Viewing Conflict with Different Lenses
Lieutenant Colonel Schmidt (retired), or 'Van' as he prefers to be called these days, is new neither to conflict nor to diversity. His childhood and subsequent military duty exposed him to a series of environments that made him feel at home at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. As he put it, “I was so pleased with the Certificate Program, I didn't want the educational and interpersonal journey to end, [hence] the Master's program.”
Van grew up in a very ethnically diverse neighborhood of the San Francisco Bay Area of California that is famous for a rebellious and unorthodox culture—depending on who is making the determination of “orthodoxy.” While growing up, he lived on the fringe of the ‘Berkeley Movement’ but with a better appreciation for the ‘environmental’ aspects of it.
His high school years in Richmond, California were marked by a tumultuous period as school systems nationwide grappled with integration. Racial tensions were very high as four ethnic groups—African-American, Asian, white, and ‘other’—tried to coexist in that part of California. Gang violence in the late 1970s and early 1980s reached a feverish peak nationwide. Van’s neighborhood was no stranger to the same ills. Those days, Richmond was constantly listed as a Top-10 ‘Murder City’ in the United States, and still is today. His high school was one of the first to use metal detectors.
At 17, Van left high school early and enlisted in the United States Army Reserve to escape the growing street violence and sheer boredom. After six months of basic and skill training he returned home and enrolled in community college in a medical assistant program. Through working in local clinics and hospitals, he saw more than his fair share of gunshot wounds and overdoses. Van eventually found his way to University of California, Berkeley where he received a U.S. Army commission at the age of 20. That was very early considering that the average age for a new officer is normally 23.
The US Army tends to make officers ‘jacks of most trades.’ During their careers, officers are usually exposed to a variety of jobs where they learn different skills. Van’s assignments took him from the Corps of Engineers, Civil Affairs, the military space program, and ultimately to assisting in the setup of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). Additionally, his work as a Civil Affairs Officer exposed him to a variety of cultures in the Pacific region and Africa. Van developed training plans to train soldiers that were deploying to Bosnia, Haiti, Guam (supporting the Kurdish refugee operations), and Somalia. Later, he worked as a strategist (US Government Interagency Policy Analysis) for the Pentagon Army Staff’s War Plans Division, where he participated in the design and ‘raising the flag’ of AFRICOM. As one of the first soldiers of AFRICOM, he was assigned as the chief of an operation responsible for combatting terrorism in Africa.
A highlight of Van’s military career came as the Deputy for Humanitarian and Health Assistance for AFRICOM (in support of USAID and the State Department) when in 2009, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton made the pledge at ‘Heal Africa’ (Goma) to address Sex and Gender Based Violence in the Eastern DRC (Goma/Bukavu). AFRICOM was ‘asked’ to execute the pledge and Van had the opportunity to use some old engineering skills. He traveled to the region to conduct engineering planning to construct and renovate hospitals, schools, and faith-based centers in the DRC. This job afforded him trips to other African countries, especially to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Tanzania, and Djibouti.
As Van puts it, “I have never thought about a ‘role model’ in conflict resolution, but I have met what I would consider a few ‘heroes’ in my teachers and classmates I’ve worked with since attending S-CAR. The diversity and wealth of knowledge is amazing. I always feel privileged to gain even the slightest of insight into everyone’s experiences and ideas.” He is very thankful to Dr. Diana Putman (his former boss while she was assigned as the USAID Interagency representative to AFRICOM; now USAID Chief, US Embassy - Kinshasa, DRC) who has shaped how he looks at conflict. She did the most to open his eyes to the events of Goma/Bukavu and provided much to what he focuses on in his S-CAR studies. Moreover, meeting Dr. Denis Mukwege at the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu was also very inspiring to him.
The sunset of Van’s Army career returned him to the Pentagon, for the Chief of the Army Reserves where he created and led the Security Cooperation and Stability Operations Division. Again, he was able to focus and routinely brief Army leadership on African Security Sector Reform issues.
Having seen conflict from the military and government perspectives, upon retirement, Van decided to learn the intricacies of how to truly address the tribulations that create such despair in humanity. Van wanted to look at conflict through an additional lens. He entered S-CAR at George Mason University in the Graduate Certificate program (Stability Operations Track). He likes the program and thinks it serves as a very good introduction to S-CAR and a good preparation for the Master of Science (MS) program, which he started shortly thereafter. He enjoys the coursework because it takes him out of his comfort zone and exposes him to new ideas. It helps him transition from a military mindset to one that is more amenable to resolving conflict, peacekeeping and peace making. Since then he has become a ‘Dean's Research Fellow’ as part of Dean Bartoli’s Applied Practice and Theory (APT) team monitoring early warning indicators to formulate suggestions toward the prevention of genocide in Kenya. The best part of it all is the Conflict Resolution community, which provides him an opportunity to network with the best in the field.
After obtaining his degree from S-CAR, he hopes to be able to offer his Civil/Military perspective of conflict analysis and resolution once again as a US government employee, but this time ‘out of uniform.’