Mennonite Weekly Review

HARRISONBURG, Va. — What would representatives from organizations like the Army War College, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Norfolk’s Joint Forces Command, Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. Defense Department be doing at Eastern Mennonite University?

From left, EMU professor of peacebuilding Lisa Schirch, U.S. Army Col. John Agoglia, EMU alumnus Ali Gohar of Pakistan and EMU graduate student Latif Salem of Afghanistan discuss the challenges of peacebuilding. — Photo by Jon Styer/EMU

For the first time in its 90-year history, EMU invited military, government and non-governmental leaders to meet and talk on campus, in concert with participants in EMU’s annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute, a 13-year-old program with thousands of alumni working for peace around the world.

While peacebuilders often differ fundamentally from governmental and military leaders on what brings peace, there is reason to talk.

U.S. Army Col. John Agoglia was among the group of 50 or so people who spent a day at EMU. He recently left his position as director of the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute in Pennsylvania for an assignment in Afghanistan as the head of the Counterinsurgency Academy in Kabul.

The EMU roundtable “on civil society, conflict prevention and U.S. security infrastructure” was sponsored by the 3D Security Initiative under EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

The initiative fosters dialogue between civil society leaders in crisis regions, the U.S. military and Washington policymakers, said Lisa Schirch, 3D Security director and professor of peacebuilding.

“The conversation was challenging, but very good,” she said. “We have to find a way to talk, because we all are working in the same crisis regions, and we all care about finding stability and peace.”

At the end of the six-hour event June 2, Agoglia said he had enjoyed the opportunity to explain the U.S. military’s intentions and to receive feedback from representatives of civil society groups from such hot spots as Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“I thought it was a very engaging conversation,” he said, referring to the dialogue involving officials from agencies such as USAID, the Department of State, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the U.S. Army War College.

Other participants said that in Washington meetings they don’t hear from Iraqis about what they think about the United States or from Africans about matters regarding their continent. This was a great way to start changing that, they said.