hindering development in Syria. As international students, working in formal and informal track II settings, we were going beyond the unhelpful political polarization between the U.S. and Syria, all the while aware of how we might influence change at both the grassroots and Track I levels. Despite all of our positive interaction, there was an underlying unease and palpable tension that arose from an understanding that we were not totally free to speak our minds on every topic, however, in experiencing that tension we realized that it was even more acute for our Syrian brothers and sisters.
One of the most profound experiences for our group was our meeting with the Grand Mufti, Sheik Hassoun, Syria’s highest appointed Muslim leader. The Grand Mufti modeled what it means to be a leader who does not tolerate violence and instead lives by principles of compassion and love. His desire to protect the children of this world was evident, and in a moment of deep appreciation between the Mufti and Dr. Gopin, the group was moved to tears. As a spiritual yet non-religious American – raised by a Christian mother and a Jewish father – I was extremely grateful to have learned from a wise Muslim leader about our common values and the good we can do to create better relationships in both Syria and the United States, regardless of our backgrounds or belief systems.
Our temporary high from the exchange with the Grand Mufti was soon tempered by the news that some of the Mufti’s more controversial words, like his unwillingness to advocate violence towards Jews or Christians even if commanded by the Prophet Mohammad, were broadcast by the media and interpreted as anti-Islam by some radical Muslims who then spread their criticisms of the Mufti virally on European jihadist blogs. Ironically the Grand Mufti’s words were also picked up by Israeli Army Radio, and resulted in a positive article featured in Haaretz’s online publication.
 

Over the next week we wrestled with the lessons of do no harm (or the more realistic version that Gopin proposes of doing less harm than the good that is generated), and the potential pitfalls of engaging the media in peace building. Yet, once the media was involved, we had the choice to either engage or sit back. Some of us chose to respond in newspapers and on television under the artful guidance of Hind Kabawat and Dr. Gopin. It is difficult to measure the full impact of our meeting with the Grand Mufti at this point, but we have an opportunity to learn from it and consider how to move forward in this work together. Challenges are good, and in the end we all parted ways, humbled by the depth of relationships created in a mere 8 days, and the potential that lies ahead.