The news from the Nobel Committee On 9 October is a rallying call. President Barack Obama is recognized for his contribution to peacemaking. The Nobel award cites Obama’s very visible leadership role in strengthening cooperative diplomacy, but the emergence of an elected President from the African American community after the decades-long civil rights struggle through largely non-violent means must have been firmly in the back of the minds of the Nobel committee.
The Nobel award, like the election of Obama itself, has to be seen as a very big affirmation of the idea of peace and of the idea of negotiating for justice by non-violent means that were the foundations of the civil rights movement.
Beyond his personal achievement in being elected, Obama’s potential as peacemaker definitely looks stronger than his demonstrated policy achievements since taking office. Observers around the world have marveled at the award given to Obama after his short term in office and relative lack of concrete peace achievements.
Worse still, many in the United States with take the award as vindication of their view that this President may be just a little more radical in his “peace agenda” than they would like.
The good news is that there has been a definite turn in the mood in the United States towards more heavy reliance on cooperative diplomacy and less reliance on unilateral use of force. Obama’s Nobel win can be used to exploit the turn in the public mood.
But Obama and his Administration, as powerful as they are, are only one side of the American peacemaking coin. There is an army of another kind out there – a large number of “peace and security” organizations, from faith-based groups (like the Quakers) to privately established groups like the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. There are also private multinational organizations like the International Crisis Group or the EastWest Institute (the author’s employer) with significant offices in the United States and other countries.
In Europe, similar organizations are funded heavily by governments and government-supported foundations. These sources are also are important sources of funding for the United States peace organizations. What really stands out in the case of the United States, in strong contrast with Europe, is the role of private donors at the multi-million dollar level. While there are tax concessions available in return for the donations, there is a strong personal and emotional commitment in United States philanthropy to global peacemaking efforts. Many of these, efforts, -- though not all – match the cooperative and consultative diplomatic style for which President Obama has been appropriately praised in his Nobel citation.
The annual budgets of these American peace organizations are individually quite small. Some go up to US$10 million or US$20 million. But the combined total per year of all of these budgets exceeds the annual foreign ministry budget of a number of G20 countries. Private United States donations to peace organizations can be very influential factors for promoting peace.
Who are the quite Americans who are the financial backbone of America’s private diplomacy of peace? What can Europeans learn about the philanthropic instincts of their trans-Atlantic allies?
The donors come from all walks of life, all political parties and all areas of the country.
They also come from America’s wealthiest families and most successful business people. The diversity of their interests is striking. George Russell for example, reputed to be the country’s third wealthiest person, and Co-Chairman of the EastWest Institute, has also supported “One Nation”, a group committed to bridging the divide between Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States; research in Russia into the destruction of nuclear waste; and the National Bureau of Asian Research. Russell has arguably set the world standard in personal direct funding support to independent peace diplomacy in recent years.
People like Russell in the United States will be keen to ensure that Obama’s election, his turn toward more cooperative diplomacy, and his Nobel Prize will be exploited by the armies of independent, private diplomats and peace-workers whom they fund to create a new surge in global efforts to address the most serious security threats. Will Europe’s wealthy families turn a new leaf and join this historic tide at similar levels of individual philanthropy?