Speaking the unspeakable sounds of the middle east conflict

In the current state of the art, there is no other academic work available whichbrings the transrational approach into conversation with the Middle East Conflict.This approach has been d

Masters of Peace

Adham Hamed

Speaking the Unspeakable

Sounds of the Middle East Conflict

Masters of Peace

Masters of Peace is a book series edited by the University of Innsbruck’s UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies It has been founded to honour outstanding works of young academics in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies It is reserved for selected Mas­ter theses of the Innsbruck school and published twice a year The Innsbruck school follows the principles of Transrational Peace Philosophy It defines peace as a plural and regards all aspects of human nature relevant for the understanding of peace and conflict Its applied method is Elicitive Conflict Transformation, a pragmatic approach to conflict rooted in Humanistic Psychology that entrusts the responsi­bility for finding alternative options of behaviour, communication and encounter

to the conflict parties Facilitators provide a safe frame, tools and methods for this quest without imposing their own solutions on the parties

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I first met Adham Hamed in a class I taught in Peace and Conflict Studies at the versity of Innsbruck, Austria What struck me first about Adham was his engaged in-tellect His diverse background was also intriguing, combining an Austrian/Egyptianbackground, with one foot in Christian Europe, the other in the Islamic Middle East.His interest in Israel-Palestine was yet another curiosity I noticed immediately that

Uni-he felt tUni-he trauma of both Palestinians and Jews I was confronted with a sionate intellect that could carry on the ever-difficult search for justice in our strife-torn world

compas-I write this foreword as a Jewish partisan who believes that justice for Palestinians

is a command of Jewish history, one that we are failing to obey For a person ofAdham’s background to wade into the Israel-Palestine conundrum shows courage

It is, as well, a hope for a future that I will not experience, at least on the ground,

in my lifetime Yet in interacting with Adham and reading his words, one feels thatfuture arriving For this I am grateful

The Middle East Conflict is full of stories of trauma, pain and violence, withinthe geographical context of Israel-Palestine and beyond This is where different truthsystems meet and narratives clash Its complexity and multi-layered quality can befrustrating and in our analysis it can sometimes be easy to lose orientation in themidst of this complexity Adham Hamed has written a remarkable book that looksupon this conflict, not from a birds-eye perspective, but systemically from withinthis complexity This book offers a valuable orientation to anyone searching to un-derstand this complexity, which has been fueled by many rounds of war, failed diplo-macy, and time and again by the violent act of uprooting people–often by thosewho themselves have painful histories of collective trauma Many books have beenwritten about this conflict, yet this one is unique as it is the first that applies Wolf-gang Dietrich’s conflict transformation model of Elicitive Conflict Mapping to thiscontext The reader will find a structured conflict analysis, in which the casual re-lationship between the episode of conflict and the so-called epicenter are exploredlayer by layer and level by level This work sets an example for innovative conflict

simplifying complex realities

Traveling to Israel-Palestine and Egypt in an attempt to see what conflict formation between Jews, Palestinians and other Arabs might look like, Adham sees

trans-musical expression, in its diversity, as a way of communicating truths where wordsand politics fail For Adham, music carries a potential for speaking unspeakabletruths that exposes the non-territorial layers and narratives of the conflict Throughmusic, a possible way forward is experienced This is true for Israel-Palestine Itmay be true for other parts of the world as well This nexus between the regionalcontext of the Middle East and peace philosophy at a meta-level makes this book aunique contribution to the current state of the art in Peace and Conflict Studies.Using case studies in Jerusalem and Cairo, he explores the rich and often disturb-ing texture of Israel-Palestine and the Middle East in general Adham hits his stridewhen thinking through and outside of the various academic models with which hebegins his study, as he discusses the state of the art in Peace and Conflict Studies.

He argues convincingly that for the most part, these models lack the depth neededwhen trauma is widespread and suffering continues unabated Due to the use of thisnew and innovative model of analyzing conflict, this study is of high value for ourunderstanding of this region in particular, and the field of Peace and Conflict Studies

in general

However, this study hardly hails from an academic ivory tower During Adham’sstudy, Israel invaded Gaza twice, Egypt experienced the Arab Spring then a rever-sion to dictatorship, and Syria imploded While he interrogates Jews and Palestini-ans about their hopes and fears, Adham is aware of the larger regional collapse.Can music or any art-form deal effectively with this devolving political and militarysituation? In the end, Adham does not offer simple conclusions, but rather points to-wards the potential of sound as a means of conflict transformation and as a metaphorfor a non-linear understanding of conflict He is careful not to romanticize music,but points towards its potentials for dialogue and resistance He suggests that under-standing the qualities of harmony and dissonance might help identify new courses ofaction in violent conflicts The cyclical nature of conflict transformation is central

to Adham’s argumentation This insight sometimes leaves the reader uncertain andshows how conflict transformation can be tiring, as it can be easily confused with asense of standing still This book encourages the reader to resist the urge to give up,despite frustrations

Adham wrestles with the voices he has been given and with the voices he counters, and succeeds by also including critical self-reflection Hence, the mostdistinctive voice, the one searching at new levels, is Adham’s He has a story totell from embodied experience as a resonating actor within the Middle East Con-flict The choice, therefore, to also recognize himself as a resource of knowledgeproduction, never self-centered but always self-critical, is valid

en-Will Adham Hamed have the space, the safety and the courage to continue veloping his own voice? Only time will tell What I know and the reader will soonencounter in these pages is that a voice important for our common future, is on itsway May that voice be nurtured and amplified in the days ahead

1 Professor Marc H Ellis is retired University Professor of Jewish Studies at Baylor University, Waco, Texas He is currently visiting professor of several international universities, including the University

of Innsbruck, Austria.

1 Introduction 1

2 Author’s Perspective and Primary Research Interest 5

3 State of the Art 11

4 The Transrational Model 17

4.1 The Five Families of Peace and Primary Themes 18

4.2 Levels of Conflict 22

4.3 Layers of Conflict 23

5 Elicitive Conflict Mapping 27

5.1 The three Principles of Elicitive Conflict Transformation and the Care of the Self 28

5.2 Mapping the Middle East Conflict 34

5.2.1 Conflict Transposition and Conflict Transformation 36

5.2.2 My Entry Point: Clashing Narratives and Strong Truths 39

5.2.3 The Many Truths around Israel and Palestine 41

5.2.4 My truths are weak 45

6 Research Ethics: I Have No Morals! 47

7 Music in Conflict Transformation 53

7.1 The Political Potential of Music 53

7.2 Performed and Recorded Music 55

7.3 Vernacular Music: The Potential of the Here and Now 56

8 Further Research Interest 61

9 Case Studies 65

9.1 Where Strong Truths Crack: The Jerusalem Youth Chorus 65

9.1.1 Mental-Societal Disturbances: Ceci n’est pas une Guitare! 67

9.1.2 Imagining and Experiencing Home on the

Social-Communal Layers 70

9.1.3 Sexual Energy: An Implicit Potential for Conflict Transformation 75

9.1.4 Another Level of Dialogue: Vernacular Moments and Spiritual Potential 76

9.1.5 Potentials, Limitations and Critique of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus 80

9.2 Songs Are The Soul’s Language: Eskenderella 82

9.2.1 Mental-Societal Potentials: Sounding the Charge for the Egyptian Uprising Revolution 84

9.2.2 When Vernacular Potential Unfolds: Spirituality in the midst of Revolutionary Dynamics 87

9.2.3 Hidden Messages: The Sexual Family-Layers 91

9.2.4 A Homogenous Group and Random Audiences: The Social-Communal Layers 92

9.2.5 Potentials, Limitations and Critique of Eskenderella 92

10 Conclusion 95

List of References 103

List of Figures

4.2 Levels of Conflict 18

1 Introduction

As I am writing the introduction to this book, I am sitting in the heart of Cairo Anhour ago, a car exploded only a hundred meters away from me I can still feel thevibrations of the massive blast in my chest The wave of heat paired with the smell

of burning metal and the visual image of people running around in chaos are vivid.The mind rationalizes and the body functions according to trained patterns in suchsituations, but there are no words to describe the horror of such a sight of violence

As I have taken time to lean back and have a strong coffee, I realize that my body isshivering while I am trying to balance the little cup in my hand I feel shaken Thesound of the blast still resonates in me

This book is about language and the limitations of language It is about ing for words where there is seemingly nothing that can express the truths of anexperienced conflict It is about sounds that cause resonances among, and inside ofdifferent actors in the Middle East Conflict Why did this car just explode in front

search-of me, I wonder? I do not assume that there is simple answer to this question, even

if Egypt’s media and public discourse are full of linear explanations and claims thatthere is one party that is right and one that is wrong, more than four years after Pres-ident Mubarak was ousted from power This book is not explicitly about Egypt, yetthe explosion I have just experienced helps situate it in the context of a larger reality.This reality is prevalent not only inside, but also outside of the national boundaries

of Egypt By creating a complex chorus of truths, what happens in Egypt createsresonances in a larger regional and global reality

This book is an attempt to analyze this complexity, yet what I will arrive at inthe end is necessarily a simplification of reality At the beginning of this endeavor,

I will outline who I am, as a perceiving subject in this complexity and try to makeexplicit the social location from which such a simplification will take place There-fore, in the first chapter, I will situate myself in the context of this study by building

an author’s perspective Next, I will outline my theory, which is based on WolfgangDietrich’s transrational model (Dietrich, 2013; 2015), as well as influences frommusic theory I will also define terms and concepts that are related to the MiddleEast Conflict, drawing on a non-territorial understanding of the Middle East Mymethod is Elicitive Conflict Mapping (ECM) and this book is the first study apply-

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016

A Hamed, Speaking the Unspeakable,

Masters of Peace, DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-14208-7_1

2 1 Introduction

ing the model to this conflict Furthermore, I will touch upon ethical questions thatwere raised at the beginning of and throughout this project, as well as in its after-math Finally, I will distinguish between three different forms of music, which willprovide the analytical basis for the second part in which I will explore two case stud-ies: a Palestinian-Israeli choir–the Jerusalem Youth Chorus–and the Egyptian bandEskenderella These examples will highlight the applicability of ECM to one of thelongest lasting, most violent and complex modern conflicts

The Middle East Conflict is one of the most highly and perhaps over-researchedtopics in the world Yet, I aim to provide a new lens through which to view this topicwhile focusing on new, so far not at all researched, aspects of this long lasting con-flict In the current state of the art, there is no other academic work available whichbrings the transrational approach into conversation with the Middle East Conflict.This approach has been developed by Wolfgang Dietrich and provides the episte-mological framework for the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies It affords a newlens to analyze this particular conflict, and Peace and Conflict Studies more broadly(Dietrich, 2015; UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014a)

The transrational model offers a holistic understanding of peaces, suggesting

a pluralistic understanding of the term, which is at the core of elicitive conflicttransformation–the applied method of transrational peace philosophy This book isthe first study working with ECM and its very specific epistemological and onto-logical assumptions As a student of Wolfgang Dietrich, I have had the privilege

of reading his manuscripts and discussing my interpretations of his work in manydirect conversations One of the main works cited is Dietrich’s third and, at the time

of research, yet unpublished volume of his Many Peaces trilogy (Dietrich, 2015),

as well as an online ECM tool (UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014a), whichwas made available by the team of the UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies while Iwas writing this book Due to the lack of literature applying ECM, I have decided

to outline my interpretations of the model in more detail than would usually be thefashion in the framework of the theoretical part of such a study Whenever possible, Ihave chosen to give reference to Dietrich’s work Some content, however, is derivedfrom my notes of his lectures and from my own thoughts and noted observations,which are a result of our conversations While Wolfgang Dietrich is clearly creditedfor the creation of this model, I claim sole responsibility for my interpretations andapplications of it This model has provided me with a compass in all phases of mycase studies For example, it has been particularly helpful when I have searched forthe next step in my research When the sounds of the conflict have resonated in me

in an especially loud and dissonant way, regular reality checks using this method

of complexities to which this book speaks

1 I here distinguish between the personal self and the transpersonal Self The word ‘myself’ here is ten in two words in order to stress the fluid border between the individual and the world surrounding her/him Later in this book I will define this border as being situated between the mental-societal and the spiritual-policitary layers of conflict.

writ-2 The term ‘globe’ here refers to Ruth Cohn’s four factors model (Dietrich, 2013: 85ff.), which strates interesting parallels to the theory of ECM Indeed Wolfgang Dietrich (2015) stresses that ECM can be combined with Theme Centered Interaction and other tools of humanistic psychology It seems

demon-Initially I was only interested in narratives about the Middle East Conflict ever, very early in my research I developed a curiosity for the underlying issues thatlay hidden under the episode of the conflict In this context, digging deeper meant

How-a confrontHow-ation with How-a reHow-ality of complex relHow-ations between different How-actors in theconflict, and also inquiring about those layers of conflict that are often not apparentwhen focusing on the narrative alone Personally and academically, this has beenchallenging in many ways Writing from a transrational perspective requires morethan just an intellectual understanding of what transrational peace research means Itdemands an embodied attitude that allows for simultaneous attention towards one’sown inner faculties and the topic of research There have been moments in which Ihave lacked clarity and direction, where there was seemingly nothing left to hold on

to and where I questioned whether I should write this book at all Yet, by applying atransrational lens, there were also other moments in which I realized the possibility

of going beyond the postmodern condition that along the road I have found myself

in time and time again

Counter to conventional academic structure, I have decided to split my researchinterest in two separate parts The first will be made explicit at the end of my author’sperspective and the second frames my further research interest for my case studiesafter having outlined my theory and method This reflects my own process of re-search The clarification of my theory and method has made it possible for me toframe my research interest for the case studies, which focus on two music initiatives,one that uses music as a means of dialogue, the other that has recognized music’spotential as a means of resistance Both recognize the potential of sound to help inspeaking unspeakable truths Following Ivan Illich (1980) and an earlier work ofDietrich (2002), I distinguish between recorded, performed and vernacular music.The varying potentials for elicitive conflict transformation of these two case studies

are of central interest to my research This book is entitled Speaking the

Unspeak-able Though seemingly paradoxical, and certainly meriting further elaboration, I

will aim to explain the meaning throughout this study

Looking at these two music initiatives in the context of the Middle East Conflictfrom a transrational perspective, I hope to offer a new and alternative lens that mightelicit new paths and perspectives of conflict transformation I am not trying to claimany kind of absolute truth in my research I rather understand this work as an offeringfor anyone who is seeking and willing to engage in an open dialogue about possiblealternative courses of action in a conflict that has become extremely rigid and self-reproductive

to me that ECM could be systemically applied not only to the persona but also to the group as a closed system in interaction with the globe.

2 Author’s Perspective and Primary Research Interest

Peaces and conflicts are relational, and hence in any case need a perceiving subject

to be understood and contextualized (Dietrich, 2012: 7) For the Innsbruck School

of Peace Studies, which draws on very specific ontological assumptions on which Iwill elaborate in the chapter about the transrational model, it is key that an author

is critically self-aware, not only at the beginning of a study, but also throughout theprocess of research The researcher changes during the process of writing and, atleast in my case, in every sense of the word, the researcher is searching The manysounds of the Middle East Conflict certainly have and will change me and shape me

and throughout this book, which perhaps goes further than usual, in what I wouldargue are rather conservative academic conventions This is particularly importantfor the empirical part of this study, in which I will directly interact, hence resonate,with people in the midst of the Middle East Conflict

In addition to Cairo, where I wrote my introduction, Jerusalem and Innsbruck arethe two other places, which are relevant for rooting and contextualizing my researchabout the Middle East Conflict While the first two cities listed might seem to belogical places for such an endeavor, a small Austrian city might not seem to be tooself-evident Yet it is precisely this city that has largely influenced me in differentphases of my personal becoming and in which I am partly rooted through familyhistory My socialization in Innsbruck has shaped my perceptions, motivations andinterests in my discipline as a researcher, and hence should be taken into accountwith equal priority

Innsbruck, located in the midst of the Alps, is my mother’s hometown and also theplace where I grew up Here, people I encountered were often not too informed aboutthe Middle East Conflict and if they were, the establishment of the State of Israel in

1948 was usually directly and almost exclusively associated with the Holocaust and

a feeling of inconvenience rooted in a feeling of collective guilt mixed with a culture

of constructing an image of Austria being the first ‘victim’ of Nazi Germany I was

1 I have used this terminology in reference to the Latin verb sonare: “to resonate with intensity” man after Lederach and Lederach 2010) I will further elaborate on this concept in the chapter 5.2,

(Guz-“Mapping the Middle East Conflict”.

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016

A Hamed, Speaking the Unspeakable,

Masters of Peace, DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-14208-7_2

born almost exactly 40 years after the foundation of Israel and 43 years after the end

of World War II Yet, even in my generation I found little space for other narrativesabout the conflict Amongst my friends there were often two common arguments:that we, as Austrians, carry a fundamental historical responsibility for the State ofIsrael, and that we have no responsibility for something that happened in the distantpast The former emphasized a historical responsibility to the State of Israel and theidea that we carry the heavy burden for the extermination of Jewish life in Europe.Many saw it as our obligation to protect Israel at any cost, so that Jews would neveragain become the victims of Anti-Semitism Those who rejected responsibility forsomething that happened so many years ago argued that this is not a concern of ourgeneration any longer and that we should live our life in the present, regardless ofwhat has happened in the past Finally, there were also those who relativized theHolocaust My largely leftist, urban upbringing, however, was rather distant fromsuch people and ideologies In retrospect, reflecting upon myself critically, I have toassume that I possibly contributed to even more polarization in Austrian society bytrying to exclude those existing realities from my life

In my father’s hometown, Cairo, I have often had heated conversations about theMiddle East Conflict with friends and relatives Referring to the same historicalevent, I found the narratives to be very different The painful memory and realityrelated to World War II, for them, was not the Holocaust, but the establishment of

the modern State of Israel, which in Arabic is commonly known as the Nakba, which

means ‘catastrophe’ Also, there are a lot of personal traumata related to four warsagainst Israel The Egyptian nationalism surrounding the Fourth Arab-Israeli War

of 1973, that tells the story of Egyptian victory, martyrs and success, accompanied

me throughout my life, especially because one of my uncles is a veteran of that war

He continues to recount his memories of regained dignity when he was crossing theSuez Canal together with his comrades to raise the Egyptian flag on the Sinai thathad been occupied by Israel while mentioning little about the wounds and lossescreated by the war

There are strong links between my ancestor’s lives and the Middle East Conflict.Since I was a small child, I have been told very different narratives about the conflict,and people have always urged me to ‘take a stand’ and to define my own ‘truth’ Thishas led to many discussions and conflicts on a very personal level with dear friendsand relatives, as well as with complete strangers in the street cafes of Cairo, withsettlers in the West Bank and with colleagues in Austria Most of all, it has caused

me inner conflicts My curiosity in the construction of, and the inter-dependencybetween, these seemingly fundamentally different narratives, and my wish to listen

to as many of them as possible, is the reason I decided to write this book

Because of the personal experience of regularly encountering the tension tween different narratives in the Middle East Conflict, I soon realized that there areexperiences that cannot be expressed with language alone This became particularlyevident to me when war broke out again in war-torn Gaza in November 2012 Hav-ing had countless impassioned discussions about these violent developments withfriends and colleagues from the Middle East, most of us took strong positions aboutthe legitimacy of what was happening, and I became aware that many of us were try-

be-2 Author’s Perspective and Primary Research Interest 7

ing to suppress feelings and emotions and be as rational as possible in our debates Afriend from Gaza was feeling shaken, fearing for the lives of his loved ones Despitehis fears, in our discussions he was trying to be as rational as possible by referring

to, and framing his arguments within, international law, which he convincingly gued Israel was violating He stressed the huge injustice that has been committedtowards the Palestinians since the early days of Zionism

ar-A fellow student and Israeli soldier was basing his position on the argument thatPalestinians created a constant security threat for the State of Israel, hence that theIsraeli offensive was absolutely legitimate He was trying to support his positionwith ‘hard’ empirical evidence by providing numbers of Palestinian missiles thathave been shot into Israeli territory from Gaza, creating a threat for Israelis living inthe areas that border the Gaza strip His fears were real

In these discussions it became clear to me that both were right in their own way.They were authentically communicating their own truths about the conflict Theirarguments were based on empirical evidence, whilst their feelings and emotions,which lay below the obvious narrative of the conflict, were hardly acknowledged.This only happened in more intimate and informal conversations Traditional aca-demic environments provide very little space for deeper reflections about expressedtruths, which present themselves to the beholder of the episode of the Middle EastConflict As students who had been trained to analyze conflicts rationally, we hadlittle space to be emotional, at least when talking about international politics

As I have lived in Cairo for nearly two years, I have experienced how the politicalreality that has unfolded in the context of the Middle East Conflict and the Egyptianrevolution has had a very direct impact on me The ‘outer’ reality of violent conflicthas been corresponding to what has been happening ‘within’ my own social networkand has sometimes also left me with inner personal struggles I have realized howseemingly ‘outside’ issues have a very direct impact on how I relate to myself and

to others For example, I still vividly remember a lunchtime conversation with aninternational journalist friend of mine on a hot summer day in Cairo What wasmeant to be a nice break from work soon escalated as my friend was complainingmassively about a merchant at a grocery store who had sold her a bottle of juiceabove the normal price For some reason, she did not stop complaining about thatsituation On that same day, I had found out about the arrest of an activist with

whom I had spent an entire evening discussing the political status quo in Egypt only

a few days earlier This activist’s struggle, and her political passion had touched me,and I felt a burning sadness about the fact that she was behind bars like tens ofthousands of other people When my friend started complaining, I answered that itwas her fault that she agreed to the bargain and that she, as a wealthy internationaljournalist, should not be so dramatic about having paid a few pounds more than alocal Our lunch ended with her leaving the table upset, and I was left feeling evenmore frustrated about my personal situation in Egypt It seemed like the conflictsaround me would not stop tackling me

Recently, this friend and I reflected on that situation together and by doing so

it became clear to us that we both had felt tense about the violent political realityaround us Similar situations like the one of the exploding car, with which I have

opened this book, had been happening around us on a regular basis during this timeperiod Even though both of us had been self-reflective about the situation and aware

of the possible implications of violent conflicts on individuals, it was as though theviolent outside reality had penetrated both of us on the inside This realization fos-tered a sense of resonance with one another in a way that we both perceived asextremely dissonant The unspeakable violence that had been happening around us

had, in a way, manifested on the episode of our personae and suddenly, the

seem-ingly unimportant conversation about the fact that my friend had paid a few centsmore was enough to become a significant disturbance in our relationship

French economist Jacques Attali argues that, “[f]or twenty-five centuries, ern knowledge has tried to look upon the world It has failed to understand that theworld is not for the beholding It is for the hearing It is not legible, but audible” (At-tali, as quoted in Lederach and Lederach, 2010: 73) Here, Attali touches on one of

West-my central concerns in this book: approaching conflict transformation from an anglethat allows going beyond the beholding of phenomena on the episode of a conflict.From experiences like the one outlined above, one can assume that there are truthsabout conflicts, which exist deep below the surface These truths can be understood

as rooted somewhere beyond rationality (Dietrich, 2012) The common English ing, “I have no words” is more than just an empty platitude, and suggests that thetotality of reality sometimes cannot be expressed with modern, standardized, lan-guage alone Given this consideration, these truths are not always reasonable to therational mind nor can they be expressed with words alone, hence my reference to un-speakability In the context of the Middle East Conflict, it often seems that rationalargumentation about the conflict fails or even backfires in the sense that it evokeseven stronger beliefs about one’s own position and assumptions about the conflict.Joe Keohane argues, “[i]f we believe something about the world, we are more likely

say-to passively accept as truth any information that confirms our beliefs, and activelydismiss information that doesn’t” (Keohane, 2010: 2) I keep wondering where thesebeliefs that we find expressed so strongly are rooted Is it possible that Keohane’sbackfire effects are the expressions of resonance deep inside of us?

My curiosity about the realities that remain hidden below the surface led me tohave long conversations about the concept of resonance with my stepfather Claudio,who is a musician He explained that the opposite of resonance was barely think-able: For him, in the musical sense, the definition of resonances was very clear.Sound boxes in their physical appearance make sound possible He gave me thefollowing example: “Just think about a violin! Without a sound box music is un-thinkable Resonance is the result of a sound depending on its environment Everyroom and space has a stereophonic sound” (B¨uchler, personal communication, Oc-tober 20, 2012) For him, harmony and dissonance together are more than just thesum of their parts Both can only live together and together they can build something

but’ (B¨uchler, personal communication, October 20, 2012) It is precisely this ‘but’,which is of interest here Claudio defines harmony in the musical sense of the word

2 German for ‘yes and no‘ (my own translation).

2 Author’s Perspective and Primary Research Interest 9

as a coming together of sounds that does not require any further resolution tion, however, is necessary to lead a dissonance into a harmony A dissonance carries

Resolu-an inherent wish for resolution Music, on the other hResolu-and, requires both, harmonyand dissonance For him, harmony is only possible if one finds subjective solutions

There seems to be an interesting parallel between variety of possibilities of hearingsounds, always changing people, and Wolfgang Dietrich’s transrational approach toPeace Studies that suggests an understanding of the concept of peaces in the plural,rather than the singular (Dietrich, 2012) In this book, I aim to explore this parallelfurther, and I am therefore driven by the assumption that it might be possible tounderstand the Middle East as an open space full of resonating sound boxes, whichstand as a metaphor for the many persons that are engaged in the conflict on a dailybasis

As I will outline below, Dietrich (2015) argues that interpersonal conflicts alwaysfind an inner correspondence, within the various actors in conflict This suggeststhat a discovery of our inner qualities as resonating sound bodies might be of centralinterest for finding ways through and out of dysfunctional conflicts This potentiallyopens the possibility for recognition of our interconnectedness in a resonating web

of human relationships (Lederach 2005: 5) and hence, a unity beyond duality Aconsciousness about this interconnectedness might ultimately carry the potential torecognize the possibility of looking beyond separateness and exclusiveness Theyshow me how we are all outwardly and inwardly connected with our fellow humanbeings and ultimately the entire globe, as the transrational model suggests (Dietrich2015; UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies 2014b) This stresses the deep metaphysicalquestion where my self starts and where it ends and what we are in essence as humanbeings Where are the boundaries between my personal self and the universe?Mark Hathaway and Leonardo Boff argue that,

[m]odern Western thought–of which mainstream psychology is a part–has generally restricted the “self” to that which lies within the bounds of our skin; all that lies beyond is the “external world.” [ ] [W]e isolate ourselves more and more from the wider community of life so that we may function as “normal individuals” in the modern world (Hathaway and Boff, 2009: 113)

I am interested in the construct of exactly those modern boundaries between theself and the external world It seems as if they are a core reason for any kind ofabsolute and dualistic thinking in modern conflicts that very often leads to violence

in its most destructive forms Through the recognition of resonances on all layers

of the persona, lays a potential to experience peaces in their deeper qualities At

times it is difficult to define and explain them with words, as they are sometimesrooted were words are no longer sufficient to explain reality, but I have experiencedand embodied some of them It seems as if there is no way not to resonate The only

question is how open our channels of resonance are and most importantly how aware

we are of these flows

The destructive nature of the Middle East Conflict could easily bring me to theconclusion that I should stay out of that field Why should I risk becoming an actor

in such a complex conflict as I am conducting my case studies, where there seems to

be nothing to win and so much to lose? Following my arguments above, the answer

to that is simple: I am already an actor I resonate with all the actors in the field.There is a two-way link between me, discussing the Middle East conflict with mycolleagues in what is often called an ‘ivory tower’ of academia, and what is happen-ing in the Middle East Phrased differently: The reality of academia and the reality

of armed conflicts correspond They cannot be seen as separate entities but rather

as two sides of the same coin

I have known these resonances throughout my life as I have experienced nances and harmonies by listening and sometimes passionately contributing to verydifferent narratives about the Middle East Conflict This sometimes left me con-fused and time and again frustrated At the same time, I have developed a strongcompassion and love for the diversity of the cultures and people of the Middle East

disso-I have hated it, disso-I have loved it disso-I have resonated Despite the complexity of the flict, this is also a part of the world where I have experienced strong feelings of being

con-at home In the Middle East, I have been willing to open myself up for resonances,knowing that this can sometimes be very painful, as this implies looking at my ownvulnerabilities

Based on these strong personal experiences, here I embrace the idea and phorically use an understanding of the Middle East as an open social space full ofresonating sound bodies which I assume could be individuals and groups alike Inthe first part of this book, which will outline my theory and method, I inquire:

meta-How can the metaphor of the Middle East as an open space full of resonating sound bodies be applied to peace and conflict studies theory and methodology? How can the potential of speaking unspeakable truths be elicited in the context

of the Middle East Conflict?

I will revisit these two primary research questions and outline my further researchinterest in chapter 8 entitled “Further Research Interest”, since the elaboration on thetransrational model and aspects of music theory are key to understand the basis of

my further inquiry

3 State of the Art

Peace and Conflict Studies is a relatively young discipline that emerged only in the

that have influenced the discipline go back much further Several comprehensivevolumes on the history of Peace and Conflict Studies have been written Here, I

would like particularly to mention the classic Contemporary Conflict Resolution by

Oliver Ramsbotham, Hugh Miall and Tom Woodhouse (2011) This volume gives

a detailed overview about the debate, however it speaks from a rather Eurocentricperspective This reflects a concern of Peace and Conflict Studies more broadly,

as much attention has been paid to European and North-American debates, while

others have received relatively little The Palgrave International Handbook of Peace

Studies (Dietrich et.al., 2011) therefore offers a much-needed addition to the current

state of the art by giving a comprehensive understanding about interpretations ofpeace in varying cultural contexts

Since its beginnings in the 1950s and 1960s, Peace and Conflict Research has ten been a highly political discipline (Ramsbotham et.al., 2011: 42) As such, it hasoften reflected, but also decisively influenced political discourses and theories Forexample, the decades of the Cold War were shaped by heated arguments betweenidealist and realist schools of thought These debates largely separated the mainlystructuralist continental European from the more systemic North-American scholars

of-of Peace and Conflict Studies Kenneth Boulding (1977; 1978) and Johan Galtung(1987) give an excellent example as representatives of this dispute Since the fall

of the iron curtain, these schools of thought have largely prevailed in many tional relations polities, despite the fact that the academic debates have moved on.There is extensive scholarship available about both traditions, and it would not servethe aim of this book to repeat those debates at length here

interna-Above, I have stated that my primary research interests are truth discourses, speakability, and the potential of sound functioning as a metaphor for non-linear un-derstandings of conflict For such an endeavor the works and theories of WolfgangDietrich (2002; 2012; 2013; 2015; Dietrich and S¨utzl, 2006), John-Paul Lederach(1995; 2005; Lederach and Lederach 2010), Norbert Koppensteiner (2009a; 2009b),

un-© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016

A Hamed, Speaking the Unspeakable,

Masters of Peace, DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-14208-7_3

Gianni Vattimo (2006), Ivan Illich (19801; 2006) and Helmut Brenner (1992) vide the main theoretical framework Of course many more authors could be men-tioned here that have had an indirect impact on my thesis Yet, from the myriad

pro-of peace and conflict theories I have decided to situate my thesis within the field

of transrational peace philosophy, which like any theory has its own ontologicalassumptions, which I will outline in the following section This chapter thereforefocuses on the work of these authors and their contributions to the state of the art

in transrational peace philosophy and elicitive conflict transformation Their workswill provide the basis for analyzing and interpreting the findings of my case studiesabout the Jerusalem Youth Chorus and Egyptian band Eskenderella in the secondpart of this book

Transrational Peace Philosophy could not be understood without the tions of the above-mentioned authors to the field of Peace and Conflict Studies,but it seems necessary to also mention the impact that humanistic psychology andEastern knowledge have had on the emergence of the transrational model WolfgangDietrich outlines the state of the art in the first volume of his Many Peace Trilogy(Dietrich, 2012: 10ff.) I here assume that my readers are familiar with the literature

contribu-to which Dietrich is referring Certainly since the release of this volume, the course has moved on For example, in current debates, Oliver Richmond’s notion of

dis-a Post-Liberdis-al Pedis-ace (Richmond, 2011) hdis-as received dis-a considerdis-able dis-amount of dis-

atten-tion However, it seems that he is largely repeating a debate that, as much as it might

seem politically relevant today, has been completed with Francisco Mu˜noz

Imper-fect Peace (2006: 241ff.) and Wolfgang Dietrich’s Call for Many Peaces (Dietrich

and S¨utzl, 2006: 282ff.), yet without reference to them I have therefore decided tomake no further reference to his work Of political relevance is also certainly Vic-

toria Fontan’s Decolonizing Peace approach (Fontan, 2012) While it has offered

me an interesting lens through which to analyze the Middle East Conflict, ularly with regards to analyzing insurgency movements as self-adaptive systems, Ifind that even though she is drawing strongly on system theory in her approach toPeace Studies, her writings are sometimes difficult to integrate into the transrationalmodel, as she focuses strongly on what I will with Dietrich (2013; 2015) definebelow as the mental-societal layer of conflict Ultimately, her approach can be help-ful for depicting power asymmetries and as a tool of justifying resistance against

partic-a colonipartic-al power This however, is not the concern of trpartic-ansrpartic-ationpartic-al pepartic-ace phy and elicitive conflict transformation Fontan has been important for me in otherways Being a student of Wolfgang Dietrich, I did not take the philosophy of theInnsbruck School of Peace Studies for granted, but at times questioned it fundamen-tally Victoria Fontan, at that time Head of the International Peace Studies Program

philoso-at the United Nphiloso-ations mandphiloso-ated University for Peace in Costa Rica, also provided

me with a temporal academic home in an environment that was ideal for such an

endeavor Her Decolonizing Peace approach (Fontan, 2012) offered me a valuable

1 In the field of transrational peace philosophy, Wolfgang Dietrich (2002), Martina Kaller-Dietrich (2011) and Natalia Lozano (2012) have written extensively about the concept of the vernacular How-

ever, none of these three theorists refer to his text Vernacular Values (1980) I have therefore decided

to use as a main references here.

3 State of the Art 13

chance to critically reflect and question my reasons for writing about the MiddleEast Conflict from this specific philosophical angle, which is certainly a questionthat should always be raised in the beginning of such a study Considering my ownpersonal biography, I feel if not always part of, then at least bound up in the MiddleEast Conflict

Moreover, in my time ‘outside’ the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies, I haveengaged in fruitful debates with colleagues who position themselves in moral andmodern frameworks and, in rather rare exceptions, in postmodern understandings ofpeaces Through these engagements, I found myself first fundamentally question-ing, and then embracing, the transrational approach and its applied consequence,elicitive conflict transformation as a method The very definition of transrationalmethodologies is that they are non-prescriptive, and they urge the researcher to becritically self-aware in every situation (Dietrich, 2013; 2015) If applied as morethan just a tool such as, in the sense of Marshall B Rosenberg (2012), a life attitudethat is rooted in compassion and love, it offers new and affirming courses of actionfor peace workers who, like Fontan, are concerned about the universal practices ofmodern peace and development initiatives (Fontan, 2012: 42f.), or, like Ivan Illich,fundamentally questioning the very notion of development (Illich, 2006: 173ff.).These perspectives resonate with me, and I believe from my academic and personalengagements in this field of study that modern peace and development thinking car-ries an implicit violence, which reproduces colonial dependencies

Transrational Peace Philosophy, by letting go of modern notions of one universalpeace, merges the postmodern condition of doubt with an energetic understanding

of peace while offering an epistemology that defines knowledge as more than just

century, the field of Peace and Conflict Research was still divided by this academicdispute, desperately trying to hold on to some of the old grand narratives, and while

and in losing ground, two scholars of Peace and Conflict Studies started moving yond that post-modern condition: John Paul Lederach and Wolfgang Dietrich Theyboth acknowledge the potential of non-rational categories, such as spirituality andintuition in conflict transformation (Dietrich, 2012; 2013; 2015; Lederach, 2005;2010) Both also have a strong practitioner’s perspective, as peace workers, predom-inately in Latin America, which they integrate into their writings Lederach (1995),with his elicitive approach and his often cited conflict pyramid, as well as with hisrather vague call for a map of conflict, provided the ground for Dietrich to system-atically develop this idea much further to what is now known as Elicitive ConflictMapping (ECM) Both (Lederach 2003; 2005; Dietrich, 2013; 2015) argue that theepisode of a conflict receives its energy from an epicenter, which belongs to a spherethat can hardly be described by words alone In reference to Ken Wilber, Dietrichcalls this sphere the transrational (Dietrich, 2012) Together with his colleagues atthe UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies in Innsbruck, he began to integrate insights

be-of humanistic psychology and energetic traditions be-of peace (Dietrich, 2012; 2013;

2 For an excellent selection of texts see Dietrich et.al (2006).

2015) into his teachings The transrational approach to peace theory proposes todistinguish between five peace families: energetic, moral, modern, postmodern andtransrational peaces The underlying philosophy of the latter and its applied method,elicitive conflict transformation, has become known, and here will be referred to as,the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies.

Transrational peaces neither reject nor claim superiority to any of the four mentioned families in an evolutionary sense In this regard, Dietrich clearly dis-tances himself from Wilber (2000), who, with his notion of a linear chronosophy

above-of human development, ultimately falls back into a modern line above-of argumentation.While Wilber represents the prescriptive human growth and new age movement,Dietrich is making clear reference to the human potential movement, criticizingWilber for implicitly being a Social-Darwinist in his argumentation (Dietrich, 2012:61) Transrational Peace Philosophy embraces the plurality of peaces, which can befound across the many different cultures and traditions of the field According toDietrich, there is a potential to recognize peace in any given moment, as peace andconflict are not Cartesian opposites but always integral parts of one another

By definition, transrational peaces are non-prescriptive In the mid-1990s, JohnPaul Lederach (1995) first developed the elicitive approach, which by building onlocal knowledge rather than ‘outside’ expertise assumes that the potential to trans-form a conflict and to recognize peace is always inherent to a given setting, thusthe conflicting actors are the experts on their conflicts The external conflict worker

is seen as a facilitator who acts only when invited to do so and provides spacesfor the conflicting actors to discover possible courses of action towards a situationthat they perceive as more satisfying The elicitive approach became central to theInnsbruck School of Peace Studies, where it has been developed further, both on

a theoretical and on a practical level Acknowledging the limitations of languagewithin the school’s philosophy, peaces are something we have to experience to fullyunderstand, as formalized language alone can hardly convey truths that are rootedbeyond the rational layers of the self

In reference to Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of

Mu-sic, Dietrich (2012: 167ff.) emphasizes the importance of twisting the Apollonian

and the Dionysian aspects of living In reference to Nietzsche, Dietrich (2012: 167)argues that “music stands at the origin of artistic creation” Along with other forms

of energetic arts, music can speak as a possible vehicles for conveying Dionysian,hence energetic, truths that have been suppressed in moral and modern cosmovi-sion The latter, according to Dietrich, get lost in moral, modern and postmoderninterpretations of peace Hence, transrational peace philosophy emphasizes the im-portance of re-introducing and including energetic understandings of peaces intothe academic debate This, however, does not mean ‘going back to nature’ but ratherembracing a holistic worldview Transrational peaces twist the Apollonian, whichstands for structure and form, with the Dionysian dimensions of the Self, whichtraditional academia hardly recognizes because its language is a language of artthat expresses itself beyond the world of formalized language (Dietrich, 2012: 60).Hence, transrational peaces are a dynamic intermezzo and momentary expressions

3 State of the Art 15

of the dance of life, the dance of Apollo and Dionysus who each moment anew melttogether in new forms

The focus on sound in this book seems helpful, since its direction offers an lent metaphor for a non-linear understanding of conflict (Gellman, as quoted in Di-etrich, 2011: 20; Lederach and Lederach, 2010: 42) From the perspective of trans-rational peace research, the modern and moral promises of a better future, which arebased on a linear understanding of social time and usually connected to an experi-enced injustice or insecurity in the past, do not seem satisfying Transrational PeaceStudies focuses on the transformative potential of the ‘here and now’ Drawing fromsystem theory, humanistic psychology, tantra and yoga philosophy, ECM suggeststhat conflicts are multi-directional and always find their correspondence in a socialsystem as a whole, similar to sound waves of a tune expanding in all directions of aconcert hall

excel-Also, this is an attempt to understand the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies

in the light of Wolfgang Dietrich’s earlier work Samba Samba (2002), a book that

has received relatively little attention by English-speaking scholars of Peace and

Conflict Studies In Samba Samba, Dietrich in reference to Ivan Illich makes the

important distinction between recorded, performed and vernacular music Readingthis book has been fascinating, as it gives insights into his work at the time when

he founded the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies Particularly his elaborations onvernacular music, which is always an expression of the moment, is a concept thathas remained of large importance for his teaching till today, and it is an important

concept in his Many Peaces Series In her book, Playing Music, Performing

Resis-tance: The Dynamics of Resistance through Music in the Colombian South Pacific Coast, Natalia Lozano (2012) is making this bridge already By using case studies

from Latin America, she is referring to a different cultural context I believe that mywork compliments her study well, as I am drawing on German primary literature

of Dietrich’s earlier work from the perspective of ECM and connecting it to John

Paul and Angela Jill Lederach’s groundbreaking work When Blood and Bones Cry

Out: Journeys through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation (Lederach and

Lederach, 2010) Lederach and Lederach ask how one can speak unspeakable truthswhich is not only a guiding question for this study but a question I believe to be atthe heart of the transrational peace philosophy The works of John Paul Lederachand Wolfgang Dietrich represent the current state of the art in the discipline Cer-tainly, both are going to the limits of traditional academia by daring to inquire aboutthe borders of what we can rationally grasp I have outlined in my introduction andauthor’s perspective how the driving energy of the Middle East defies rationality,and with this basis, I feel as though I can relate to both theorists and will be in goodcompanionship with their work

The conflict analyzed in this study is the Middle East Conflict Thousands ofbooks have been filled, providing often very different narratives on this topic Nam-ing only the ones with the most significant influence and reach would be nearly im-possible In addition to the work of Edward Said (1969; 1979; 1995), Munir Fasheh(2011) and Marc Ellis (2000; 2011; 2014), Israeli historians Illan Pappe (2006) andTom Segev (2007; 2008), have been particularly helpful in terms of developing an

understanding of the historic dimensions of the conflict These authors have served

me insofar as it is important for a peace and conflict researcher to be aware of ferent historical dimensions of a conflict My analysis however starts in the ‘hereand now’ and here I have found little academic company which bridges my chosenapproach in transrational peace studies and the Middle East Conflict I am not aware

dif-of a single piece dif-of transrational peace and conflict research that has been done indirect relation to the Middle East Conflict Also this is the first study applying ECM

as a tool of analysis to real conflicts In that sense this work is discovering newterritory

Wolfgang Dietrich (2015) outlines ECM and the method’s underlying

transra-tional conflict transformation model in the third volume of his Many Peace Trilogy.

3 Allow me to also draw your attention to Josefina Echavarría Alvarez (2014) who provides an excellent and much more detailed outline of ECM For a good English introduction to ECM see UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies (2014a).

4 The Transrational Model

In this chapter, I will outline the foundations of the transrational model (see Fig.4.1), which is based on insights of humanistic psychology and the Kalachakra Man-dala, which outlines the seven chakras, that can be found in many traditions of yogaphilosophy This is one of many possible ways of visualizing transrational peacetheory Wolfgang Dietrich (2015) decided to base his transrational model on thisspecific cosmovision as it shows strong parallels to his theoretical excurses in the

first volume of his Many Peaces Trilogy (Dietrich, 2012)–a fact that he had not been

conscious of when he first developed his transrational model This is one of manypossibilities, on which transrational approaches to peace research can be based

Fig 4.1 The Transrational Model (UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014e)

Dietrich (2013; 2015) describes four primary themes of conflict within thismodel: harmony, which represents the energetic, justice, which represents the moral,

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016

A Hamed, Speaking the Unspeakable,

Masters of Peace, DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-14208-7_4

security, which represents the modern, and truth, which represents the postmodernpeace family Transrational peace philosophy focuses on the interdependency be-tween these four themes and the question of how new courses of action towards apossible balance between the four can be recognized This balance can be referred

to as homeostasis, which is expressed through a flow-equilibrium between the fourprimary themes of conflict and the first elicitive principle of correspondence (Diet-rich, 2015; UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014c; 2014d) It is important tohave an awareness of possible implications on the overall system, when one or sev-eral primary themes get more space than the others Given the topic of this inquiry,the primary theme of truth is of particular interest here Furthermore, the transra-tional model distinguishes between different levels of conflict, differing betweengrassroots- midrange- and top leaders (see Fig 4.2) and the different layers that sur-round the episode of a conflict In the following chapter, I will discuss the basicassumptions of the model

Fig 4.2 Levels of Conflict (UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies 2014n), labeled after Lederach (1997: 39)

4.1 The Five Families of Peace and Primary Themes

Energetic peaces are fluid and dynamic and manifest themselves in the moment.

Harmony is experienced when there is homeostasis, a dynamic condition in which

conflictive energy can flow freely in a balanced system that is able to self-regulate

4.1 The Five Families of Peace and Primary Themes 19

communities (Dietrich, 2015; UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014c) If this flowequilibrium gets disturbed, for example, by a war or a foreign intervention, societieswhich derive their understandings of peace from an energetic world view usuallytry to re-organize themselves in a manner in which homeostasis is established anew.(Dietrich and S¨utzl, 2006: 295ff.) Societies that draw on energetic understandings

of peace are usually self-subsistent and the idea of universal expansion and trol over other societies and the world in general, are rare to them, as this woulddisturb their flow of homeostasis Energetic societies define themselves through dy-namic difference to others (Dietrich, 2012: 53ff.) However, the total distinction of

con-an Us con-and a Them, as we find it in moral con-and modern interpretations of peace isimpossible from the perspective of energetic peaces as the perceived object also al-ways contains the perceiving subject and vice versa I will argue that this results inclashes in the context of the Middle East Conflict By definition, energetic peacesrequire difference and appreciation of the other in order to exist They are derivedout of respect and their “capability to absorb others’ elements enriches and fostersone’s own (Dietrich, 2012: 58).” Therefore the notion of a universal peace, which

we find in moral and modern peace families is rare to them and “[s]ince there is

no binding standard, peace has to be read as plural [ ] [P]eace begins in the selfand [ ] relations are shaped from there" (Dietrich, 2012: 57) The primary theme

of energetic peaces is harmony

With the emergence of the great world religions during the Axial Age between

800 and 200 BCE, moral peaces replace the plurality of truths, which are

inher-ent to the family of energetic peaces, with the notion of one superior moral code ofconduct, one strong truth that is derived from an external power, a single God In ref-

contexts (Dietrich, 2012: 66f.) In the context of the Middle East Jewish concept

of peace, shalom as well as the Islamic concept salam are of interest (Ellis, 2011: 89ff.; Fasheh, 2011: 99ff.) This notion sets forth an external God is Yahweh, origi-

nally a weather God in the Northern Sinai While peaces are dynamic and relational

in energetic interpretations of peace, moral peaces are given to those who are on therightful path of the one and true God Those who are not on the just path of religionthen become pagans, who have not yet found the righteous path “[E]xperts of be-lief insert themselves between the divine and the world” (Dietrich, 2012: 75) Theycommonly belong to institutions and make an absolute judgment between right andwrong Hence, moral peaces again are derived from assumptions about difference,but this time it is an exclusive difference and the subject-object divide has become

an absolute line between an Us and a Them, between right and wrong, good and evil

1 The term disturbance here will be understood as it is described by Ruth Cohn For an excellent cussion of Cohn’s disturbance postulate in Theme Centered Interaction, see Farau and Cohn (1984: 360ff.).

dis-2 Karlheinz Koppe (2001) introduced the term ‘Axial Age” to Peace and Conflict Studies Dietrich

in reference to his notion of the many peaces criticizes “Koppe’s civilization-friendly preference“ (Dietrich, 2012: 67) in his collection of cultures.

and those who are not acting in accordance with the moral code of conduct are to

be punished The primary theme of moral peaces is justice

Like moral peaces, modern peaces draw on the notion of one strong truth With

enlightenment, however, God is replaced by the ‘white’ man himself who perfectlyincorporates reason and rationality It is “the White Man’s Burden” (Easterly, 2006:22) to civilize those who have not found the path of development and who are “un-derdeveloped,” as US President Truman defined the term in his often quoted re-inauguration speech in 1949 (Illich, 1980: 52; Sachs, 2010: vii) Underdevelopment

is, of course, only one of the latest terms in a long chain of colonial categories thathave functioned as vehicles of Western Othering Prior to Truman’s invention, the

‘barbarian’, the ‘pagan’, the ‘infidel’, the ‘wild man’, the ‘native’ served as usefulcategories of Othering (Illich, 1980: 54f.) and served similar functions in construct-ing North-South hierarchies that have legitimized ethnic cleansings and genocidesfor centuries Modernity, then, is shaped by the belief that man, through technologi-cal development can rationally describe and rule the world Ivan Illich describes thesocial consequence of development as related to the archetype of an

ideal type of human being as the male in overalls behind a machine or in a white coat over

a microscope [This ideal subject] tunnels mountains, guides tractors, fuels smoking chimneys Women give him birth, nurse and teach him (Illich, 1980: 53).

It is this notion of development that is at the root of colonialism, the totalitarian tems and nuclear disasters of the past centuries In moral understandings of peace,the white man is still part of the same system, which other societies are living within,and modernity places him above other beings and above the entire world that he isnow trying to control from an external position It is precisely this notion of superior-ity which is poisonous and ultimately deadly for societies that define peace throughmodern understandings of the world Dietrich writes, “It may be true that societies

sys-with an energetic world view are, because of their open design, easily penetrated by

‘modern technology’ But if this is the case, they take a murderous guest into theirmidst” (Dietrich and S¨utzl, 2006: 296) Modernity has brought forward capitalismand its underlying universalized definition of peace, which Ivan Illich (2006: 176ff.)

calls a pax economica, a vision of peace that connects development and peace as if

both terms could not be understood separately from each other Any form of life thatevolves outside the narrow tunnel of that which the modern development discourseallows, is considered unpeaceful and a threat to the security of the universalizedinstitutions of modernity, be it its education system, private ownership or the na-tion state Modern peaces are linear and they point towards the primary theme ofsecurity

What postmodern peaces share is a condition of doubt about modern promises.

Postmodern peaces do not offer a new grand narrative about the world but ratherbreak away from universalisms and their underlying notions of one strong truth.They are not to be confused with the idea of a new era of peace that comes af-ter modernity in an evolutionary sense (Dietrich, 2012: 207, 271) The term ‘post’rather gives a hint that modernity is not finished What they share is a condition

of doubt and as a consequence, they also break away from positivist gies (Dietrich and S¨utzl, 2006: 283; Echavarría Alvarez and Koppensteiner, 2006:

epistemolo-4.1 The Five Families of Peace and Primary Themes 21

171f.) In the framework of this study, Ivan Illich has to be mentioned once more.With his elaborations on the concept of the vernacular (Illich, 1980), he has provided

the ground for Wolfgang Dietrich’s above-mentioned work Samba Samba (2002), in

which he elaborates on the concept in relation to Orientalist images in German folkmusic Vernacular moments do not follow a modern or moral value system with aclearly defined set of rules of what is true Rather, they are truths of the moment.Here, Gianni Vattimo’s concept of weak thinking (Vattimo, 2006: 227ff.), in which

he elaborates in his key text for transrational peace research is particularly important

to my research and to translational peace research in general

As an alternative to ‘strong thinking’, which refers to a modern way of fying reality from a positivist perspective, Vattimo, proposes to think about reality

objecti-from a perspective of the ‘here and now’, which per se has a historical dimension

that acknowledges the weakness of our own subjectivity

Weak thought (il pensiero debole) [ ] is related to dialectics and difference not merely, or even

primarily, in a mode of “overcoming.” It is rather to be defined in terms of the Heideggerian idea

of Verwindung, which can itself be understood only by means of a “weak” notion of what it means

to think In any event, one cannot read the relationship between these three terms as if it were an

itinerary, as a passage from-to Weak thought has not merely left behind dialectics and difference These latter constitute for it a past in the Heideggerian sense of Gewesenes, a has-been which is

tied up with transmission and destiny (Vattimo, 2006: 227)

Vattimo radically breaks away from the grand narratives of our time, and by stressingthe importance of situating our perceiving subjectivity not only in a place but also

in time, suggests using the moment as the ultimate reference point for our being.Drawing on Martin Heidegger, Vattimo argues that our being can only be understoodthrough constructing difference, for which always only the moment can be the point

of reference as our subjectivity is constantly changing in our ongoing process ofbecoming between life and death “Vattimo elaborates on how to deal with the end

of those magnificent and overarching truths of modernity Against the background

of metaphysical truth, Vattimo restrains from proposing a better and more perfectedoverarching theory” (Echavarría Alvarez and Koppensteiner, 2006: 169)

With his above mentioned conflict pyramid, Lederach echoes the ment debate of scholars such as Ivan Illich, Gustavo Esteva and Francisco Mu˜noz, toname just a few Discursively, this debate at that time was already coming to an end

post-develop-(Dietrich, 2012: 14) It seems remarkable that the critique of the one universal peace

has emerged much later than the critique of development This however, makes sensefrom a more critical viewpoint that does not take their promises of salvation forgranted Indeed, both concepts cannot be seen apart in the context of modernity, asIllich argues so convincingly when he writes, “[t]he linkage of peace to developmenthas made it difficult to challenge the later Let me suggest that such a challengeshould now be the main task of peace research (Illich, 2006: 177f.).” This is the calland clear challenge for postmodern peace research that constructs its epistemologiesagainst the resistance of an extremely modern world The common denominator ofpostmodern peaces is a sentiment of doubt and uncertainty as well as a focus on theprimary theme of truth

Finally, transrational peaces combine all four above-mentioned families of peace,

offer the opportunity to develop a more holistic perspective as a peace and conflictresearcher Transrational peace philosophy does not try to romanticize pre-modernsocieties but rather shares the postmodern condition of doubt with authors such asGianni Vattimo and Ivan Illich, who both have a prominent place in this book How-ever, they acknowledge the limitations of reason, on which modernity has drawn itsepistemologies Building on insights of humanistic psychology, system theory andyoga philosophy, they focus on the transformative potential of a given moment, as-suming that intra-personal experience always corresponds to outside realities andthat all actions create social resonance in a non-linear but multi-directional fashion(UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014d) Beyond postmodern thinking, transra-tional peaces suggest the twisting of reason with intuition As much as they usereason to describe reality through modern and postmodern methodologies that con-struct difference, they also acknowledge the limitations of such an attempt Hence,while transrational peaces are rationally described in theory, its proponents also ac-knowledge the limitations of such They have to be experienced to be understoodholistically (Dietrich, 2012) Elicitive Conflict Transformation, then, is the appliedconsequence of transrational peace philosophy

Conflicts are always contextual They have to be understood in their respectivecultural, political and social environments This is a central assumption of elicitiveconflict transformation Like any theory, the transrational model of course bringslight to some dimensions of conflicts, while others remain completely under thesurface That is a reality, which should be accepted otherwise one would risk fallinginto positivist epistemologies ECM does not try to describe conflicts in their to-tality but rather acknowledges the existence of the unknown, the indescribable, butpossibly experiential parts of truths about peaces and conflicts and their transfor-mative potentials Hence, it seems difficult to provide a ‘one size fits all’ modelfor how conflict functions ECM is certainly not an attempt to do so but rather of-fers researchers and peace facilitators a tool to orientate themselves in the depths ofcomplex conflicts

4.2 Levels of Conflict

The transrational model is Dietrich’s development of John Paul Lederach’s famousconflict pyramid, in which in its original form, he made the distinction betweentop leaders, middle-range leaders and grassroots leaders (see Fig 4.2) High-rankpolitical-, military- and religious leaders, as well as diplomats fall into the category

of top leaders Leaders and authorities that are influential in their sectors define the

3 Ken Wilber (2000) is using the term ‘transrational’ in an evolutionary sense Wolfgang Dietrich plicitly distances himself from such an understanding of the concept as it ultimately retreats into notions of a vectored chronosophy: “Wilber’s evolutionist worldview remains fundamentally suspect

ex-to me; I do not follow it” (Dietrich, 2012: 13).

4.3 Layers of Conflict 23

middle-range-leaders level Such could be leaders of ethno-political groups, demics and intellectuals Finally, grassroots-leaders are defined by having a highlevel of interaction with their communities Such could be leaders of local politicaland religious authorities or leaders of indigenous NGOs (Lederach, 1997: 39).Lederach’s proposal can be seen as a critique of the rigid and limited approach oftraditional track-one diplomacy (McDonald, after Botes and Mitchell, 1995: 170),which focuses on peace building efforts on a top leaders level alone His conflictpyramid was, at its time, very significant because it stressed, from a systemic per-spective and by describing societies as networks, the importance of integrating alllevels of society into efforts of conflict transformation Although from today’s per-spective this is a seemingly rather self-evident finding, at the time, it represented asignificant shift and paved the way for what later became the transrational model.Wolfgang Dietrich (2013; 2015) agrees with Lederach in this differentiation,however, according to the elicitive principle of correspondence, which I will out-line in more detail below, this total distinction that is inherent to Lederach’s two-dimensional model (see Fig 4.2) may be problematic Individuals always fulfillmultiple functions in their social systems For example, the identity of being Pales-tinian, or Israeli is perhaps a dominant characteristic but certainly just one of themany masks a person wears The same can be said about the different roles that aperson can carry within a society One is never only a top leader or only a grassrootsactor While from a structuralist viewpoint it seems logical to distinguish betweenthose levels of a society, like between the rows of stones of a pyramid, from a transra-tional perspective, we assume that there is always a corresponding element betweenthe life of a head of state and that of the seemingly most distant citizen of the coun-

aca-try she/he rules Each persona has to be understood as a knot in a complex

inter-and intra-personal social network The transrational model integrates this insight byadding a third dimension that moves beyond mere phenomenology, into Lederach’sthus far two-dimensional pyramid The different inter-and intrapersonal layers ofconflict will be subject to the following section

4.3 Layers of Conflict

Through realizing a certain tension between what he defines as the epicenter andthe episode of the conflict, Lederach (2003) suggests the use of a conflict map forelicitive conflict transformation, yet does not explore this proposal any further Thetransrational model is the visible result of Dietrich’s systematic elaboration on Led-erach’s proposal and the following paragraphs are entirely based on Dietrich’s work(Dietrich, 2013; 2015; UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014e; see Fig 4.1) Be-yond the visible surface of the episode, we find different inner and outer layers ofconflict, which always correspond to one another I will outline them in Dietrich’schronology, which is drawn on the seven-chakra yoga philosophy This is a deliber-ate choice of Dietrich However, he stresses that there are many other possible waysfor distinction The following elaborations are based on the UNESCO Chair for

Peace Studies (2014a) online ECM tool as well as the works of Josefina EchavarríaAlvarez (2014) and Wolfgang Dietrich (2015).

Each conflict has an episode, or in other words, a narrative that is told about a

conflict This reality certainly does not tell us much about reality as it is, but ratherabout how it is perceived by certain actors in a conflict The narratives about agiven conflict can differ strongly, a fact that is a primary concern for this thesis inparticular and the art of elicitive conflict transformation in general

John Paul Lederach explains the episode as “the visible expression of conflict ing within the relationship or system, usually within a distinct time frame It gener-ates attention and energy around a particular set of issues that need response” (Led-erach, 2003: 31) Dietrich (2013; 2015; UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014f)defines this particular set of issues as being the four primary themes, which are har-mony, justice, security and truth Each of them corresponds to one family of peace,

ris-as outlined above At leris-ast one of them can be found on the episode of any givenconflict Mostly, one or two of these topics dominate a dysfunctional conflict whilethe others are being suppressed It is a challenge for transrational peace philosophy

to explain the interdependency between those four, while the aforementioned peacefamilies tend to point in the direction of only one of those primary themes, whichoften leaves other notions of peace in the shadow

Surrounding the episode, we can find the sexual-family layer The social familyhas a very direct impact in shaping people in their becoming To understand who aperson is in a concrete context, it can be helpful to take her/his biography and theintimate social environment of her/his becoming into consideration Equally impor-tant is the sexuality of the actors involved While there might be little awarenessabout those layers in a given conflict, it is important to have awareness that it is al-ways present and influential Enormous, indeed, explosive transformative potentialcan be found on this layer However, it can equally take extremely destructive forms(UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014g)

The socio-emotional and communal layers are located beyond the sexual-familylayers They relate to our feelings and emotions and the communities we live in.These layers are important, as this is where the human need for finding one’s place

in a community can be met The possibility for conflict transformation on that layerlies in the potential of creating a sense of belonging and of having a real role thatsupports a group, whatever its cause may be Also,

[h]ere we see the principle of resonance working at its finest: if in a community there is a inant dynamic equilibrium, members can find their place and act accordingly And the other way around: if members look for their place and act accordingly, this will create a communal dynamic equilibrium, which is another word for peace (UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014h)

predom-Since my research is inquiring about resonance, this argument is of central concernfor the looking at the case studies in the second part of this book I will elaborate onthe elicitive principle of resonance in more detail in the following chapter

The mental-societal layers stand for the rational They help us navigate our waythrough the modern world and through abstraction These layers also aid in givingmeaning to the transrational layers of conflict It is also where communities that

go beyond the communities we actually know from personal encounters, are

con-4.3 Layers of Conflict 25

structed Identity categories that refer to state or religion and a distinct group thatbelongs to them develop here At the same time, they also mark the borders of mod-ern knowledge Processes that happen between the episode and the mental-societallayers can mostly be described empirically, hence by rational means Since rational-ity draws on the assumption of a stable individual that can be seen as separate fromhis environment, the mental-societal layers are simultaneously marking the outer-most layer of what Norbert Koppensteiner (2009a) describes as the personal self(UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014i)

The spiritual-policitary layers transgress the borders of the personal self In ituality lays the potential of experiencing interconnectedness with others and theglobe at large Through this layer energetic peaces can be experienced and trans-rationally understood While they remain unacknowledged for modern peace andconflict research, transrational peace philosophy raises awareness for their transfor-mative potential (UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014j)

spir-For transrational peace research, it makes little sense to speculate much aboutthe above-mentioned global layer and the epicenter However, ontologically, theyconstitute an important element in the overall model and therefore are mentionedhere Wolfgang Dietrich (2015) discusses them in more detail

5 Elicitive Conflict Mapping

Having outlined my theory, which is based on the transrational model, it is important

to make my research method, Elicitive Conflict Mapping (ECM), explicit Based onthe transrational model, ECM is a method that gives the researcher an orientation

to interpret reality, and it provides the overall framework of this study There is adifference between the methodologies demonstrated and discussed in the first and inthe second part of this book A literature review on the state of the art in transrationaland elicitive peace research forms the foundation of the first section of my research

In the second half, I have used participant observations, as well as semi-structuredin-depth interviews

As I have outlined in my introduction, this book attempts to explain the able with words I realize that there are limitations to methods that focus on writtenlanguage alone The above-mentioned methods will hardly transgress this border

unspeak-of modern language Yet, there are things that one cannot express merely throughlanguage, things the mind cannot understand I have therefore decided to integrateaudio tracks of music into this study This is meant to be an invitation for you, thereader of this book, not only to learn about the music, but also to question how

I consciously chose semi-structured, in-depth interviews as a technique in order

to engage in a very open dialogue with my interview partners In preparation for

my interviews, I devised a few guiding questions I structured my line of ing in such a way as to begin with simpler, less controversial questions, like on ageand educational background and gradually progress to more sensitive topics, related

question-to personal experiences in conflict, question-towards the middle and end of the interview.Interview partners expressed their informed consent to the use of their data Partic-ipants interviewed are musicians and active actors in the Middle East Conflict Wetalked about their truths, how these truths have had an impact on the construction

of their identities, as well as on their relationships to ‘others’, and how music hasfacilitated a transformation of their own conflicts I documented their narratives byusing audio-records and thought protocols

1 Soundtracks are available at http://adhamhamed.com/books, to compliment the chapters describing the work of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus and the Egyptian band Eskenderella.

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016

A Hamed, Speaking the Unspeakable,

Masters of Peace, DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-14208-7_5

28 5 Elicitive Conflict Mapping

Wolfgang Dietrich’s extensive theoretical excurses into different academic ciplines and cultural contexts help him to derive three key principles that can giveorientation within the transrational model for applied work in elicitive conflict trans-formation: first, the principle of correspondence, second, the principle of resonanceand third, the principle of homeostasis I will describe all three principles in thefollowing section, as they are key for my analysis of the Middle East Conflict

dis-5.1 The three Principles of Elicitive Conflict Transformation and the Care of the Self

An old Greek aphorism says, “know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe”(UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014d) This sentence is rooted in the ancientnotion of correspondence, which is the first principle of elicitive conflict transfor-mation Correspondence is derived from Buddhist and Hindu tantra, Sufism andPlatonic Christianity, as well as system theory

Drawing on the holistic ontology of the transrational model, correspondence

sug-gests a causal relationship between the inner and the outer layers of the persona It

is important not to confuse such with a linear interpretation of correlations betweendifferent social and psychological phenomena For example, since Sigmund Freudand the birth of psychoanalysis, there has been paradigmatic agreement not to sim-ply correct a perceived phenomenon, but rather to inquire about the reasons behind

it However, drawing on the holistic cosmovision of humanistic psychology, ECM

is not trying to give easy explanations as psychoanalysis might suggest, but ratherinquires about the layers beyond the, in psychoanalysis, dominant sexual layer andits correlations with everything else For example, a disturbance on the family layerwill not always lead to dysfunctions on the sexual layer, but it also may have an effect

on all other inner layers of the persona as a system that corresponds to interpersonal

realities Dietrich (2015: 50ff.) suggests that one should understand the principle ofcorrespondence as an invitation for introspection of social actors in conflict.According to this first principle of ECM, in order to facilitate peace, it is neces-sary that one has awareness of her/his self in a social context Following the above-mentioned aphorism, Dietrich argues that “[t]he human being who does not firstlook for peace within herself will not find it on the outside, because there is noobjectifiable peace there” (Dietrich, 2012: 56f.) According to ECM, our inner con-flicts always correspond to outer realities and vice versa Hence, one who has aware-ness of her/his inner faculties, who has experienced inner peace and who is aware ofher/his own inner conflicts will be likely to find her/his place as a peace facilitator

in moments of intense conflicts Such awareness, however, has to be the result of anongoing effort of the elicitive peace researcher, as the self is in a constant flux in theongoing process of ‘becoming’ (Koppensteiner, 2009a: 92ff.) Phrased differently,

we are contact boundaries in permanent interaction with the outer and inner layers

of reality (Dietrich, 2015) Only through an awareness of one’s constantly changingand henceforth, weak subjectivity, can a narrative of a given conflict be adequately

contextualized and understood Without such awareness, there is a high probabilitythat the elicitive conflict researcher, who might enter a conflict with the ‘best’ in-tentions, may develop destructive patterns In other words, the fact that I was feelingstrong dissonance in relation to my friend during our dispute over lunch in Cairo,which I have outlined in Chapter 2, is of relevance to this research, as I am writ-ing about the Middle East Conflict My momentary socially embedded reality hasshaped and continues to shape the lens through which I perceive reality Therefore,for an elicitive peace worker, the ‘care of the self’ is of utmost importance (Koppen-steiner 2009a: 60ff, 93) It is not only through the mind, but also through all otherfaculties that she/he perceives reality and relates this ‘individual reality’ to a givenconflict.

The ‘care of the self’ is a notion that Norbert Koppensteiner takes from Michel

Foucault, who in The Hermeneutics of the Subject (2005), draws on the ancient

Greek distinction between the already-mentioned principle of knowing oneself,which he calls ‘philosophy’ and the ‘care of the self’, which he defines as a spir-itual act By caring for ourselves, we can keep discovering the boarders of whatseems possible Embarking on journeys into the unknown opens up the possibility

of cognition beyond the rational alone and provides a basis for transrational peacestudies It is the insight that linear explanations of a variable ‘A’ on an intra-personal

layer of the persona do not exclusively correspond to a variable ‘B’ on a particular interpersonal layer, that invites us to discover all layers of the persona According to

the elicitive principle of correspondence, every social action will always also find itsmanifestation there When Ruth Cohn, a pioneer of humanistic psychology and theInnsbruck School of Peace Studies, writes, "[f]reie Entscheiung geschieht innerhalbbedingender innerer und ¨außerer Grenzen Erweiterung dieser Grenzen ist m¨oglich"

possibilities in peace facilitation open up through broadened and expanded ness and consciousness of the self and one’s relationships to one’s inner faculties,

aware-as well aware-as through a ‘care of the self’ that helps in expanding the boarders of what

we perceive as possible This ‘care of the self’, which can happen through differentspiritual practices, is also important in developing awareness for how one resonates

trans-formation calls for an ongoing discovery of the endless depths of the persona in

order to understand the quality of theses resonances not only intellectually but alsothrough embodied experience and a congruent situational awareness The ‘care ofthe self’ is also important in that it helps us to determine the qualities of resonances

in a given moment Harmonies and dissonances can be experienced as total, ever from a transrational, and hence, systemic perspective which always takes all ourintra- and interpersonal layers into account, they are not Where there is harmony

how-2 "[f]ree decision happens within determined inner and outer boundaries Expansion of these aries is possible" (my own translation).

bound-3 The only example where this feeling disappears is a situation of anomie (Durkheim, 1951: 241ff.) However, even in such situations, according to the principles of ECM (UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014b), we have to assume that resonance still happens somewhere beyond the mental societal layers.

30 5 Elicitive Conflict Mapping

there is dissonance and where there is dissonance there is harmony The attempt toenforce harmony or even take it to a total extreme, can lead to fascist forms of soci-ety I will elaborate more on this concept below when I write about the role of music

in Nazi Germany

Beyond the border of the persona, correspondence and resonance, which is the

second principle of ECM, suggest that social action also on a group level alwaysmanifests in an entire system Resonances can have different qualities and can beperceived as harmonic or dissonant In modern contexts, harmony is usually under-stood as something ‘good’, which somehow implies that dissonance is something

‘bad’ or at least ‘not as good’ as harmony Such a lens is not desirable for elicitiveconflict workers as the idea of harmony as something ‘better’ is a judgment in itself.Providing a systemic and holistic understanding of conflict, Dietrich (2015) ar-gues that the above-mentioned primary themes of ECM: harmony, security, justiceand truth cannot be seen as independent of each other An emphasis on one of theprimary themes will necessarily correspond in the entire conflicting system and cre-ate resonance in its environment For example, a strong focus on the aspect of secu-rity will result in harmony being underemphasized, while justice and truth will shifttowards the corner where they meet security, which carries a particularly high po-tential for violence However, when I use the term I refer to Wolfgang Dietrich’s un-derstanding of it as an energetic and ultimately transrational concept, meaning thatharmony can never be seen as something absolute (Dietrich, 2012: 16ff.) I remainskeptical of any moral or modern attempt to portray harmony as something ‘better’than dissonance; such efforts usually draw on notions of strong truths, which rely onthe idea of a stable subject, which is often at the root of large-scale violence (S¨utzl,2003: 411ff.) This ultimately stands in contradiction to the transrational model,which suggests that the Other is always also contained within the perceiving sub-ject and that both are in constant flux as they interact with each other Hence, twoseeming opposites then cannot be understood in a dualistic sense, but rather, in aHeideggerian sense, in a twisted way (Heidegger, 2000; Vattimo, 2006: 227ff.).While modern definitions of harmony and dissonance will always refer to theepisode, we can assume with ECM that a strictly dialectical distinction between the

two is no longer possible when we inquire into the depths of the persona It seems that the transpersonal layers of the persona in particular show us the limits of Carte-

sian thinking (UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014j) While we perceive realitydialectically, it is through deep resonances that new courses of action in a givenconflict can be discovered as within those layers there is the potential of perceivingthe Other from within The perception and interpretation of resonances is always theresult of a reality, momentarily embedded in a complex network of interrelations,which is in constant flux In that sense, harmony and dissonance shall not be un-derstood as Cartesian opposites but rather as dynamic integral parts of each other.One cannot be understood without the existence of the other and my harmony can

is no ‘one-size fits all map’ for understanding the deepness of our being For theelicitive peace worker Alfred Korzybsky’s famous quote, “[t]he map is not the ter-ritory” (Korzybsky, as quoted in Fontan, 2012: 28) lends clarity and serves as animportant reminder about the fact that like any theory the transrational model justprovides a lens that puts light to some aspects of reality, while others remain in thedarkness This book does not attempt to capture reality in its totality–this can never

be the aim of transrational peace studies This would not only be impossible, but anysuch attempt would indeed carry the potential to be an act of violence that is based

on universalist assumptions about reality ECM rather tries to depict the ties of conflicting environments by also taking into consideration those aspects that

complexi-remain in the shadows, hidden under the deeper layers of the persona, which can

of-ten not be rationally described Those inner layers of conflict are highly relevant asthey always find an inter-personal correspondence (Dietrich, 2015; UNESCO Chairfor Peace Studies, 2014d) It seems that it is often those layers that shape narratives,hence the episodes of conflicts, which have the potential to make resonances sound

lay-ers through practices that transgress the boundaries of the mental-societal laylay-ers cancertainly facilitate the development of new courses of action for the transformation

of conflicts Gabrielle Roth, founder of the elicitive method of Five Rhythm Dance,

expresses the importance of exploring the many layers of the persona, not only in

theory but also in practice as forms of what I have defined with Koppensteiner asthe ‘care of the self’ Roth writes,

Your body is the ground metaphor of your life, the expression of your existence It is your Bible, your encyclopedia, your life story Everything that happens to you is stored and reflected in your body Your body knows; your body tells The relationship of your self to your body is indivisible, inescapable, unavoidable (Roth, 1998: 29)

Roth explicitly points us towards the principle of correspondence and the relevance

of peace researchers having self-awareness Through a ‘care of the self’ we can findorientation in complex social realities and by knowing our body we can communi-

the relationship of contact boundaries at work is determined in each encounter byresonances, which vibrate through all intra- and interpersonal layers” (UNESCOChair for Peace Studies, 2014b)

However, there are situations where people feel like they cannot resonate anylonger I have experienced such moments myself In a situation of extreme desper-ation I felt like I could no longer connect, no longer relate to the outside world,moments where theories of resonance and interconnectedness could not take away

my feeling of loneliness that was grounded in an inner emptiness In the following

4 The trained elicitive peace worker may have had ecstatic as well as deeply painful and perhaps even unspeakable experiences in her/his past From personal experience and through an expended aware- ness of her-/himself and her/his ability to resonate, she/he will communicate these resonances with selective authenticity In her/his role of an elicitive peace worker, she/he is aware of the fact that the quality of these resonances, even if experienced total, also carry all other thinkable qualities (UN- ESCO Chair for Peace Studies, 2014b).

5 For a discussion about the term ‘selective authenticity’ see Cohn (2009: 68) and Dietrich (2013: 95f.).